Growing up in Hadera, Israel, a coastal city between Tel Aviv and Haifa, Tal Cohen could see the Mediterranean ocean from his house. Sometimes, he would skip school with his friends to appreciate the salty breeze. His life bounced with movement — family trips across Europe, summers by the sea and hours on the basketball court.
Even though he grew up during the Gulf War and the Second Intifada (an Israeli-Palestinian conflict), Cohen’s parents tried to shield him, letting him play sports, go outside and live a normal life. “While I remember those wars, I didn’t feel like it had any negative impact on my upbringing,” he says.
Instead, basketball defined his childhood. “I probably played before I can even remember,” Cohen says. “By the time I was five or six, I was already the tallest kid on the team.”
At 13, he joined Israel’s national youth basketball team while simultaneously playing for both his school and club teams. By 21, he had played in Greece at the European Championship against basketball greats and represented Israel in international tournaments. “I was never the star player,” he says. “I was the guy who helped teammates, the coach’s kind of player.”
American college recruiters spotted him playing in European tournaments, and his father suggested he could use basketball to receive a free education.