Exclusive | Late ex-Knick Mike Sweetney left a lasting impact on Jewish and Yeshiva basketball: Larger than life
If you took a look at the sideline during a Yeshiva University men’s basketball game at the beginning of this decade, it may have tickled you to see a 6-foot-8 black man among a group of Division III players wearing yarmulkes.But to those on the court and around the team, he was just Mike.Condolences came from around the basketball world on Thursday after former Knicks first-round pick Mike Sweetney died at 43.Much has been said about his short-lived NBA career and mental health advocacy, but his time at Yeshiva is more than just a footnote to those within the program.“He literally just was one of the guys,” Yeshiva head coach Elliot Steinmetz told The Post.
“From the outside, I get it.It’s a different look when it’s a bunch of Jewish kids, and you have the [6-foot-8] former NBA African American guy in there.
“But he just he was just one of us.”Steinmetz first met Sweetney in 2019 through Tamir Goodman, an Orthodox Jewish hoops star whom Sweetney knew from the high school circuit in the Washington, D.C.area.
When Sweetney moved to New Jersey and wanted to get into coaching, Goodman introduced him to Steinmetz.Sweetney stayed with the program until 2022, when he had a full-time job and couldn’t commit to the coaching staff anymore, Steinmetz said.But that didn’t mean it was the end of his care for the program.“Every year beginning of the season, [he’d text], ‘First game’s coming up, how’s it going?'” Steinmetz said.
“‘How’s the team looking? Wishing you guys a great season.Hope to get there for a couple of games.’ Just larger than life in terms of the way he cared about people.”Sweetney and Steinmetz’s friendship wasn’t over, either.Steinmetz was in Israel when Hamas attacked Kibbutz Re’im on Oct.
7, 2023.The first text he received that night was from Sweetney, who knew he was in the country and wanted to check if he was safe.
Sweetney reached out multiple times over the coming days until he knew Steinmetz had got...