Jeremy Pargo who just joined Hapoel Jerusalem in place of J’Covan Brown for the balance of the 2019/20 season landed today in Israel and spoke to the assembled media at Ben Gurion Airport. The 34 year old guard who played with both the Golden State Warriors and their G-League affiliate in Santa Cruz this past season began by talking about reuniting with Oded Katash who coached Pargo 10 years ago at Galil and reflected on how they have changed over the decade:

“Growth. There’s a big difference in the both of us after ten years and we have to continue to grow. One of my coaches from Gonzaga told me that they are studying his system (Katash) and he wants to pick my brain with that. It’s great to be able to reconnect again with him. I talked to him on May 27th which was the anniversary of the Galil win. We enjoyed the Zoom call. Everyone was there except for Guni (Israeli). He’s always been a rebel!”

Pargo played Maccabi Tel Aviv last season and will now join one of their arch rivals in Jerusalem:
“It’s a different environment but it’s a challenging one as always and I enjoy the opportunity as always and I’m looking forward to it.”

The guard addressed as to how Israel has handled the Coronavirus:
“Israel is such a tight community and tight country that I’m pretty sure that you guys jumped ahead of everything with COVID-19. It’s fortunate that you guys were able to control it and get things up and running.”

Goals for the rest of the campaign:
“I want to win everywhere I’ve been. I want to win and that’s the goal everywhere that I’ve played.”

Challenges ahead:
“I got time to get into shape. Everyone’s been off for 3 months so there wasn’t much that I could do. Difficult has been my entire life, nothing has come easy and you can see with everything that is going on in America. I’m ready for the challenge.”

The Chicago native’s thoughts on the no to racism campaign going on in America:
“As a black African American man from America it’s about time we stood up and were listened to. I think we are being heard right now and I hopefully that will continue to grow.”

Pargo also spoke about the rules and restrictions:
“I talked to (Omri) Casspi yesterday and he told me some things. I also spoke to some other guys who didn’t know it was at the point it’s at. I actually spoke to Angelo (Caloiaro) and I saw that he may be in a little bit of trouble. It’s a tough situation. Casspi hopes things will grow and change over the next few days. There’s got to be some kind of leniency that will come up and helps the players, to have some kind of normal life. It will be tough if that doesn’t happen, so hopefully we can stay positive and continue to work towards a goal and come together on the same page for once.”

The Gonzaga product was hurt much of last season and didn’t feature for Maccabi down the stretch run towards the championship last year under Coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos:
“I don’t care. I have a goal to do in Jerusalem, I wear red and it’s my goal to win and I don’t care about the other stuff.”