Tanhum Cohen-Mintz

Tanhum Cohen-Mintz was born in 1939 in Riga

Cohen-Mintz was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1939. As a baby he moved with his parents, Aharon and Edith, to the Land of Israel. He attended Ironi Alef High School in Tel Aviv.

He first played tennis, like his mother, who was Israel's women's champion in the 1950s, and he won the national junior title. Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Yehoshua Rozin noticed his height and persuaded him to switch to basketball.

He played 14 seasons for Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning 9 championships and 9 State Cups, and reached the 1967 cup final. In 1964 he became the first Israeli selected to the European team. He played 89 games for Israel from 1958 to 1971, scoring 1,076 points, and won gold at the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok.

He studied mechanical engineering at the Technion and served as a career officer in the IDF. He ended his playing years at Elitzur Tel Aviv, and a farewell game against the European team was held in 1975.

He was married to Dafna, and his son Uri also played for Israel's national team. He died of cancer in 2014 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.