Tamir "Jewish Jordan" Goodman on Turning Down #1 Maryland to Keep Shabbat | The Deal w/ Nissim Black

[Music] so you were originally committed to playing college for maryland and then you didn't arrive at maryland right so take me through the entire recruitment process why you didn't end up going to maryland and then what was it like to actually pay play college ball um in your experience that uh you know that's how eventually that led you to israel so exactly so look i was getting a lot of division one offers in a mail every day and it was really exciting and it was good but then the university of maryland called now you have to understand i'm from maryland okay and at the time university of maryland you're talking about steve francis juan dixon steve blake like seven got like you're talking about one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time like and they came to watch me play and after one game they offered me a four year scholarship and the coach said look i'm coming back to watch you play tomorrow not because i have any doubts i'm coming back to watch you play tomorrow because i just love the way i love watching you play so i'm like wow i told coach i'm like why would i go anywhere else maryland's my favorite team i'm from maryland i'm going to commit to maryland but i'm only going to commit on one condition i can't play on shabbat and that's man my life changed overnight after that 700 media requests abc nbc cbs jerry seinfeld did a full skit about me on saturday night live like everyone wanted to find out like why i wasn't going to play on shabbat and then as time gave closer i won the mvp of the capitol classic all-star game against the best players in the country and time getting closer for me to play at maryland i'm playing there and i'm playing in maryland in the summertime with with the guys and then coach calls me into his office and he's like look you can stay and play you have a full scholarship but based on how we see things moving forward and how we project you we decided that if you want to stay and play you can stay and play but you're gonna have to play on shabbat i said coach i love i love the program so much you guys are my favorite team but really for jewish people is shabbat more important than basketball gave him back the most sought after scholarship in the country they going to win the nation they going to win the national championship and i'm left without a team until towson university calls me up coach is like i'm not jewish nobody on team is jewish but the guys on the team recruit asked me to come recruit you they respect that you didn't want to play on shabbat you could have played at maryland kim can we learn more about your religion and coach jazz and coach julius allen and the entire team my brothers for life managed to change the entire schedule for me so that i was able to play division one basketball without having to plan shabbat and jewish holidays and live out my dream and wear my people on the court i wonder and then you say like what was it like i mean it was more than a dream come true playing against villanova playing against michigan playing against lsu like these moments i just thank god every single day playing against georgetown that i got to live out my dream that i got to experience that and so much good has come and come from all of that and i'm forever thankful for that man that is amazing i'm like getting chills from hearing you talk about this because you know like i feel like you know there is always this um time that hashem allows for you to be tested god puts us to the test to see especially people who you know have to be out there in the public whether you enjoy it or you don't you know you have to you know i had a very similar situation on my way into judaism that you know my last album that you know was a highly anticipated album you know what i'm saying at least um during that time it was even bigger than we thought music stores was calling us from you know the other side of the country saying how come we don't have this album we didn't even know how much of impact we were making but just before that album i decided to take nothing from the album i toured did everything for free because i only in order that they wouldn't allow me um that they would give me the right not to perform on shabbat or at least none of you mean toby so and i seen the biggest success my single that year ended up on mtv full rotation like crazy things i've seen alex claire's story you know his story is crazy also too of him you know committing altitude to shabbat and and and giving up and that god gave him back three times he had signed to a contract for three times i think the amount was and i'd only hear from alex alex story is great but i sat in the office at island records and heard it from the president himself for how he went to alex's his his hotel room on his knees he said i was begging alex to come back he i heard from him so you see the beauty of the sacrifices that we make for hashem and the sacrifices that we make for for shabbat is like i i i get chills from hearing these type of stories man i really power to you and uh and and and the broncos you got afterwards is only just the beginning you got many more coming from it god willing you too thank you [Music]