How one US basketball player evacuated Israel after war broke out — and why he’ll go back when it’s safe

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

(CNN) — The blaring alarm startled Malik Hall out of his sleep in the early morning of February 28.

Months earlier, when he first arrived to play for Ironi Kiryat Ata B.C., a team in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, the former Michigan State basketball player was told to download an app on his phone: the Home Front Command app. It’s designed to alert users if a missile is detected in Israeli airspace.

But for six months, Hall lived relatively peacefully. Residing about 15 minutes from Haifa, he practiced, played basketball and, frankly, forgot about the app or even the possibility of danger. That all changed when the United States and Israel combined to launch airstrikes on Iran, igniting an ongoing conflict that prompted immediate Iranian retaliation against Israel.

“We were asleep, dead asleep,” Hall, who was with his girlfriend, told CNN Sports. “At first, I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, my girlfriend had some urgency.”

That morning, they headed to the apartment’s bomb shelter, tucked under a stairwell on the first floor. It was the first of 15 trips they would make there that day. Outside, they could hear sirens and explosions — the missiles being intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.

So began a harrowing week for Hall, who, like thousands of other Americans, had to flee the Middle East at the start of the conflict. He left on March 3 and didn’t arrive back home in Chicago until Monday, an eight-day sojourn.

Overseas basketball remains a popular and often fairly lucrative path for former college players, both men and women. Often providing housing and tax-free salaries, the teams welcome Americans, who bring both name recognition and a high level of play to their games.

But not all teams and leagues are created equally. Athletes who play in lousy leagues or for bad organizations often train in poor facilities, receive little to no assistance and, occasionally, do not even get a regular paycheck. It is largely an inconvenience, until it becomes something far more dire.

Hall is one of the lucky ones. While other athletes had to figure out how to get home on their own, his league guided him step by step.

That doesn’t mean it was any less terrifying.

Hall had just returned to Israel after a few days at home during the FIBA international break when news began to percolate about possible US and Israel strikes on Iran. On February 27, two days after he returned to Israel, his league sent an email, explaining that should something happen, it would devise an evacuation plan.

But that afternoon, Hall went to practice as usual, prepping for the eight or so games and playoff run left on the schedule.

“I knew stuff with Iran had picked up in the last couple of months,” Hall said. “I was keeping track of it, but honestly, I didn’t think it would be imminent.”

Instead, the next morning he was in the bomb shelter. His visit times varied — sometimes as long as 50 minutes, others just 10.

“You could hear the explosions, but you don’t really know how close or how far it is,” Hall said. “And you don’t really know what’s exploding.”

Hall said the Israelis who also lived in his apartment complex were far more blasé, some seeking shelters and others not.

“I was just thinking about this once I got home, once I could finally breathe and really process it all,” Hall said. “As Americans, it’s just not something we’re used to, thankfully. To us, it was pretty scary, but to people who live there, it’s almost like they have blind faith with the Iron Dome. They’re used to it.”

The league decided fairly quickly that it had to help shepherd American players out of the country and began putting together an exit strategy. That took a few days, which meant more time in the bomb shelter, though Hall admitted that the more the app alarm went off, the less startled he became.

Finally, at 3:40 a.m. on March 3, he said, he and some of his teammates — plus their families and even some of their pets — hopped into small vans and drove three hours to Jerusalem, where the league had funneled all of its American players. From there, Hall said, they boarded buses and drove another eight hours to the Egyptian border.

By then, the app alarms had slowed down, but just as they neared the border, another signaled.

“That was scary because you’re supposed to evacuate the vehicle, and either lay on the side of the road or find an overpass,” Hall said. “But we were close enough to the border that they weren’t worried.”

Hall and the other players exited the buses to cross on foot into Egypt. While standing in line waiting his turn, he spied a familiar face. Cassius Winston, who was a Michigan State senior when Hall was a freshman, plays for Hapoel Jerusalem, part of the Israeli Basketball Premier League.

“He was like two people in front of me in line,” Hall said.

Once in Egypt, the players reboarded the buses and drove 45 minutes to Taba International, a small airport that has become a hub for Americans leaving Israel. Hall and everyone else spent about five hours there before boarding a flight to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade.

The irony that formerly war-torn Serbia had become his safe haven was not lost on Hall.

“It is definitely strange,” he said, “but once we got there, it felt like it was back to normal.”

The league secured hotel rooms for everyone until the players were able to fly to their respective homes.

Now back in Chicago — he’s contemplating a trip to the nearby United Center to watch the Spartans in the Big Ten Tournament this week — Hall is waiting to hear from the league about resuming play. His team plays all across Israel, including away games in Tel Aviv, and leaders of the Israeli Basketball Premier League have told its players that it would prefer to wait for proof of a ceasefire or, at worst, a stretch of time without missiles fired into the country, before asking its players to return.

Hall, of course, can say no, but before he left, he did his homework. He, along with his family and his agent, checked on both the safety of the town he would live in and the reliability of his team and the league.

“When you decide to play overseas, you have to make sure you know what you’re getting into,” he said. “You have to be able to trust your team and your league because you’re going in knowing nothing. Going through this, I think a little differently. You want to make sure you feel safe, but I also feel like I know I can trust my team and my league. I’ll go back.”

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