Maccabi Tel Aviv opened up the 2025/26 season as the club held their first practice of the preseason at the new Hadar Yosef Arena. As the new players joined the holdovers, the yellow-and-blue began to get ready for what will no doubt be a challenging season ahead.

Head Coach Oded Katash along with General Manager Claudio Coldebella as well as Lonnie Walker and captain John Dibartolomeo all spoke about their thoughts concerning the upcoming campaign.

“Just like every year, we’re excited to get started,” Katash began. “We went through a tough summer and there are many new players that have joined the club. On one hand, we have to say thank you for the efforts made to make this happen because the situation wasn’t simple. On the other hand, we have a lot of new players that need to be brought together into a team. True, it’s something we’ve done before, but beyond that, we have many talented players who lack EuroLeague experience, which makes this a challenge in itself. We still have players with the national team who need to join us and another big man who is supposed to be signed.”

Katash also spoke about the fans who have bee upset about the club along with his thoughts on the situation in the country and the addition to Hapoel Tel Aviv as the second Israeli club in the Euroleague.

“Regarding the fans’ protest, they are entitled to feel however they want, I don’t think we need to address it right now. We need to start building. As a citizen of the country, I’m very concerned, but that’s already a personal matter for another conversation. It will be interesting, Hapoel is in the Euroleague and that’s the situation. We should welcome this development; there are countries with more than one representative and now it’s the same for us too.”

The bench boss addressed the need for another new recruit, “The market is very limited and it’s not necessarily related to financial aspects. Many Euroleague teams are still looking and there have been injuries to big men on top teams. Some teams wanted to make changes, but due to the difficulty in the market at this position, they stuck with the same players.”

Katash continued, “Even this season, expectations should take everything we mentioned into account. We’re a new team no matter who the players are and it always takes time to make it work. There’s no need to repeat the expectations for Maccabi Tel Aviv as they are well known and clear. Everything depends on the circumstances. We truly want to be more competitive in the Euroleague and to go further than we did last season. It’s a very tough competition, especially for teams with little experience that are trying to come together. We’ll see how the season starts and then we’ll create our expectations together.”

Coldebella also spoke about the expectations about the upcoming season, “We will leave the past behind us and now we are back at our first day of school. I saw all of the new faces that came with the new energy and right attitude. There are some guys who are not here yet as they are with the national team and we are very proud of them. It’s good to see the coaching staff and the owners as well. What is very important is that we have health and luck in order to have the best season that we can.”

The Italian talked about the new mix of players, “I used to say that in August and September everyone is happy, what makes the difference is how you manage all of these things. How to become a team as soon as possible and how to build chemistry that is the most important thing. We have to talk about philosophy of this historical club and we have to speed up the learning curve because there are less days of training camp.”

The club’s GM discussed the characteristics about the players that have joined the club and the challenges of building chemistry, “It was what it was. It was important for me to bring players that really want to embrace our philosophy. Tel Aviv is our city and Israel is our country and we want players that will be comfortable here. We are happy to have these players with us.

“It’s a challenge, but in 2025 it’s how you manage people as every character is different. We have to take each individual and understand that we are dealing with human beings and these days it’s really important. We have to take some risk and take players that are in their first experience overseas, but we will help them and this club has been in this situation and great talent for this. We have always made people feel comfortable and at home. They can walk around the city of Tel Aviv and see our fans and we want them to feel like they are home and this will help us.”

One of the players who’ll arrive on Tuesday is Oshae Brissett and Coldebella is excited about him being a part of the roster, “He is an amazing human being and a great person and a helluva an athlete. He has been through the process of winning a championship and I am very curious as we all are to see how they all come together as to what is our first day of school. Let’s start the process the right way.”

One of the club’s newcomers in Lonnie Walker gave his initial thoughts on his arrival to Tel Aviv, “So far so good. I feel good and as I’ve been talking to the guys you kind of realize that it’s a small world we all have friends that know each other so that breaks the ice. Every single day I think we are getting closer and closer and everyone is talking to each other. It’s a beautiful beach in Tel Aviv, people have been pleasant and the food has been amazing. I’m from Reading, Pennsylvania so I am a low maintenance person, this is more than enough for me.”

Walker will be thriving and striving to be the best he can be with winning as the ultimate goal, “Absolutely. That comes with consistency, staying in the gym, trusting what the coach wants us to do. I could care less about being the best in the Euroleague, I want to win the Euroleague chip. I don’t care about scoring and whatever my team needs me to do, I need to be exceptional in that aspect. I’m not worried about myself and I am not coming here with any selfish intentions. I just want to win.”

The yellow-and-blue captain John Dibartolomeo also spoke about starting his 9th season with the club, “The beginning of the season is always exciting, we have a new GM and added a lot of new players. There’s potential with this team and we have to out it together. We go into every season and want to be the best team we can be. We have to take care of business in Israel, play well in Euroleague and hopefully qualify to the next stage. We are talking now in August so it’s a long way to go and right now we are focused on getting together and everyone learning each other and the system.”

The guard has been through the process before of helping the new players integrate into the team in order for Maccabi to reach their potential, “I’ll be a resource for them and help them any way I can whether that be on the court and also off of hit gettin them to feel comfortable so that they can play their best basketball. I have been here 9 years and have been in this position before with a new group of guys. It’s an exciting new chapter, some guys with experience and some without and some question marks around us but it can make for some fun. I spoke to the new guys briefly and everyone is excited to be here and to get to work.”

Dibartolomeo also had a message for the fans, “We hope that we can continue to have their support on the court and when we are on the road in the Euroleague. The fans are extremely important to us and the players and all of us are eager to play in front of a home crowd at Menora.”

The Israeli’s former teammate Elijah Bryant who is now playing with Hapoel Tel Aviv commented on how the reds are now a better team, which Dibartolomeo said will be decided on the court, “They have a talented team and a busy summer, but so did we. Time will tell when we have the chance to play them and we play them pretty early in the Euroleague season so we will see then.”