{"id":155142,"date":"2025-09-10T13:25:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=155142"},"modified":"2025-09-10T13:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:25:58","slug":"its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s good to be back” – Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Tel Aviv landed back in Israel Wednesday afternoon as they will ready for Winner Cup action this coming Saturday against Nes Ziona at Yad Eliyahu. The reds will be based in Sofia this coming season due to the security situation in Israel as they will play their home games in the Euroleague in Bulgaria and will fly into the Holy Land for Israeli league contests. <\/p>\n

Antonio Blakeney is one of the players who will continue with Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis\u2019s squad this coming campaign after starring for Hapoel least season. After arriving back in Israel, the guard spoke about coming back to Israel as well as getting ready for the new year.
\n

\"\"

Antonio Blakeney – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s good to be back,\u201d the 28-year old began. \u201cWe\u2019re working real hard down in Sofia. Now to come back in front of our home fans in Israel is great. We got the whole team here and we have to keep working to get ready for the Euroleague, but these games are just as important, we\u2019re taking everything seriously and we are looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a lot of new faces on the team this coming season and due to the high quality character, Blakeney feels that the integration of the team has been to date fairly simple, \u201cIt\u2019s really easy as we have a great group of guys and all the new guys are great character people. From Colin [Malcolm] all down to Elijah [Bryant], Tai [Odiase]. Really everybody, Ziv [Iftach] the new Israeli guard we signed from Holon. Everybody\u2019s character is so great it makes everything easy.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Hapoel Tel Aviv arrives in Israel – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nOf course, with a large squad there will be a lot of players battling it out for playing time, however, that\u2019s not a concern for Blakeney, \u201cFor me I always feel like I have to fight for every minute whether it\u2019s 20 players, 15 players or 10 players, I have always been in that situation regardless, so it\u2019s nothing new.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the team living in Sofia, there will be plenty of flights to Israel for the domestic league games which doesn\u2019t worry the New York native, \u201cIt will be fine, it\u2019s our job and that\u2019s part of the reason we have the twenty man roster, it will be good.\u201d
\n

\"\"

Antonio Blakeney – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nBlakeney saw plenty of Israel playing at the Eurobasket during training camp and was impressed with what he saw, \u201cI thought the competed well, I think they played well pretty much every game. I watched the game they played against Giannis, Giannis is just like a freak so they couldn\u2019t stop him, no one can stop him and Luka too who had a lot of step back 3\u2019s and hit a lot of tough shots. They competed well every game and represented Israel really well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Tel Aviv landed back in Israel Wednesday afternoon as they will ready for Winner Cup action this coming Saturday against Nes Ziona at Yad Eliyahu. The reds will be based in Sofia this coming season due to the security situation in Israel as they will play their home games in the Euroleague in Bulgaria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":155179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4933,97],"class_list":["post-155142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-antonio-blakeney","tag-hapoel-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n"It's good to be back" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""It's good to be back" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hapoel Tel Aviv landed back in Israel Wednesday afternoon as they will ready for Winner Cup action this coming Saturday against Nes Ziona at Yad Eliyahu. The reds will be based in Sofia this coming season due to the security situation in Israel as they will play their home games in the Euroleague in Bulgaria […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2559\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1223\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua Halickman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"headline\":\"“It’s good to be back” – Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":534,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Antonio Blakeney\",\"hapoel tel aviv\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Holyland Hoops\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"It's good to be back\\\" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg\",\"width\":2559,\"height\":1223,\"caption\":\"Antonio Blakeney - Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The Home of Israeli Sports\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0\",\"name\":\"Joshua Halickman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Joshua Halickman\"},\"description\":\"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportsrabbi.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/thesportsrabbiisrael\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"It's good to be back\" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"It's good to be back\" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi","og_description":"Hapoel Tel Aviv landed back in Israel Wednesday afternoon as they will ready for Winner Cup action this coming Saturday against Nes Ziona at Yad Eliyahu. The reds will be based in Sofia this coming season due to the security situation in Israel as they will play their home games in the Euroleague in Bulgaria […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/","og_site_name":"Sports Rabbi","article_published_time":"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2559,"height":1223,"url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Joshua Halickman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joshua Halickman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/"},"author":{"name":"Joshua Halickman","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"headline":"“It’s good to be back” – Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action","datePublished":"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/"},"wordCount":534,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg","keywords":["Antonio Blakeney","hapoel tel aviv"],"articleSection":["Holyland Hoops"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/","name":"\"It's good to be back\" - Antonio Blakeney and Hapoel Tel Aviv land in Israel for Winner Cup action - Sports Rabbi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-09-10T13:25:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/its-good-to-be-back-antonio-blakeney-and-hapoel-tel-aviv-land-in-israel-for-winner-cup-action\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_6175-1.jpeg","width":2559,"height":1223,"caption":"Antonio Blakeney - Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/","name":"Sports Rabbi","description":"The Home of Israeli Sports","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/10150053309b5bf124d40c3812a32bf0","name":"Joshua Halickman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-12-08-at-10.13.06-150x150.jpeg","caption":"Joshua Halickman"},"description":"Joshua Halickman, The Sports Rabbi is the founder of the website and has been covering Israeli sports since 2004. The Sports Rabbi has gone to over 4,000 live sporting events in 25+ countries looking for the most exciting and intriguing stories. Josh has lectured to tens of thousands across the globe about the Zionism through Israeli Sports. You can follow Josh on Twitter @thesportsrabbi","url":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/author\/thesportsrabbiisrael\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155185,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155142\/revisions\/155185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}