The Brooklyn Nets still haven’t won an NBA championship, but they just won over every Jewish grandmother in New York City. With back-to-back draft picks, the team grabbed two Jewish players, making NBA history.
In just five minutes on Wednesday night, the Nets selected Israeli point guard Ben Saraf and Israeli-American center Danny Wolf, doubling the number of Jewish players in the league.
Before they’re tearing up the Barclays Center next season, let’s get to know the Nets’ newest Jewish players: Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf.
Danny Wolf
The seven-footer coming out of the University of Michigan was the No. 27 pick Wednesday night.
Wolf spent two years at Yale University before transferring to Michigan last year, where he became known as “a very creative passer” and a strong rebounder. He was expected to be selected earlier in the first round, as experts lauded his performance in the Big 10 and the Ivy League.
At Michigan, Wolf averaged 13.2 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game, leading the Big Ten in rebounding and tying for the conference lead with 15 double-doubles. His versatility was on full display, as he showcased the ability to initiate offense, stretch the floor with a 33.6% three-point shooting percentage, and protect the rim with 1.4 blocks per game.
His performance earned him Second-Team All-Big Ten honors and a spot on the All-Big Ten Tournament Team, as he helped lead the Wolverines to a conference championship and a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
But for Wolf, success on the court has always carried an extra layer of meaning. As one of the few Jewish players competing at the highest levels of college basketball, he’s long been aware of the stereotypes that followed him.
“I would hear it growing up, that noise about me being Jewish and (so) you don’t expect much from me as a basketball player,” Wolf told the Detroit Free Press. “When I was younger, I kind of looked at (being Jewish) as an opportunity to prove myself.”
Wolf, 21, was joined by his family and was spotted hugging his three brothers after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver — who is also Jewish — announced his selection.
“It’s a dream come true,” Wolf told a reporter after he was drafted. “It’s really hard to put into words. I’ve worked so hard to get here, I’ve had such a great support system. I’m excited to work, and I hope Brooklyn knows what they’re getting.”
The Wolf family also had some of the most memorable moments of the night. His mom, Tina, hilariously mixed up the New York Knicks and the Nets in an interview with ESPN.
“We are so excited to go to New York,” she said. “It was what he wanted…”
As she was proclaiming her excitement for her son to join the largest Jewish population in the U.S., Danny was caught mouthing “Brooklyn” to his mom to correct her.
His older brother, Jake, went viral for tearing up as Danny got drafted, burying his face in his hands in a moment that instantly became a meme.
Danny Wolf’s Jewish identity
Wolf, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs, became an Israeli citizen in 2024 to play for the Jewish state’s under-20 team. He led Israel in points and rebounds as it earned a silver medal in the 2024 European Championships.
The Glencoe, Illinois native has never been shy about his Jewish identity, growing up in a kosher household, and attending a Solomon Schechter Jewish day school. Wolf also celebrated his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Earlier this year, Wolf spoke at length with the Free Press about his experiences being a Jewish basketball star.
“The most beautiful thing about Judaism,” he said, “is the way it connects me with my family. It transcends other things and brings us together.”
He also described the antisemitism he experienced in the wake of Oct. 7 when he was still playing at Yale. He said that people sought out his social media to spam him with antisemitic messages.
“Now that I’m on a national stage and in the spotlight, you have ill-minded people that have some not great things to say,” he said. “It’s all around me, on social media, I get it all the time just in my DMs and on comments and whatnot.”
He revealed that during a conference game against Dartmouth, over 80 attendees brought Palestinian flags to wave at him during the matchup. That event, and the influx of antisemitic messages he’s received over the years, have forced him to learn to work through the hate.
“It may be corny to say, but I’m just trying to be the bigger person,” he explained. “Nothing I can do in the moment will be good for me. Anything I say won’t impact me or them, and it might cause more harm than good.
“Honestly, even with non-Jewish hate, there’s a lot of it out in the world. I’d like to use it as motivation just to try and prove myself right and prove other people wrong.”
Ben Saraf
Saraf, 19, currently plays in the German professional basketball league and is expected to be brought to Brooklyn for the upcoming season. While draft predictors thought he would be selected in the second round, he was picked by the Nets at 26th.
The 6-foot-6 Saraf is the son of two former professional Israeli basketball players, and has been celebrated for his dynamic playmaking and scoring abilities. During the 2024–25 season with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany’s Basketball Bundesliga, Saraf averaged 12.1 points, 4.3 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game across 44 appearances, shooting 45.3% from the field and 28.7% from three-point range.
Internationally, Saraf has been a standout performer. He earned MVP honors at the 2024 FIBA U18 European Championship by leading the tournament in scoring with 28.1 points per game. His accolades also include being named the Israeli League Premier Rising Star in 2024 and the Israeli National League Sixth Man of the Year in 2023.
Saraf grew up in the village of Gan Yoshiya, about 18 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, and began playing organized basketball at age 8. Seeing his potential early on, his parents soon brought in a personal trainer and strength coach to help fast-track his development.
He was not in attendance at the Barclays Center Wednesday night as Ratiopharm Ulm is facing a Game 5 winner-takes-all league championship game.
Saraf wears jersey No. 77 as a nod to the Hebrew word “mazal,” meaning luck, whose numerical value in gematria is 77. Gematria is a traditional Jewish system of assigning numerical values to Hebrew letters, allowing words and phrases to carry symbolic numerical meanings.
Jews in the NBA
Wolf and Saraf are set to become part of New York’s long and storied Jewish basketball legacy. The connection goes back to the league’s very first points scored in 1946 by Ossie Schechtman of the New York Knickerbockers. Schechtman was one of several Jewish players on that inaugural roster, alongside Sonny Hertzberg, Stan Stutz, Hank Rosenstein, Ralph Kaplowitz, Jake Weber, and Leo “Ace” Gottlieb. At the time, the team played in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would later become the NBA.
Over the decades, Jewish representation in the NBA has remained small but meaningful. One historic milestone came in 2017, when Omri Casspi and Jordan Farmar became the first pair of Israeli teammates on an NBA roster, playing together for the Sacramento Kings. Casspi, born in Israel, was the first Israeli to play in the NBA, while Farmar, born in the U.S. to an Israeli mother, later moved to Israel and played in the Israeli league.
Draft-night milestones for Jewish players have also been rare. The last time two Jewish players were selected in the same NBA Draft was 2006, when Israelis Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin were both taken in the second round. Neither, however, ended up appearing in an NBA game.
Today, Saraf and Wolf will join a small but growing group of Jewish players currently active in the league. Israeli forward Deni Avdija is coming off a breakout season with the Portland Trail Blazers. Sacramento Kings All-Star Domantas Sabonis was reported in 2023 to be in the process of converting to Judaism. Amari Bailey, selected 41st overall in 2023, played in 10 NBA games last season and spent additional time in the G League.
For Saraf and Wolf, their back-to-back selections mark both a personal achievement and another chapter in the ongoing story of Jewish players making their mark on the NBA.
Originally Published Jun 26, 2025 02:21PM EDT
