Hapoel Jerusalem returned to Israel on Wednesday evening from Belgrade where they held a training camp ahead of the domestic season restart this coming Saturday night when they host Bnei Herzliya. The reds held the training camp in order to keep some sense of routine as the recent war had raged on, however, the club returned to the Holy Land with only five of their eight foreigners, Jared Harper, Cassius Winston, Anthony Lamb, Justin Smith and Dmytro Skapintsev, while Austin Wiley, Isaiah Mobley and Josiah-Jordan James did not come back to Israel at this stage.
Harper who was recently named as the EuroCup MVP as well as Head Coach Yonatan Alon addressed a myriad of topics after arriving at Ben Gurion airport.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to be here, but it’s good to be back,” Harper began. “We still have a sour taste in our mouth just from how the last game in the EuroCup ended. So I’m just looking to try to fix that. I wouldn’t say I’m super excited to win back-to-back MVPs. Of course I’m thankful, of course I’m grateful. I think my main goal was to be able to win EuroCup this year. Me personally, I feel like I’ve let the team down, I’ve let our fans down, I’ve let our management down, I’ve let our ownership down. I take some of that on myself. So for me personally, I’m not super excited and I also would have liked to see some other players get recognition on the list.”

“We finished first overall in the whole competition. From what I think, it’s a regular season award, so I feel like Austin Wiley had a really great season, Dino (Khadeen) Carrington had a really great season, Cash (Cassius) Winston had a really great season. As a team, we had a great regular season, so I feel like other people should have been able to get some recognition also.”

The guard also spoke about getting back to league play on Saturday but warned it may take some time to see the group jell once again especially with some players who are missing, “I don’t think we’re going to be at our best the first game. We haven’t played many games, but we’re going to continue to do what we can do, try to get back, have Dino back in the team, which is going to be good. Missing Zeus right now, which is going to be a major part. Missing Isaiah is going to be a major part. Missing JJ is going to be a major part. Missing Austin is going to be a major part. But we’re going to figure it out as a team, as we always have done this whole season.”

While Harper decided on coming back to Israel, other did not as he explained that everyone has different issues to weigh, “We’re all adults. People can make their own decisions, and people have different reasons. People have families. People have kids. People have wives. A lot of different things that people need to get through or focus on to be able to play the game of basketball. Everybody’s entitled to their own decision. My decision-making was different than the next person’s decision-making from a person that came back or didn’t come back. I can only control what I can control. I have a job to do. I get paid to play basketball, so I have to come play basketball.”

The Head Coach Yonatan Alon also spoke about getting back into the swing of things, “We traveled with a goal, because when we left, many things were still unclear; if we would return, where we would return to and what exactly would happen. Our main goal was first of all to bring the guys together, to unify them and from that point also to try to start operating when the moment to return to Israel would come by talking to them, holding one-on-one conversations, group discussions and alongside all that practicing basketball, which is the reason we’re here.”

“I think it was good that we had a training camp and I think it would have been much worse if we hadn’t. Right now, the situation allows us to function and we believe in ourselves and think we can succeed professionally. Hopefully, from this point on, we can focus only on basketball.”

The bench boss no doubt missed having games to play and a competition to be a part of over the past month, “Personally, I’m going crazy without games, climbing the walls, so I really want to get back to playing. Regarding the guys who aren’t with us they’re part of the team, each with his own personal reasons, but overall it’s pretty clear: you can’t normalize what’s happening here. It’s not normal. It’s not normal to play basketball like this, it’s not normal to stop playing basketball and then return to it and I think everyone will see that in the quality of the games now.”

“But we’ll give them the time they need, they need a bit more time. We’ve always known how to be people before athletes and we’ll continue to be that way at any cost. That means I’m completely at peace with any price we’ve paid, including personal prices I might pay, for choosing humanity before sport, before the profession, and before the paycheck. I can only promise that I will continue to do that.”

Of course there is a chance that some of the players who didn’t return, won’t while some will, “We’re in constant contact with them, we have a good relationship. Nothing is being done forcefully or negatively. Each of them explained their personal situation and we’ve left the door open to continue talking and we will do that.”

Alon also spoke about how everyone was dealing with the disappointment of being eliminated from the EuroCup last month, “I haven’t gotten over it. I’m still very disappointed. It was a very tough loss. Again, I’ll say this, we’re in an abnormal situation where, at the peak of the season, you go a full month without games. You completely lose your rhythm. You try to deal with it in different ways, but it wasn’t the same competition between the two teams.”

“A team that comes in and plays every three days gets into a certain rhythm, compared to a team that doesn’t play for a month, that’s terrible. Beyond what happened in the game itself, which everyone saw and of course the disappointing way it ended, a last-second basket. I also suggest that all the theories being built around this loss should ask themselves whether we’d be saying the same thing if the ball had gone out or not gone in. That’s just the nature of things.”

The Head Coach continued, “It doesn’t take away from the disappointment, it’s very, very disappointing and it’s a failure, first and foremost mine. I’m not hiding that. But this isn’t a normal situation. You have to understand that. We don’t have normal conditions to coach or play basketball. It affects us, and you can’t ignore it. That doesn’t take away from the loss.”

Hapoel was hoping to win the EuroCup which would then allow the club to automatically advance to playing in the Euroleague next season, however, due to the fact that the Reds didn’t, they are still trying to find a way into the continent’s best league.

“I have to say that I don’t really know what’s happening behind the scenes. I’m not very connected to that process. My job is to get them to the EuroLeague on the court and since I didn’t succeed in doing that, I’m not really exposed to the efforts being made in that direction, I don’t really know. As a club, from a system standpoint, we hear from the EuroLeague how deserving we are of being there. Ask them, they’ll tell you. Ask players as well, today, this is one of the most advanced clubs in many, many aspects, especially when it comes to the player experience, the coaching experience, or how the club is built and managed.

“In that sense, at least based on testimonies from players who don’t play for our team but for other EuroLeague teams, from what I understand without disrespecting anyone we’re not just worthy of being there, we’re already at quite a high level there as a club.”