For the first time in its history, the Israel Basketball League will hold a Super Cup clash between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem this coming Sunday night (21:05) at Yad Eliyahu as they look to kickoff the 2025/26 season in style. Last season ended without a champion as the two teams were all knotted up at 1-1 in the best-of-three finals series when the war with Iran broke out, leaving both teams with some unfinished business.

While the Super Cup will not determine last season’s champion as it will be a stand alone title, it will help heal the wounds of having not crowned a champ. Both squads have undergone a makeover with a number of new players joining their respective teams while other players departed for new challenges around the world.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash spoke about the upcoming challenge, “Congratulations to the league for launching this new title. First and foremost, we’re excited, unfortunately, I must say, since October 7th everything has changed and the world has turned upside down and that has also affected us. But now it’s a new season we have to start from scratch. Even if there was continuity, I wouldn’t feel ready at this stage of the preseason and I don’t think that any coach in Europe would say they are. In the very first Israeli game we’ll be competing for a title and we’ll want to do our best. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Katash continued, “We didn’t have too many preseason games. That was planned because of the schedule and the amount of games we will be having this season. This stage of preparation is meant for a lot of training sessions and practice. As for expectations we still have a lot of question marks as we have a team that started mostly from scratch which is similar to my first season at Maccabi with Wade Baldwin, Bonzie Colson and Josh Nebo and even then it took a whole season to connect. That’s the challenge and the mission. I don’t know if this game will indicate anything, but it’s a title match and we want to win.”

Hapoel Jerusalem’s bench boss Yonatan Alon also shared his initial thoughts, “In general, last season’s playoffs were very emotional and we really enjoyed them. We played both Tel Aviv teams in Yad Eliyahu, so we feel comfortable here. You can win this game and you can lose it. We’re not a new team like Maccabi, but we came out of last season with very difficult feelings. We felt it was in our hands and we walked away with a sense of a missed opportunity. It’s very important for us to pick up from where we left off. One of our strengths is that we managed to retain a large part of the roster.”

Although there is a title on the line, Katash said that should they hoist the trophy at the end of the evening, it’s really not a consolation for having not played the decisive third game of the championship series.

“I have to admit that it’s not. Not only did the series end knotted up at 1-1, which is not fun for any athlete, or at least not in our sport, it ended with a loss for us as we were leading 1-0, so even more so. I don’t think there’s any consolation in this because we feel at least on our side that this is a completely different team. As far as we’re concerned, there’s no connection between the two whatsoever.”

Katash elaborated on the events of recent years, “The circumstances have led to great frustration. The professional challenges aren’t the hardest part. There’s a sense of missed opportunity as we built something very special and felt we could have done something great in Europe. The EuroLeague now has more teams, two more teams and four more games. It’s gotten crazy and we’ve made a decision that in our mindset, we don’t look too far ahead, only a few days at a time.”

Alon has also had plenty of challenges along the way but as he had mentioned earlier, the fact that he has many players who are returning for a second season gives his team some consistency during the preseason and ahead of the upcoming EuroCup campaign.

“Our focus is on Hapoel Jerusalem and we kept the players we wanted to keep. The building of this team started around December of last season. It began with contract extensions for Khadeen Carrington, Jared Harper and Yovel Zoosman along with signing Roi Huber. I definitely think the team is better now than it was, but the burden of proof is on us, we’re a very good team and retaining players and building continuity is a huge advantage.”

Zoosman, who just returned from the Israel National Team will no doubt be an important piece of Jerusalem’s pie this upcoming year and also likes what he sees so far, “I’ve only been in practice for less than a week, but from what I’ve seen, there’s a lot of offensive talent. The players have quickly understood the system. Just like last year, there’s no ego, everyone understands the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

One of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s new players this coming season is Gur Lavi who had a tremendous year with Hapoel Gilboa Galil and will look to integrate into the yellow-and-blue as quickly as possible.

“It’s a huge honor for me to start my first season at Maccabi. I don’t think there’s a more exciting way to begin a season than playing for a title in front of the fans. I’m already looking forward to starting. For me, this is a serious challenge. I’ve managed to understand what I’m getting into, it’s the most prestigious club in the country, with high demands. I’m doing my best to first bring my qualities and that’s why I came here and that’s why they chose to sign me. It’s a tremendous honor for me. I’m doing it my way, just like I’ve done so far in the league. I’m very happy with where I’ve gotten to and with the professionalism around me.”

Katash closed the proceedings by bringing everything into proportion with the country still at war, “You can’t end this without talking about it, especially with the government’s decision to continue the fighting in Gaza. Who would have believed that almost two years later there are still people there? Our hearts go out to the families of the hostages. Gur Lavi doesn’t know yet what he’s in for, it’s intense. It’s actually an advantage to be new. Even when things are hard, it puts everything in perspective. We’re doing what we love but there are soldiers in Gaza, people who have lost their loved ones and reservists who lost their businesses. Thank you to everyone who has sacrificed from themselves and their lives so we can continue doing what we do. We’re at war. There’s no justification to continue life as normal. The only justification is to feel like we’re giving a bit of escape for everyone. Nothing will return to normal until the last hostage returns.”