Hapoel Tel Aviv built a powerful squad over the summer and one that was ticketed to compete for all of the available titles whether it’s the EuroCup, Israeli League or State Cup. Owner Ofer Yannay brought in many pieces from NBA star Patrick Beverley to Ish Wainwright, Marcus Foster and Johnathan Motley to go along with Israeli stalwarts Tomer Ginat and Bar Timor.

However, after a number of months and some success on the domestic front, Yannay added perhaps the most important ingredient in one of the great basketball coaches of our time in Dimitrios Itoudis. The Greek tactician joined the staff this week and will take over the head coaching role from Stefanos Dedas who will remain on as Itoudis’s top assistant.

The 54-year old bench boss signed a 3-year deal which has been reported to be worth roughly one million dollars per season. Itoudis joins the Reds after having been in charge of CSKA Moscow where he captured two Euroleague titles in 2016 and 2019 and most recently was at Fenerbahce where he parted ways during last season.

Itoudis is arguably the most successful foreign coach to arrive in the Holy Land as expectations are now sky high for the club and its owner Ofer Yannay, “Hapoel always had the best fan base and what we did in the summer we built a pretty good roster and now we have the best coaching staff. These are all important, if you want to be competitive and build something for the long term. I’m very happy to have Coach Itoudis with us and I am looking forward to see what will happen next.”

The romance between Yannay and Itoudis began last year in Berlin at the Euroleague Final Four when they met and stayed in touch. So much so that Itoudis took Yannay up on his offer to attend game two of the Israel league finals at the Drive In Arena less than a month later in Tel Aviv which left a lasting impression on the coach.

“It was a pleasure to meet Ofer last year in Berlin and dive into his vision and his passion,” Itoudis began. “It matches my expectations of trying to build something great. When we talk about building, on a personal level, I have just constructed a new house and it’s a process that takes quite a lot of time but it’s very interesting and motivating to try and create something from scratch. Although the team has already been established both in Israel and in Europe, hopefully together with health, vision and hard work that’s the way I know to accomplish things. I am here to learn the whole story of Hapoel and all the associates and group to put in extra effort to match expectations of management and the fans in Israel and all over the world.”

“Ofer and I started talking about life in general and his achievements in the business world speaks for itself. We spoke about basketball in Europe and what steps can be made to get to the top level. Basketball in Europe is a giant that sleeps and needs to be woken up in many ways. Basketball is the most exciting sport, interactive, fans, players and coach. We never stopped talking, not just about Hapoel but about basketball and what we can get from overseas and the NBA. Just two nights ago we spoke about basketball for three hours and that motivates me a lot. When a person is successful in his area and gives something to a sport that I love then I have to listen.”

The new bench boss spoke about his relationship with the man he is replacing at the top of the Hapoel coaching tree and one who moved back down to be Itoudis’s assistant, “Steph [Stephanos Dedas] was one of my assistant coaches while he was with me at both CSKA and Fenerbahce and we have been in contact throughout. We decided to stay together and it was his decisions as well to remain at the club. Basketball is about synergy and someone has to make decisions as well when you have people that are accountable. All of the assistants will help me. I’m here now during the international break so I haven’t met all the players yet but we can start building.”

With a trio of titles available including the EuroCup which should Hapoel Tel Aviv win will send the Reds to The Euroleagie for the following campaign, Itoudis doesn’t want to take too big a bite off of what he will be able to do just yet because he hasn’t even seen his entire team in person.

“We haven’t spoken about the targets and I can’t get into the details yet because I haven’t seen the team in action. I spoke to Steph many times but if I haven’t coached the team I can’t get into so many details. We have great opponents and we have to respect the opponents. I need to watch the team and get a feeling. We travel to Sofia on Wednesday and we won’t have a practice with the complete roster as Bruno Caboclo will only arrive that day. But I can promise that we will be a motivated team, that delves into the details and that has much interaction.”

Accountability is one of the most important words in Itoudis’s vocabulary and once he gets rolling, he will set targets day by day as he begins to mold and build the team into his own, “Hapoel is in a process of rebranding and rebuilding. When you are building things you will meet some obstacles and we are here to put targets. I’m someone who puts targets and likes to say that we had a successful day at the end of the day. I go to sleep and I rewind and review my day and I can say that we accomplished something at the end of the day. If we accomplish that target then we will go to the next one and next one. We have a clear chain of command and each person has to be accountable as to what they are building. I’ve learned hard work commitments and sacrifice, we all have to do that, I’m keen by leading by example.”

Itoudis has been to Israel many times as a head coach and as an assistant and wants to create that special feeling between the fans and the club but also looks at himself first and foremost as that leader of the pack.

“My first visit to Tel Aviv was back in the 1990’s and what I will try to do is to procure a highly competitive sports atmosphere. A lot of time I compete with myself. I know that I have potential and when I don’t meet that potential I am sad, so I want to start with that. We can’t believe that we are not something that we are yet, I need to feel the team and challenge the team to see how they will react under pressure.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv will be playing a few more games at the 3,200 seat Drive In Arena before moving to the larger 11,000 seat Menora Mivtachim Arena where Maccabi Tel Aviv plays at the beginning of 2025. While this has been the source of much controversy amongst the fanbase due to losing a perceived real home crowd atmosphere, Itoudis thinks that the move is absolute no-brainer for a team like Hapoel Tel Aviv as they strive to reach the top of the top.

“When you’re a devoted and dedicated fan of one team, you want your team to succeed. I have heard the project of building a great arena over here, Menora is a great arena to fill up with all of our fans who are devoted and want the team succeed. It’s great to help the team succeed, make it 24k with a giant screen outdoors, it’s great to have this type of devotion. All the movements that are being made are how we can become better, the atmosphere was great here but the capacity is only 3500 and we want to go to 11k.”

“We need to do the job and the players need to attract them and players need to give an honest effort and make the fans trust us. We are going to do our job and this is our commitment and we have to have great habits. It won’t happen overnight, lots of times players and business men get awards for what they got behind closed doors and in the shadows. We want to talk to our fans and be over there and work and be ready to meet the challenges.”

On the topic of challenges, Itoudis understands that he is heading into a project that will truly be a very big undertaking but one that will also be very rewarding, “It’s a big challenge to bring Hapoel to the level of CSKA and Fenerbahce. I am with an owner in Ofer Yannay that has a vision, power and strength to help Hapoel so I have my back covered. We have people that will support that and it will be a challenge but we hope to establish a good collaboration and meet the expectations of this challenge. I’m here for the challenge.”

The new head coach also is aware of the security situation is coming into as the war between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah is still raging on, “That’s the reality and I don’t know all the details but I am following the news. I spoke to my family and people in charge in different areas but I was also here last year when the team tied the series with Maccabi. But players will be one of the challenges that we will have to face.”

One player in particular is Johnathan Motley who left departed the team a few weeks ago when there were rumors he was going to sign with a Euroleague team and one that would be paying more than his current contract with Hapoel. The big man petitioned FIBA for his release due to the conflict, but it was not granted as he joined the team knowing what the security situation and climate was in Israel.

That being said, Yannay made his standing on the matter very clear, “We had dinner Friday night and the agent was in communication with general manager George Hinas during dinner. Johnathan Motley is a good guy, his contract is valid. We expect him to return soon, his representative talked with us on Friday and we expect him to come back soon.”

Itoudis shared his thoughts on the matter as well, “Mot is a point of emphasis and it’s a completely different team when he is in and contributes both in offense and defense.”

While Itoudis will be trying to steer the Reds to the Euroleague by winning the EuroCup, Yannay explained that there may be yet another option that will feature a top level competition and also wants to be prepared for anything that may come the club’s way.

“I don’t think the owners are happy to see someone like me who wants to compete. We have always had problems with the refs and when coach Itoudis was here as my guest we got the best refereeing in the final game and he will have the respect of the system around. We will try to win the EuroCup and it’s the hardest competition to win and we saw it last year when we were leading by 21 points and we saw the car crash in slow motion.”

“I think there is a good chance that next summer European basketball is going to have more options than the EuroLeague for teams that want to compete and teams that want to invest a lot of money. I’m not sure the EuroLeague is going to be the only option for us. I want us to be ready for all the options we will have in the summer, ready in terms of having a great team, great coach and a great fanbase, all of this together will make us an attractive team for a league if there is a competition between leagues, and I think that the competition between leagues is coming.”

The bottom line is, Yannay seems to have gotten his man in Itoudis and the club’s direction is now in his good hands, “I feel very motivated and honored to be the choice of Ofer to be the head coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv. We’re going to work hard and we are going to know if we lose a game we will know why it happened. We will know why this lineup or coverage doesn’t work and why. In life you got to find the whys. The how, you’re going to find it after, but you need to find your why. Why are you doing this? Why did you come here? Why are you a journalist? Think a little bit. If you find your why in life and I had a big struggle to find my why, believe me, you will find the how on the way. So we are going to find our whys, why we are here and then we will find the how.”