Israeli tour jumped through hoops to watch ’94 Finals

THEY’RE now in their early 40s, likely scattered here, there and everywhere. But together, in 1994, they watched Game 7 of the Knicks-Rockets NBA Finals and remain bound by that game as no others.

There were 70 of them, two busloads of teens from Houston, on a tour of Israel.

On June 22, the night Game 7 was played in Houston, they not only were eight hours ahead of Houston, they were in an isolated Bedouin encampment — a Bedouin & Breakfast — near the Jordanian border. Even in the Holy Land, their chance to watch the Rockets win Houston’s first NBA championship — it would start at 4 a.m. for them — was a longer shot than David over Goliath.

And their Texas-accented disappointment and cursed bad timing could be heard throughout Buses 1 and 2.

That’s when their two young Israeli tour guides, Reuven Zusman and Yoram Preminger, went to work. They began inquiries in search of someone — anyone — in this Negev Desert region who had an oasis, in this case, cable TV.

They found one by phone, a cafe owner in the town of Dimona, 22 miles from the Dead Sea.

“We told him,” said Zusman, now, for good reason, among Israel’s most coveted guides among Christians and Jews — and a friend to Arab restaura- teurs throughout the country — “that if he opened for us we might make it worth his while. ‘You sell soda, candy, snacks, ice cream?’ ‘I do.’ ‘ Would you open if I brought you 70 kids, 16 and 17 years old?’ ‘I would.’ ‘OK, we’ll see you around 3 a.m.’ ” And so with the promise of milk

honey, the deal was struck. “At that point we didn’t even know if his cable TV would have the basketball game,” Zusman said. “But it was worth a try. And the kids, boys girls, were eager to add adventure to their adventure. We had nothing to lose but sleep.”

So at about 2:30 a.m., 70 kids headed for an “after-hours club.” And when the owner ran his one TV set through the dial, Hallelujah! There it was — NBC! Soon, at 4 a.m., Marv Albert and Matt Guokas would narrate the Rockets’ 90-84 championship win.

“Perhaps the only one more happy than those kids was the cafe owner,” Zusman said. “I doubt he knew what he was watching, but he’ll never forget that game, either.”

So then it was back to the Bedouin encampment — but only in time for some breakfast and to reboard the buses to head for their next historic site or modern desert marvel.

“I stood up in the front of my bus to tell them what we would next visit,” Zusman said. “But then I sat back down. They were all asleep.”

There’s a lot to remember about those 1994 Finals. Game 5 on NBC was preceded here that day by a parade for the Rangers having finally entered the Promised Land — winning the Stanley Cup.

That night’s Knicks’ win in the Garden was pre-empted by NBC’s coverage of the slowspeed chase of ex-NBC Sports commentator O.J. Simpson.

But 70 kids from Houston watched Game 7 — the one that won it for their team — from the other side of the world, on the other side of the next day, from a side-of-the-road cafe somewhere beside the birth of recorded civilization. Seek and ye shall find.