I’ll open with an important life tip: always make sure money is the means, not the goal.

Don’t think you’ve stumbled onto an article about mindfulness or Buddhismת I’m here to talk about basketball, among other things. I’m not knowledgeable about, interested in, or concerned with the other economic or spiritual activities of the monk Ofer Yannay outside the boundaries of the hardwood. On the court, at least, after the end of a first EuroLeague season, you can say that he poured in a lot of resources into the red team and achieved many of his goals.

If sports had a dictionary full of definitions, we’d probably find a word that naturally describes the process Hapoel Tel Aviv has been going through over the past two years. A process in which you give up on process. You abandon slow, balanced building, chemistry, homegrown players, a sporting ideology, you give up the romance and embrace the here and now. You already have the word in mind, don’t you?

If you thought of “Galácticos,” you win the prize.

A project like this sometimes comes with new, ambitious ownership; sometimes it’s meant to build a brand; sometimes it’s used to seize a business or sporting opportunity; and sometimes it’s meant to create a new hegemony. Sometimes, as in the case of the Reds, it’s all of the above.

After a second straight loss to their city rivals in the 2023/24 league finals, Yannay tightened his grip on the club and launched a recruitment campaign, a PR campaign, and a recruitment campaign that doubled as PR (Pat Beverley, I’m looking at you). The goal was clear: win the EuroCup to secure a ticket to the big league, and then build a legitimate EuroLeague team, maybe even reach the Final Four “within five years” all while trying to push Maccabi Tel Aviv off the front stage in the city, the country and Europe.

For the EuroCup squad, he brought in high-priced stars like Johnathan Motley, Ish Wainright, Antonio Blakeney and Yam Madar. He hired Dimitrios Itoudis to lead them, on a salary of over €1.5 million per season. Seeing success, the following season he upgraded the roster further with Chris Jones, Elijah Bryant, Colin Malcolm, Dan Oturu and Vasa Micić on a contract estimated at $6 million per year. Dollars, euros, you name it, flowed like water, but not in vain.

It’s all true: this Hapoel Tel Aviv team lacks romance, lacks Israeli identity and as a result, has lost a significant portion of its fan base. But in terms of results, just two years after reinventing itself and despite wars, relocations and recently even fines Hapoel Tel Aviv holds a EuroCup trophy, has a EuroLeague contract for next season and in case you forgot, is just three wins away from a Final Four appearance in its debut season.

“Galácticos” is a formula built on the expectation that a lot of money will become a lot of talent, which will translate into a lot of titles in a very short time. But is that really the case? Recent history shows that stars don’t always get along, on and off the field. Money doesn’t always buy professional success and it certainly doesn’t guarantee it at lightning speed. Which brings me to the provocative question at the heart of this column: in relative terms of sporting achievement over time and money, is Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Galácticos project the greatest we’ve ever seen? Let’s dive in.

The term “Galácticos” comes from football. Florentino Pérez, the new and energetic president of Real Madrid at the start of the 2000s, decided to buy every star that moved and if it didn’t move, he’d make it move and then buy it (except for Francesco Totti, who remained loyal to his beloved Roma). Through a controversial deal involving the sale of the club’s training ground, Real wiped out massive debts and financed a series of record-breaking signings each summer between 2000 and 2006. Figo (2000) and Zidane (2001) did bring Champions League success, but largely thanks to the existing core built by manager Vicente del Bosque, which included players like Hierro, Makélélé and Steve McManaman. Pérez’s policy led to conflicts that resulted in Del Bosque’s dismissal and the departure of squad players who weren’t treated like “Galácticos.”

The club lost balance, and while signings like Ronaldo, Beckham, Owen, Cannavaro, and Robinho boosted shirt sales and global branding, they didn’t translate into titles, which were instead picked off one by one by their bitter rivals, Barcelona. Pérez resigned due to this failure, only to return three years later for a second, equally dazzling Galácticos era.

In the summer of 2009, Pérez signed Kaká, Benzema, Xabi Alonso, and Cristiano Ronaldo. The following summer he added Di María and Mesut Özil and appointed José Mourinho fresh off a historic treble with Inter. Even then, the trophies didn’t come immediately. That star-studded squad waited five seasons and went through three managers before winning the Champions League, 12 years and hundreds of millions of euros later. Real eventually dominated Europe with its Galácticos squad, but the effect was far from immediate, contrary to expectations in 2009.

Staying in football, here are two more Galácticos-style attempts that, frankly, went badly. One is Paris Saint-Germain. A decade after being acquired by Qatari owners, the club assembled a 2021 super-team featuring Achraf Hakimi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and none other than Lionel Messi, joining Mbappé and Neymar in pursuit of a first Champions League title. One of the most promising teams in history delighted FIFA video game players and cruised to the French league title but in reality, they were knocked out twice in the Round of 16 and had to overhaul the squad almost entirely before finally winning under Luis Enrique last season.

The second example is closer to home: Maccabi Tel Aviv. A wave of fan protest pushed owner David Federman to act. Sound familiar? The year was 2005, and the owner of Maccabi’s basketball team advised the football club’s owner to significantly increase the budget and bring in star players for the club’s centenary. Loni Herzikovich opened his wallet and the club brought in high-profile foreign players, most notably Giovanni Rosso, who made the “unthinkable” move from green to yellow. Eyal Berkovic returned from Portsmouth and Avi Nimni came back from Beitar Jerusalem, sending expectations and season ticket sales soaring. Berkovic even predicted a guaranteed double. On the pitch, however, the season was a disaster: early European elimination, coach Nir Klinger’s resignation, a humiliating cup loss to Acre and a disappointing sixth-place league finish. The Israeli Galácticos ended up as nothing more than bloated contracts for aging stars, without a single trophy to show for it.

So, to all the oligarchs looking for a sports team to pour your millions into, hold off on the checks for a moment. True, we haven’t yet talked about ambitious projects in basketball, but if you still haven’t realized that spending massive sums on talent in the summer doesn’t exactly guarantee champagne and confetti in the spring, stay tuned for part two it’s on the way.