Israel national team was defeated yesterday (Monday) 103:75 by the Croatian national team in the last game of the first group stage in the 2027 World Championship qualifiers. Israel finished the group stage in third place with a record of two wins against four losses, but advanced to the second group stage.

The team's advancement is significant, as it will also enter the pre-Olympic tournament qualifiers, as well as the final stage of the next EuroBasket qualifiers, but Israel's chance to qualify for the World Championship is negligible.

The gap between Israel and the spot leading to the championship is three and a half games, with only six games in the next round. In the August window, Israel will face Poland in a home game, which will likely not be held in the country, and Latvia away.

For the current window, Israel appeared with a particularly incomplete squad. The three NBA players - Danny Wolf, Ben Saraf and Deni Avdiya did not appear, claiming they were not released by their teams. Roman Sorkin, Nimrod Levi and Idan Zalmanson, who finished the season on the court, were released due to injuries that did not prevent them from finishing the season with their clubs.

Itay Segev, Bar Timor and Oz Blayzer were each released for their personal reasons, while Tamir Blatt, Yuval Zussman and Gur Lavi, who were injured before the end of the season, were also absent. In the end, Israel showed up with a squad that could not stand up to Germany and Croatia.

"We need to tell the truth, from the first window to the last, there was not enough level of commitment from a significant portion of the players," said one of the national team staff members last night, "and this is precisely during this challenging period in the country. People sat here a few months ago for a month inside a shelter because of a missile attack from Iran. We have been in a war for three years, and players are making calculations of fatigue and their next season instead of representing the national team and the country."

Some of the national team staff claim that the association should have known to enforce the non-attendance differently: "We must see what happens in other national teams and their impressive attendance rates, while here players are making their own rules. With this squad we will not qualify even for the next European Championship. We have no complaints against those who showed up, if the team continues to collapse the culprits are the players who did not come."