Due to the current security situation, which does not allow the last playoff game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem to be played properly, the Israeli Basketball Premier League announced on Monday that the 2024-2025 season has come to an end.
The announcement to end the season before the completion of the championship series between the reigning champion Maccabi Tel Aviv and its arch rival, Hapoel Jerusalem, was a matter of time; the question was how to decide a champion.
On Monday, the league and special committee that met on the matter announced a decision similar to that which was made in 1956, when the war in the Sinai prevented the Israeli basketball season from continuing. This time as well, with a military campaign disrupting the season, the championship will not be granted to any team.
"The committee's position is that an athletic decision on the court is the only way to decide the championship of the Basketball Premier League. Without the last game, which, according to the league's championship method, is meant to decide the champion team, the deciding committee, with a heavy heart, has decided that due to the security situation, no Basketball Premier League champion will be crowned in the 2024-2025 season," the league stated.
The league noted that it attempted to do everything to complete the season in the most athletic manner possible, given the security situation, considering holding the third game at Begin Arena in Eilat without spectators, but the IDF Home Front Command refused to authorize such an idea.