Ironi Ness Ziona

Lev HaMoshava Arena holds 1,200 people, a hall small enough that noise from the away end carries across the parquet the way it rarely does in venues built for ten times as many. Ironi Ness Ziona has played there since it rose out of the wreckage of Hapoel Ness Ziona, a club that went bankrupt and left the city without senior basketball. The new side started out in 2005 in Liga Alef, the bottom division, and climbed one tier at a time.

Promotion came twice by the same route: Liga Leumit titles in 2012–13 and 2016–17 each carried the club up into Ligat HaAl. By the second of those, Ironi Ness Ziona were no longer a provincial side passing through the top flight.

One European trophy still defines the club. In the 2020–21 FIBA Europe Cup, under head coach Brad Greenberg, Ironi Ness Ziona beat Arged BM SLAM Stal 82–74 in a final played in Tel Aviv. Wayne Selden Jr., named Final Four MVP, had put them there with the game-winning shot in the semi-final, and Greenberg was named the competition's Coach of the Year. The title arrived barely two seasons after the club's first appearance in Europe, a 2018–19 campaign that ended in the round of 16.

The Israel State Cup has stayed out of reach; the closest the club has come is a run of semi-finals, most recently in 2022–23. Tal Dan, captain for years, had his number 6 retired in 2022 — a rare gesture for a club not yet twenty years old. The players wear orange, the colour behind the nickname HaKhtumim, trimmed in white and navy.

Paul Corsaro took charge for the 2024–25 season, with Amit Schaerf and Meir Tapiro set to follow in successive years, as Ironi Ness Ziona look to build past their 2022–23 ENBL campaign and back into regular European basketball.