The Fans

The headline of the week is the return of the fans to the stands. Anyone in the sports world knows how important the crowd is for their performance. The energy, support and the fact that the players perform for the fans is what makes sports tick. The influence of the supporters has been seen at the Derby, Beer Sheva, Nes Ziona, Gilboa and the Jerusalem Arena as one could see how the energy of the crowd is critical. The photos of the players celebrating with the fans show just how much we missed them.

The Europeans (Plus a bit about Hapoel Tel Aviv)

Maccabi Tel Aviv is focused on their Euroleague campaign where they hope to make a good run as the season heads towards its end and perhaps get into the playoffs. One could see this during the past two league matches by spreading the imitates and giving some of their stars some rest in order to get to Thursday fresh and ready to go as each continental clash is like a final. When Ioannis Sfairopoulos an his squad raise the aggressiveness and intensity they were able to easily get right back into the game. As for Hapoel Tel Aviv it’s clear that in the two games since the national team break, the Reds are defending and playing better during a large swath of minutes and much more so than before. A number of players had Corona which hampered the team to practice regularly during the break and that could be seen in tiger final stages of the games as they were getting tired and their play suffered. I believe that in a week to 10 days the team will be in a much better place as they will be able to practice on a normal schedule and with the addition of James Young to the backcourt they will have an athlete, a player how can score and become a go to guy who will be key during the tough moments of the game and closing them out.

Hapoel Holon is having a terrific season especially in the Champions League where they had a huge win in Italy against Brindisi at a very tough arena against a terrific team. Holon is continuing to play with their unique style and coach Stefanos Dedas is doing a superb job. One can see his fingerprints on the style of play and it’s obvious that he knows exactly what he wants. The team is built in a way that each time a different player can be the star like Niv Misgav who played exceptionally well in Italy and that is what makes Holon such a strong team this year. Holon also defends very well and has a ton of character. To go play a tough away game in Gilboa after such a high and come away with a win in a game that they could have been exhausted from the travel really shows what the team is made of. Holon is in a situation where league play is very important after beginning the season with some losses and in order to finish high up in the standings and have home court advance they’ll have to be able to play in both competitions plus the Balkan league and win as well.

Top 5

Let’s begin with the guard who is part of the future of Israeli basketball, Noam Dovrat who I coached in high school and the youth national teams. After a tough stretch where he also had an injury, Noam had his bets game with Rishon against Hapoel Jerusalem. From week to week he is better offensively, is assertive on both sides of reg court and influences the play of his team.

The second player is Yam Madar. You can’t ignore the tremendous talent that he has, where he can score in many ways, is fearless and plays great on ball defending. He’s just got to help pick up some wins along the way.

Eric Griffin is the third. Rami Hadar should get a a lot of credit for being able to get so much out of the player who has quality, dedication to the club and works so hard on the floor. Things are things that weren’t evident in the past but this season he brings this game in and game out and he is a big part of the club’s success.

Stanton Kidd is next. Jerusalem’s newest import adds something that Jerusalem lacked. Consistent shooting, rebounding and can play both forward positions. It will be very interesting to follow Kidd and how influential he will be along with being able to help Jerusalem develop into a team that will get to the places that they want to reach.

Chris Jones wasn’t even registered to play in league games a few weeks ago, but it’s clear he has a unique personality. It’s not easy to go from that situation to quickly become a central figure in both the Euroleague and the Israeli league. He is doing a great job managing the game and if this can free up Scottie Wilbekin and Tyler Dorsey to play their offensive game then I believe Maccabi will benefit big time.

And one more for the road, Coty Clarke. There’s nothing more to add.