Israel magnet for WNBA stars

RAMLE, Israel – Plenette Pierson of the WNBA champion Detroit Shock is used to playing in front of thousands of fans back home in the U.S. This winter, the 6-foot-3 forward is showing off her skills in front of nearly empty stands in small-town Israel – and loving it.

Pierson is among the growing number of WNBA stars who moonlight overseas during the off-season. Buoyed by a small but rabid fan base, Israel has become a top destination.

“I think the Holy Land has been the land of basketball, I think the WNBA players just now found out about it,” said Pierson, who has become so popular she can barely walk through the streets of this backwater town without being swarmed by fans.

According to the WNBA, Pierson is one of 17 players in Israel. Nearly 130 play worldwide, in countries including Russia, South Korea and Australia.

Pierson, along with teammates LaToya Thomas of the San Antonio Silver Stars and Monique Currie of the Chicago Sky, have turned their Elitzur Ramle club into a juggernaut. The team is 15-2 and has clinched a first-place finish and playoff berth, just a year after temporarily shutting down because of debt.

Thanks to a basketball-crazed mayor and funds from several corporate sponsors, Ramle has become the top draw for WNBA players in Israel. The team says it pays each of its American players around $80,000 a season, tax-free, throwing in a car and apartment, too.

The 10-year-old WNBA has lasted longer and been more successful than any previous U.S. women’s pro league. But salaries range from about $31,000 to $90,000, with the bulk falling somewhere in the middle, and the regular season is just three months long.

So even top players – such as Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi – travel the world each winter in search of extra cash. European leagues also allow the women to stay in shape and arrive for the WNBA summer league in top form.

In many ways, the Israeli women’s league is far more exciting than that of the men. The competition is wide open, while the men’s league has been dominated for years by perennial European powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv.

And while the men’s league typically attracts foreign players either at the beginning or the end of their career, the women’s league is filled with players in their prime. Recent Israeli pros include WNBA standouts Deanna Nolan, Vickie Johnson, Mwadi Mabika and Cheryl Ford.

“If we were making money like the men, we wouldn’t have to go overseas,” Thomas said. “Playing basketball is a job. It’s not a fairy tale, we just go out and play.”

Nowhere is the play more appreciated than Ramle in central Israel, where the team has become the pride and joy of a city normally associated with crime and poverty.

To counter Ramle’s traditionally negative image, Mayor Yoel Lavie decided in the mid-1990s to turn his run-down city of 70,000 into a center of women’s hoops. He enlisted a host of local sponsors and also poured large sums of municipal funds into the team.

With a budget of just under $900,000, Levkovitz has purchased the best talent money can buy. Pierson, Thomas and Currie have accounted for most of the scoring, including some jaw-dropping acrobatic fast breaks, no-look passes and 3-pointers.

Pierson, who has played in Israel before, feels a special connection to the Jewish state.

“You grow up hearing about things in the Bible and to be here and see it and to play basketball at the same time, it’s something you love,” she said. “It was a great experience for me to win a WNBA championship and then come to Ramle and hopefully win a championship here.”