![\"Vanderbilt](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_7186819-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMorgan Batey moved through her calming routine: Breathe in, hold; breathe out, rest. Clench the muscles; release slowly.<\/p>\n
The former Vanderbilt guard and 10-year overseas pro usually saved these exercises for the tense moments before pivotal basketball games. Now, she needed them more than ever.<\/p>\n
It was 8 a.m. on March 3. Three days earlier, the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes in Iran, and Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israel and other targets in the Middle East. Batey was about to leave her apartment with all her belongings and climb into a van with a driver she\u2019d never met. The plan was simple: a three-hour ride from her apartment in Tel Aviv to the Jordanian border.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From there, she hoped, she could make it home to Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are worried about whether I\u2019ll get paid,\u201d said Batey, now home after a two-day journey spanning more than 7,000 miles, four cities and three countries. There was no time to talk contracts with Hapoel Rishon LeZion, the club she\u2019d been playing for in the Israeli Women\u2019s Basketball Premier League. \u201cNothing pays for the price of being back home and being safe. I\u2019ve grown to realize, there\u2019s so much more in this world and life than money.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n After four seasons at Vanderbilt, Morgan Batey began her globetrotting professional career in 2016. (David Butler II \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
The idea to reach Jordan came together March 2. The 31-year-old spent most of Sunday booking about $10,000 worth of flights out of Israel, none of which she would ultimately use. On Saturday, she packed for the uncertain journey ahead between trips to the bomb shelter built into her apartment. That morning, Rishon LeZion officials told Batey and the team\u2019s other international players to begin planning their departures.<\/p>\n
Leigha Brown, who finished her college career at Michigan in 2023 and played one WNBA season with the Connecticut Sun, was signed to another Israeli club, Elitzur Holon, when the war started. She learned about it from online news sources. When she asked team officials about it, she said they were dismissive and told her the immediate danger would fade. They encouraged her to stay put.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so accustomed to this and the dangers of being there,\u201d Brown said Thursday, after she reached her home in Auburn, Ind. \u201cThey didn\u2019t really think too much of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Batey and Brown, dozens of U.S. athletes playing professional basketball and other sports in the region found themselves scrambling to arrange tickets out of a war zone in the past week. Others remain in the Middle East as airport closures, airspace restrictions and thousands of canceled and rerouted flights have left international travelers stranded.<\/p>\n
Batey is familiar with conflict in Israel. She first played in the country in 2024, with Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza. \u201cA lot of Israeli citizens are so used to war,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been in war their whole lives. So it\u2019s just like, \u2018Oh, this will pass.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But before the end of the first day of hostilities in this one, Batey had already decided to leave Israel. Even though Israeli airspace was closed, she booked a half dozen flights scheduled to leave Ben Gurion Airport in the next week, hoping that one of the itineraries would hold if the airport reopened. She later managed to recoup most of her $10,000 through cancellations.<\/p>\n