Hapoel Jerusalem held a special gala evening at the Museum of Tolerance to tip-off the new season as players, staff, sponsors and fans all came together to celebrate “Devotion Inspires” the club’s new tag line as the 2026-27 season is about to begin.

With an entirely new branding scheme, Jerusalem looks to take the next step as franchise under the leadership of owner Matan Adelson who brought on a new head coach in the accomplished Serbian tactician Sasa Obradovic.

Adelson spoke about the club’s ambitions, the upcoming campaign as well as the opportunity to celebrate the unique evening being held for the first time under his tenure, “This is a really special day for us. In years past, we held events like this with the broader Hapoel community, sponsors, players, fans and the media. This is just an opportunity for us to kick off the season with all the intimate stakeholders in our community. We haven’t done it quite like this in the past, so kudos to all the team for the event and the level of production, and for all the partners that helped make this event possible.“

The owner also spoke about the roster that management assembled, “I’m really satisfied. But there’s only so much time to celebrate what you did in the summer. Now none of that matters, and the only thing that matters is: do you win games, yes or no? I couldn’t be more excited for the season to start. I think the sky’s the limit for this team and I just can’t wait for tip-off.”

One of the big moves the club made was bringing in a proven winner in Coach Obradovic, “For the people who are in the world of European basketball and deeply integrated, Hapoel is a club that they’ve known for many, many years. Obviously, we have a strong history and a strong presence in many of the European competitions for the last 30-plus years. Bringing him only solidifies the fact that we’re a major player in this game, that we’re here to stay, and we’re here to make noise and go all the way to the top. With Sasa, we believe that we can get there. He was in the EuroLeague final a number of years ago and has accomplished a lot in his amazing coaching career, so we’re really confident that he can take us to the places that we want to go.”

The star of the show Jared Harper will be unavailable after suffering thumb injury in his right hand. With that there has been talk about making a roster move to bring in a replacement with former Maccabi Tel Aviv guard Lorenzo Brown being rumored to join the reds.

“I’m really happy with the squad that we’ve managed to build,” Adelson said. But we put all those emotions behind us and we just need to win basketball games at the end of the day. Only time will tell, but I really have a lot of confidence in what we’ve built. As far as new players, when you have a guy like Jared with everything that he brings the star power, the talent, the leadership, the character, when you lose a guy like that, it’s almost impossible to replace no matter who you bring. It’s no secret that we’ve been on the market for a number of weeks trying to find a potential replacement for him, but no matter who you bring, it’s not going to compare to someone like Jared. So we’re going to do our best to find the best potential replacement for him that will come and help us achieve our goals.”

Jerusalem will be competing in the EuroCup with the goal of winning the league in order to obtain one of the spots in the Euroleague. However, the club’s home games are still being played abroad and not in Israel which is something that Adelson has been working on bringing back to the Holy Land.

“Unfortunately, it’s a little bit out of our control. We’re obviously doing everything we can to influence the games to return, and we welcome Chus Bueno’s appearance here in Israel. I think it’s a good step in the right direction that he’s coming. To put a number on what the odds are that the games will return is very difficult, but obviously fingers crossed, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that happens. We speak to them frequently and we’re in constant communication with them on a weekly basis. We’ve spoken about getting together when they come.”

One of the issues that has potentially been problematic is that the clubs haven’t been in sync while working on returning the games to the country explained Adelson, “I think we’ve worked together better in the past, but unfortunately, for some reason, that’s not quite happening for the time being. But strength is obviously in unity. If the three of us can work together and find a way to collaborate in our efforts, I think that’s in everyone’s best interest.”

There has been a discussion in the media over the last few days that Maccabi may be moving their home games to Cyprus from Belgrade which would be a much closer flight for the fans to make in order to support their team. With that option perhaps on the table, Adelson says that Hapoel will be looking into the possibility of heading to the island nation.

“Belgrade has its pros and cons, as does every other city. Obviously, we want to prioritize bringing the games back here. But the second that we understood Cyprus became a potential option, we also started to have some of those conversations. Cyprus has very clear advantages over Belgrade. So if that becomes a viable option, we’re going to do everything we can to move there as well.”