NBA fans are having hilarious reactions to Ofer Yannay, the owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv, recently claiming that his team can easily beat NBA lottery teams. Yannay went on to state that his team is definitely the best team outside of the NBA, which has got basketball fans rolling on the floor with laughter.
“Hapoel Tel Aviv is the best team in the world outside the NBA. I’m pretty sure it’s better than most NBA lottery teams, especially if we play FIBA rules.” Ofer Yannay said.
“Hapoel Tel Aviv is the best team in the world outside the NBA. I’m pretty sure it’s better than most NBA lottery teams.”
The NBA: pic.twitter.com/BuZtKvtByK
— boredjesse (@boredjesse) November 20, 2025
“The win was promised to them 3000 years ago” one fan joked.
“They’re a legit squad, but NBA lottery teams still have generational athletes. The gap is bigger than people think.” One fan pointed out.
“Brother pls, you once signed PatBev for the biggest contract in that league a while back and PatBev can’t even do sh*t in the NBA. I want whatever crack you’re smoking (laughing with tears emoji)” yet another fan said.
While Yannay may tell tall tales about his own team, social media did not hesitate to pull up records from the past when Hapoel Tel Aviv was demolished by one of the league’s worst teams, the Washington Wizards, sometime back. This alone is proof that Yannay’s boys have far too long to go before they can even dream of getting anywhere to the quality of the league.
NBA Fans Also Feel Ofer Yannay’s Words Are Justified
At the same time, there were other NBA fans who empathized with Ofer Yannay about his team being able to beat any NBA lottery team. Many fans highlighted that Yannay pointed out the FIBA rules, which are slightly different from the league.
“People are laughing and yet he literally said ‘Especially if they play fiba rules’, the difference between physicality in these two leagues… We have SGA who shoots free throws whenever someone farts in the arena, dude would not survive euroleague and there’s a lot of similar examples. No, Tel-Aviv wouldn’t be able to beat mid teams even on fiba rules, but lottery teams – easy.” One fan explained.
People are laughing and yet he literally said “Especially if they play fiba rules”, the difference between physicality in these two leagues… We have SGA who shoots free throws whenever someone farts in arena, dude would not survive euroleague and there’s a lot of similar…
— bilts (@beautyilt) November 20, 2025
“He’s more correct than us Americans wanna give him credit for lol the main thing being FIBA rules with FIBA balls. We saw how it took the best of the best from America a while to adjust. Imagine the worst.” Another fan said.
“Just like when people say the best college teams can beat the worst NBA team lol” one more fan added.
Hapoel Tel Aviv might be a well-known team in Israel, but are clearly not the best in the country. Yannay’s words definitely did not make many NBA fans happy, and the businessman has not responded to trolls and hate comments about his latest remarks so far.
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