For many Hapoel Tel Aviv fans it was as if they were living in a dream. The stage was set, red Hapoel banners surrounded the court, the Euroleague patch was emblazoned on the jerseys while the competition’s logo was also on the floor. Barcelona, yes, the Barcelona was the opponent on the other side of the court.

Did the supporters need to pinch themselves to understand that this was their new reality?

And how many of them thought they would absolutely dominate the Catalonian squad to the tune of 103-87?

Not many would be my guess.

But here they were, in Sofia and not Tel Aviv due to the ongoing war with Hamas but the reds had made it and made it to the big time. Owner Ofer Yannay was able to get his team into the premier European basketball league and join their crosstown rivals after having won the EuroCup last season.

This was not a typical debutant though. A roster laden with veterans including 2x Euroleague MVP Vasilije Micic as well as Elijah Bryant, Chris Jones, Dan Oturu, Jonathan Motley and a number of others who have plenty of continental mileage not to even mention the Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis and the Reds had all the goods to succeed from the get go in this 2025/26 season.

They actually looked like a team that has been playing together for quite some time and not just a few weeks.

But the real difference makers in this game was AB and the X-Factor for Hapoel Tel Aviv who both ironically had never experienced Euroleague basketball. That of course would be Antonio Blakeney and Ish Wainright.

AB or as I have been starting too call him, “Automatic Bucket” is just that, a player that can provide instant offense on a dime. Blakeney had his fingerprints all over Hapoel’s EuroCup championship last season, so it’s no surprise that in his Euroleague debut he would score with ease and in fact have more points than minutes played (20 in 19:23).

I had asked Itoudis way back last season what Blakeney needed to do in order to be able to succeed at the highest levels of Europe. He said that he had to keep working on his craft because at the time it was clear that the swingman had the talent to play in the Euroleague but it’s not just talent that can make one a star, it’s the effort and drive to do so.

Micic also fielded a question from yours truly after Hapoel’s win over Hapoel Beer Sheva in the Winner Cup semifinals concerning Blakeney’s scoring prowess and if he could continue the form he showed in the EuroCup.

The Serbian sharpshooter began by saying that his former coach at Mega, Dejan Milojević told him that once you score it becomes your duty so, you gotta do it everyday. And that’s exactly what he did. Score and score and score some more.

Micic then continued to say that Blakeney all of the skills to continue to improve with his athleticism but also warned that he would need to be able to handle different kids of defenses.

Well, he ate up the Barcelona defenses with points a plenty as Blakeney had all the signs that he was going to meet the challenge head on and find the way to make sure that he was going to play in the best league outside of the NBA.

It wasn’t just the 20 points that Blakeney scored but how he scored them, 3/4 from deep while going a perfect 11/11 from the free throw line as he led the team in fouls drawn with four.

The bottom line is that Blakeney could not have had a better debut performance in the Euroleague.

As for Ish Wainright, the big, big man played the most minutes on the team with 30:47 in which he scored 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds, but those numbers don’t tell half the story of his impact on the game.

The Kansas City, Missouri native explained to Itay Anidjar on special assignment for The Sports Rabbi in Sofia that he worked on his conditioning over the summer and instead that he needed to ensure that he had his strength, speed and endurance. That allowed Wainright to really push around the Barcelona players all over the place while playing terrific defense along the way.

Itoudis had his reasons for keeping Wainright out there for close to 31 minutes and it was quickly understood why.

Everyone knows that this was just one game of a 38 match slate for the Euroleague after adding two teams to the competition over the summer. Hapoel can’t start thinking that just because they won the opener it means that they already have their ticket punched to the promised land; that is far, far away from the true reality of the situation.

Both Itoudis and Wainright mentioned that this season is going to be a marathon and that is probably the perfect definition of this Euroleague campaign. The teams can’t think that this is going to be a sprint with everything having to be condensed into a short period of time, this is no question going to be a long and grueling season.

For Hapoel having that deep roster that they do have is going to give them an advantage when the injury bug hits and it will hit without a doubt. But until then, the Reds need to stay level headed and collect wins in order to solidify their spot in the Euroleague standings and that is something Itoudis is without question aware of.