Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv have both begun their preparations for their upcoming European campaigns with warmup games in Greece and Serbia respectively, with Maccabi losing its first-up contest while Hapoel went 1-1.

Maccabi lost 83-84 to Olympiacos on Friday night in Piraeus, in the “A Moment to Remember – Georgios Printezis” warmup game, a farewell game to honor the Olympiacos legend. Printezis – who retired after the 2021-22 season and whose decorated resume includes back-to-back EuroLeague titles (2012, 2013), as well as being a named a member of the 2017 All-EuroLeague First Team and the EuroLeague 2010-2020 All-Decade Team – came on the court towards the end of the game and scored the winning basket.

Jordan Loyd (21 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists), Roman Sorkin (13 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block), Tamir Blatt (12 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists) and Rokas Jokubaitis (11 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal and 4 assists) were all in double-figures for the Yellow & Blue.

“It was very nice and moving event for a player who really was great,” Maccabi coach Oded Katash said after the game. “It was our first warmup game. First of all, we managed to stay healthy at an unusual hour [with the game finishing at 1am] and it was also very hot. We managed to take from the game things that we wanted. There were encouraging things and also things that we need to improve.”

“First of all, it was a very moving ceremony for the legendary Printezis,” Blatt concurred. “We also made a game for him. We lost, but it was symbolic. I think we did good work today.

“We felt each other, how we play, we built the chemistry a little bit,” Blatt continued. “I’m happy with the game today. It’s been a long time since we played with a crowd. We came to a full stadium. It was really at difficult to start at the late hour, but I think that the team responded well and did good work.”

“First of all, big game for Olympiacos for the Georgios Printezis farewell game, it was nice to share the last minutes with him on court,” Jokubaitis said after his first game for the club after signing in the summer. “It was a good team effort with decision making. Of course it was the first game of the season. I’m feeling good for my teammates. We’ll take the lessons from the game, we’ll continue to work and improve.”

EuroCup team Hapoel Tel Aviv played two warmup games in Belgrade, the first a 104-88 victory over Serbian BCL team FMP on Tuesday night, followed by a 74-82 loss to the EuroLeague’s Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night.

The Reds had six players in double-figures to help the team get to triple figures on Thursday night, including Ish Wainright (16 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 3 steals and 1 block), Ben Bentil (16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal), Oz Blayzer (13 points and 3 rebounds), Patrick Beverley (13 points, 5 assists and 3 steals), Jonathan Motley (11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal) and Marcus Foster (10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal).

Most of the team was quieter in the loss, however Motley (25 points, 9 rebounds and 1 steal) led the way by showing why he has been a regular EuroLeague started in prior seasons, with Wainright (12 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals) and Bentil (10 points and 3 rebounds) also providing buckets for Hapoel.

Maccabi now heads to Nicosia for the “Neofytos Chandriotis” tournament with games against Bayern Munich on Saturday and Panathinaikos on Sunday, while Hapoel travels to Thessaloniki for its last European warmup game of the summer against fellow EuroCup team Aris BC on Thursday.