If you took a look at the sideline during a Yeshiva University men’s basketball game at the beginning of this decade, it may have tickled you to see a 6-foot-8 black man among a group of Division III players wearing yarmulkes.
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it → take → yarmulkes
Condolences came from around the basketball world on Thursday after former Knicks first-round pick Mike Sweetney died at 43.
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Sweetney → come → 43
Much has been said about his short-lived NBA career and mental health advocacy, but his time at Yeshiva is more than just a footnote to those within the program.
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time → say → program
“He literally just was one of the guys,” Yeshiva head coach Elliot Steinmetz told The Post.
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Steinmetz → tell → Post
“From the outside, I get it.
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I → get → it
It’s a different look when it’s a bunch of Jewish kids, and you have the [6-foot-8] former NBA African American guy in there.
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you → ’ → guy
Steinmetz first met Sweetney in 2019 through Tamir Goodman, an Orthodox Jewish hoops star whom Sweetney knew from the high school circuit in the Washington, D.C. area.
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Sweetney → meet → area
When Sweetney moved to New Jersey and wanted to get into coaching, Goodman introduced him to Steinmetz.
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Goodman → move → Steinmetz
Sweetney stayed with the program until 2022, when he had a full-time job and couldn’t commit to the coaching staff anymore, Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → stay → staff
But that didn’t mean it was the end of his care for the program.
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it → mean → program
“Every year beginning of the season, [he’d text], ‘First game’s coming up, how’s it going?'” Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → text → season
“‘How’s the team looking?
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team → look → ?
Just larger than life in terms of the way he cared about people.”
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he → care → people
Steinmetz was in Israel when Hamas attacked Kibbutz Re’im on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Hamas → attack → Oct.
The first text he received that night was from Sweetney, who knew he was in the country and wanted to check if he was safe.
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he → receive → country
Sweetney reached out multiple times over the coming days until he knew Steinmetz had gotten back home safely.
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Steinmetz → reach → days
Sweetney reached out again several years later under similar circumstances, when Steinmetz’s son, Noah, was in Israel during an Iranian attack.
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son → reach → attack
“It wasn’t like he wasn’t checking boxes when he reached out to you
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he → check → you
,” Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → say → ?
“He genuinely cared … just larger than life in terms of the way he cared about people.
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he → care → people
“It’s so easy to talk about people when they pass away and how great they were.
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they → ’ → people
’s one of the guys that we talked about him like this when he was alive.
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he → ’ → this
It’s the kind of care that made him so welcome in the local Jewish community.
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him → ’ → community
Sweetney got his coaching start running Goodman’s basketball camp, the first moment in a career entwined with Jewish basketball.
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Sweetney → get → basketball
He continued to run camps during the summer and held training sessions at synagogues.
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He → continue → synagogues
“I’ve gotten 1000s of texts today from people in the Jewish community who are just absolutely heartbroken,” Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → get → community
“He just was a part of our community, like to a point where I literally have had hundreds of people reach out today asking where they can give money for his family, send something.
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they → have → something
In three seasons with Sweetney on the staff, the Maccabees went 61-5.
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Maccabees → go → staff
They cruised into the Division III Sweet 16 in 2020 before the rest of the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, went a perfect 7-0 in a shortened 2020-21 season and finished his tenure with a tournament berth the following year.
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rest → cruise → berth
But Steinmetz cares far more to remember who Sweetney was as a person and as a coach than the impact he had on the court.
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he → care → court
“He spent the later part of his life really trying to help other people,” Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → spend → people
“It was something that was so key for our guys with everything going on in the world and everything around them.
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that → go → them
He was just somebody who had been through it that they could always talk to on a level of openness and comfort and trust, and he just was kind of that guy for everybody.”
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he → talk → everybody
“The basketball part was irrelevant,” Steinmetz said.
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Steinmetz → say → ?
“He was obviously great to have around on the basketball side, but he was just-he was so much bigger than that.”
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he → have → that
The Aporia
