Shimon Mizrahi was born in Tel Aviv. He is the son of a bank manager who was also a football player and a tennis player for Maccabi Tel Aviv, and a mother who was also a tennis player. In 1957, Mizrahi enlisted in the
Israel Defense Forces and served as an investigator in the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division. In the final year of his service, he began studying law, and after his discharge, he completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Professional career Mizrahi is the senior partner in the B. Arnon – S. Mizrahi
law office, and specializes in traffic violation cases. In 2006, he defended the prominent
attorney Dori Klagsbald, in a high-profile case of
manslaughter, following the death of two, a mother and child, that were killed by Klagsbald's vehicle.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Mizrahi was appointed the
chairman of the
Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club in 1969. In the wake of the club's financial problems, he introduced various strategies to rescue Maccabi from bankruptcy, such as selling tickets for Maccabi games, which had previously been free. Mizrahi realized that in order to secure Maccabi's dominance in the
Israeli Super League, it would have to sign
American players. Since he became the club's chairman in 1969, Maccabi has won 44 Israeli Super League championships, winning the league's title in all but eight seasons (1992–93, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, and 2016–17, 2021–22). The club has also won 36
Israeli State Cup and 7
Israeli League Cup titles during his tenure. The club also won the
Adriatic League championship (
2012), with Mizrahi running the club. However, Maccabi's main achievement during his time as the club's chairman, includes the winning of 6 top-tier level European-wide titles, as they won the
EuroLeague championship 5 times (
1977,
1981,
2004,
2005, and
2014), and also the
FIBA SuproLeague championship (
2001). Mizrahi was at one time accused by rival
clubs of failing to make the Israeli Super League more competitive, by having plans to implement payment limits to players. However, Mizrahi agreed to several new league rules which were meant to weaken Maccabi, such as the Brisker Rule, which limits the number of foreign players every team can sign, and the implementation of a
Final Four format, instead of a best-of-five playoff series system, among other rule changes. On 21 December 2021, Mizrahi was announced as a candidate for the Class of 2022 at the
Basketball Hall of Fame. ==Awards and accolades==