As war in Gaza continues, Warriors’ Israeli Summer Leaguer prays for peace

LAS VEGAS — As Roman Sorkin became last season’s Israeli League MVP, basketball was secondary.

Sorkin, the 27-year-old Israeli forward now trying to prove himself with the Warriors’ Summer League team, has been grieving like the rest of his nation since Hamas led an attack on Oct. 7 in the south of Israel, killing over 1,000 people and taking about 250 hostages.

In response, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians over the nine months since, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The war turned Sorkin’s season with Maccabi Tel Aviv upside down. And like for so many others in the region, it hit close to home.

A childhood friend of Sorkin’s who grew up near him in southern Israel was kidnapped and killed at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 in the Negev Desert, he said. His family is OK, although he said Israeli Defense Forces found terrorists below his father’s balcony during the attack.

“They say in Israel, it’s such a small country, everybody knows somebody,” Sorkin told this news organization. “Everybody has a story. She’s just one, I have a lot of friends, but she’s the closest one I know (who died). … It’s affected everybody back home.”

Born in Belarus, Sorkin moved with his family to Israel when he was an infant. He played college basketball at the University of Oregon before returning to his home country to play professionally. He served in the IDF — mandatory for Israeli citizens — for three years in a non-combat role.

“We’re still, like, a sad country right now,” Sorkin said. “We always remember (they) still have the hostages. We try to go back to normal life, just because we have our soldiers trying to help us, but we still haven’t really gotten back to our lives. We’re still waiting for the hostages to come back. We still have a war going on. I really pray for peace and everything to be good and our hostages will get home. But it’s affecting, man. Basketball-wise, it wasn’t easy for me.”

The first two games after Oct. 7, Sorkin said he couldn’t focus at all. He was on his phone before tipoff frantically trying to figure out what was going on. He checked in with family and friends to see if they were safe. It took days to get past the “shock” of the situation, Sorkin said.

Oct. 7 put Sorkin’s Maccabi Tel Aviv team’s season in limbo. Foreign players left the country. They played the rest of the season’s home games in Serbia and often in front of especially hostile crowds. Teammates brought their families from flight to flight, hotel to hotel for months.

“We had like 30 kids running around in the hotel every day,” Sorkin said.

As his country waged war, Sorkin excelled for his team. During games, he wore a Star of David chalked onto his black wrist tape. He was named the Israeli League MVP while averaging 16.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Euroleague season eventually ended at the hands of a Panathinaikos team that won the championship.

“Roman won every award this season,” Maccabi coach Oded Kattash told the Jerusalem Post. “I have the privilege of coaching him. He can really do it all and has a huge upside.”

Sorkin, a crafty power forward, drew enough attention to earn an invite to multiple NBA training camps, including the Warriors’. He latched on with Golden State and wants to prove that he can keep up with NBA-level speed and physicality on both ends.

Sorkin totaled 16 points and 15 rebounds in his first two California Classic games combined before sitting out the first two Vegas games. He returned to the court against Chicago, playing 11 minutes and flushing an alley-oop in Golden State’s victory.

The Vegas desert heat reminds him of home. The day of the Warriors’ first Summer League game at the Thomas & Mack Center, Israeli forces reportedly killed at least 90 people and injured 300 in strikes targeting Hamas leadership in a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza.

Before that, there was optimism — in the region and the international community — for a ceasefire. Until that happens, basketball will feel trivial.

“Whatever happens at home, you can’t really think about basketball,” Sorkin said. “Basketball is our life, and we do this for everything. But at the end of the day, there’s people’s lives on the line. It’s hard for you to just go and play basketball.”