Ofer Yanai does not usually pull punches, and he did not here. The Hapoel Tel Aviv owner has accused the Israel Basketball Association of playing politics with the naturalization of his American centre Dan Oturu, telling ONE that federation chairman Amos Frishman personally approached him months ago asking for help fast-tracking Oturu's citizenship so he could play for the national team.
According to Yanai's account, granting Frishman's request would have meant reworking Oturu's Hapoel Tel Aviv contract to strip out buyout and exit clauses — a restructuring Yanai says would have cost the club in the region of $2 million.
Oturu, 26, is one of the most productive big men in Europe. Drafted 33rd overall by the LA Clippers in 2020, the American-Nigerian centre moved through Turkey with Anadolu Efes before joining Hapoel Tel Aviv, who have since extended his contract through the 2028-29 season. Last EuroLeague campaign he averaged 13.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 71 percent on two-point attempts, setting a EuroLeague single-season record for made two-pointers along the way.
Yanai's complaint, as relayed by ONE, is about timing and motive. Now that Oturu's path to Israeli citizenship and international clearance looks close to reality, he claims representatives of Maccabi Tel Aviv are pushing to change the federation's eligibility rules — a naturalization route he says has traditionally been reserved for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem alone.
The dispute comes as the Israel Basketball Association has set up a special committee to formalize its procedures for naturalizing foreign-born players for the national team, an initiative first reported by ONE.
"If the federation acts in the interest of Israeli basketball, Oturu will be the national team's starting centre," Yanai said, according to the report. "If the federation acts corruptly, then Benaya Sror will start instead."
That second name is a pointed one. Sror, 26, is an Israeli-born centre who came through the Maayanot and Hapoel Galil Elyon youth system before spells at Maccabi Ramat Gan and now Elitzur Netanya. He recently earned his first call-up to the senior national team ahead of Israel's World Cup 2027 qualifying matches, making him the homegrown alternative Yanai is holding up against a naturalized Oturu.
ONE's report does not include a response from the Israel Basketball Association or from Frishman to Yanai's specific allegations, and the claims as published rest on Yanai's own account of private conversations. The episode nonetheless exposes a familiar fault line in Israeli basketball: which clubs get access to the national team's naturalization slot, and who decides.
