“We always believe and we did so before this game as well. We wouldn’t have won today if we didn’t believe that we could win this game and this series. We want to get the last drop out of this season no matter what happens.” – Danny Franco after Hapoel’s 93-75 game 3 Derby quarterfinal win over Maccabi

Danny Franco believes and Danny Franco has also seen it all. The Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball coach has been in the business of hoops for quite some time and has accomplished something this season that no other Reds bench boss has done before, won four Derbies.

That’s a nice accomplishment and something that any coach would love to hang their hat on, but knowing Franco there is still more work to be done. Should he be able to guide his squad past Maccabi in their quarterfinal best of five series which moves to Hapoel’s home court at the Drive In Arena for Game 4 on Sunday night (21:00 Israel time) after a huge 93-75 win in game 3, he would be considered no less a god by the faithful as they are in a 2-1 hole.

The 48-year old has been a part of the Israeli coaching ranks since the 1996 season when he was an assistant coach with Hapoel Tel Aviv but had even attended his first coaching course at the age of 16 as the world of basketball coursed through Franco’s blood. After seven seasons as an assistant for three different teams, he took over the reins at Ironi Ramat Gan for the 2004/05 campaign where he was able to guide the second division squad back to the Premier League in his first year which was a massive accomplishment for the budding prodigy.

After stops at Hapoel Afula and Hapoel Galil Elyon, the Holon native returned home to take over the purples who had just come off a championship season and while he may not have won the league title, he still made an impressive mark by snatching the Israel State Cup in 2009.

Next up for Franco was Netanya and Maccabi Haifa where he just missed out on winning the league title in 2013/13 when his Green team came up two points short (163-161) in a 2-game series against Maccabi Tel Aviv. As Franco looked to continue climbing the mountain of success and win that elusive championship he moved to Hapoel Jerusalem for the next campaign along with his star forward Donta Smith and did exactly that.

Jerusalem snagged the Winner Cup pre-season tournament and then captured the league by downing Hapoel Eilat as Franco guided the capital city Reds to their first ever championship. However, with a chance to repeat the following season, Jerusalem just came up short against Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion and France was relieved of his duties and moved to television where he was an analyst for league games and also featured on the Starting Five Basketball Program.

One year away from the sidelines was enough for Franco as he mad his first stop in charge of Hapoel Tel Aviv for two seasons and then went up north to Nahariya for a season and a half. From there it was back to the Reds where he has been ever since.

Logically, there is no reason that Hapoel won their first three games against Maccabi with a pair coming in league play and one in the State Cup where the Reds knocked out the Yellow & Blue which led to the eventual firing of Ioannis Sfairopoulos. As well as winning a game 3 in a quarterfinal series which Maccabi took games one and two in, Hapoel were dead in the water going into Yad Eliyahu and Maccabi went through the motions, not paying any attention to a city rival that came in with a massive chip on their shoulder with their fans cheering their every move.

Maccabi came into the game thinking that all they needed to do was show up and punch the clock and Hapoel made sure that their complacency would be their downfall, which it was.

Franco had to coach every play was it was his team’s last and that is what he did. To add insult to injury his star guard J’Covan Brown went down with a neck injury that sent him to the hospital. All tests came out negative but it’s still unclear if he will be available for game 4, however, knowing “Murder Season” if he can go he will be out on the Drive In court for his guys.

Bar Timor and Idan Zalmanson picked up the slack to spur the Reds to the surprising game 3 demolition of the Yellow & Blue and they will no doubt be called upon in game 4 to work their magic.

But playing Maccabi as Franco knows is never going to be easy and at any moment can are off to a run that will set any team on its ears. With his team up 78-55 after thirty minutes of play, the Hapoel bench boss was clear that against Maccabi it ain’t over until it’s over as he focussed on every single play and substitution as if it were the last.

In order to win game 4 Franco will need to do the same for his team and perhaps even more. He will have his home supporters behind him and his squad but they will need to be 100000% focussed on every pass and action on and off of the court in order to send the series back to Yad Eliyahu for a decisive game five in which anything can happen.

Game four will be a war no doubt. Maccabi will want to make amends for their poor showing in the previous matchup and end the series while Hapoel wants to keep their season alive and find a way to continue dreaming and Danny Franco will do everything in his power to do so.