Yam Madar scored 41 points and buried nine of his 10 three-point attempts on Thursday night, dragging Hapoel Tel Aviv to a 115-97 demolition of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli league derby that closed out the regular season. The 25-year-old guard turned a tight opening quarter into a one-man exhibition, going a flawless 6-of-6 from deep after halftime in front of a packed Yad Eliyahu.
The masterpiece arrived with a strange backdrop. Madar may have just played one of his last games on Israeli hardwood, with his future reportedly tied to a college program in Louisiana and a contract that the NCAA’s freshly tightened rulebook might not even permit.
Nine Threes and a Career Night at Yad Eliyahu
Madar had hit only one triple in the first quarter and two more by the break for a quiet 14 points. Then the floodgates opened. He drilled six straight three-pointers in the second half, finishing 9-of-10 from beyond the arc across roughly 35 minutes, with five assists for good measure. The final tally of 41 happened to match the number he wore at Partizan Belgrade and Fenerbahce.
He was not alone. Jonathan Motley, Hapoel’s American big man, added 21 points and Chris Jones chipped in 20, though the win was costly: guard Elijah Bryant left injured. The result was the kind of statement performance Israeli fans had waited all season to see.
What makes the night stranger is the contrast with the rest of his campaign. Across 16 games in Hapoel’s debut EuroLeague season, Madar averaged barely a footnote, and the gap between that role and Thursday’s eruption is the whole reason his name is suddenly attached to a move abroad.
- 41 points, a career high in a Tel Aviv derby.
- 9-of-10 from deep, including 6-of-6 in the second half.
- 115-97 final, with Hapoel pulling away after a close first quarter.
- 3.1 points per game, his modest EuroLeague scoring average this season.
From a Celtics Draft Pick to a Wandering Guard
Madar was a known quantity long before Thursday. The Boston Celtics took him 47th overall in the second round of the 2020 NBA Draft, the same draft that sent fellow Israeli and NBA forward Deni Avdija to the Washington Wizards at ninth. The two had already led Israel’s under-20 side to a 2019 European title.
The years since have been a tour of European basketball with mixed reviews. He left Partizan after a single strong season for Fenerbahce, endured a difficult stretch at Bayern Munich, then returned to Hapoel Tel Aviv. He was a central figure in the EuroCup run that lifted the Reds into Europe’s top competition, playing hurt to get them there.
This season cut the other way. Madar spent the early months rehabilitating a knee injury, and once healthy he never settled into head coach Dimitrios Itoudis’s EuroLeague rotation. The low point came during Real Madrid’s 3-1 quarterfinal series win, when he logged barely 10 minutes across the whole series.
That frustration is the engine behind the headlines. A guard capable of dropping 41 in a derby was watching playoff basketball from the bench, and at 25 he is young enough to want a bigger stage and old enough to chase the money while it is on the table.
LSU’s $5 Million Bet on a 25-Year-Old
On May 18, Serbian outlet Mozzart Sport reported that Madar had agreed to join LSU’s men’s basketball program under head coach Will Wade, with subsequent reports speculating a package worth up to $5 million per season through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL, the 2021 rule that lets college athletes earn money from their personal brand) and revenue sharing. Wade, rebuilding the Tigers, has been open about importing seasoned overseas talent fast, and Madar would be a marquee piece of that plan.
The numbers underline how far college basketball has drifted from amateurism. A guard who earned a EuroLeague salary would, if the deal is real, multiply his pay many times over by enrolling at a university in Baton Rouge.
| Earnings line | Figure | Context |
|---|---|---|
| EuroLeague first-year minimum salary | €50,000 (about $58,000) net | The level that trips the NCAA’s new threshold |
| Madar’s reported LSU package | Up to $5 million per season | NIL plus revenue share |
| Madar’s EuroLeague output this season | 3.1 points across 16 games | The on-court case for the price tag |
The NCAA Guidance That Could Void the Move
There is a catch large enough to swallow the whole deal. On May 8, the NCAA circulated updated guidance on pre-enrollment eligibility for international athletes, and it lands squarely on players exactly like Madar.
Where the New Compensation Line Falls
The guidance says prospects who competed for or were paid by a team in a league whose minimum compensation exceeds actual and necessary expenses will not have their eligibility reinstated. For those earning above expenses, reinstatement becomes a case-by-case review weighing how long they drew a salary, the quality of the league and other factors.
That standard is a problem for anyone arriving from the EuroLeague. The league’s collective bargaining agreement sets a first-year minimum of €50,000 (about $58,000) net, almost certainly above the NCAA’s bar. Madar has played professionally since his teens across four countries, which is the kind of long paid career the case-by-case test is designed to scrutinize.
The Commitments Now Under Review
He is not the only one exposed. Several EuroLeague-tied players who committed to U.S. schools for 2026-27 now sit in the same gray zone:
- Quinn Ellis (St. John’s)
- Saliou Niang (LSU)
- Márcio Santos (LSU)
- Mantas Rubštavičius (Auburn)
The Association is modernizing the rule book in several ways to ensure college sports are played by college athletes and not used as a fallback for professional athletes.
That line came from the NCAA in the statement accompanying its updated guidance, and it reads like a direct response to the wave of overseas pros chasing seven-figure NIL money. Madar’s path may hinge on exemptions tied to delayed enrollment and national-team service, the same narrow doors that earlier international recruits squeezed through. FIBA’s eligibility guide for NCAA-bound international players spells out how thin those margins have become.
A Lifeline for an Israeli League in Crisis
Madar’s timing could not be sharper, because the Israeli league badly needed a moment like this. The war with Iran sent many foreign players home this season, and a large share never came back. New faces filtered in only after a fragile ceasefire in April.
Then came a players’ strike that produced a farcical stretch of games with only import players on the floor, some teams fielding just five or six bodies. For a league chasing relevance, it was an embarrassment that overshadowed the basketball.
The derby flipped the script. On the biggest domestic stage, Madar handed the playoffs a marquee storyline and Israeli basketball a reason to believe the postseason can rescue the season. A best-of-five championship rematch between Hapoel and Maccabi is the dream draw, and Hapoel are chasing a first domestic title in more than 50 years.
So the calendar sets up a clean fork. If Madar leads the Reds to that championship and the NCAA waves through his paperwork, Israeli fans get a title and a farewell in the same breath; if the eligibility ruling goes against him, the player who just saved the season may have no choice but to stay and try to do it again.
