Hapoel Jerusalem held a press conference to discuss the resumption of the 2019\/20 season as CEO Guy Harel, Head Coach Oded Katash and Captain Bar Timor all spoke about the return of basketball to Israel.<\/p>\n
Guy Harel<\/strong> began the proceedings with an opening statement, \u201cWe had to make a difficult decision to halt the league in March and I didn\u2019t see how we would come back. But a month ago we were able to come back and return basketball to Israel under very difficult conditions. I want to say that we should stop the nonsense that has been going on the last few days and I also had a part in this. <\/p>\n I\u2019m happy that we were able to bring back the Israeli players and we were able to bring back six of the seven players although J\u2019Covan Brown had to go back to his family and Tashawn Thomas will as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Harel also spoke about the possibility of still holding the Basketball Champions League Tournament at the end of September\/early October:<\/strong> About the statements Jordi Bertomeu made about Jerusalem being a small club:<\/strong> The loss of J\u2019Covan Brown and Tashawn Thomas:<\/strong> Head Coach Oded Katash spoke about getting back to basketball:<\/strong> Signing Jeremy Pargo:<\/strong> The importance of fitness coach Roberto Iezzi:<\/strong> About the system the team will play going forward:<\/strong> The health situation:<\/strong> Captain Bar Timor<\/strong> chimed in as well, \u201cI\u2019m very happy that the league is coming back and I have to give credit to both the Israeli players and foreigners who are here and I want to wish J\u2019Covan and Tashawn the best who have to go back. They have contributed so much to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest challenge:<\/strong> About the quatrains restrictions:<\/strong> Hapoel Jerusalem held a press conference to discuss the resumption of the 2019\/20 season as CEO Guy Harel, Head Coach Oded Katash and Captain Bar Timor all spoke about the return of basketball to Israel. Guy Harel began the proceedings with an opening statement, \u201cWe had to make a difficult decision to halt the league […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":19401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[168,822,1523,1755,187,120],"class_list":["post-19400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-bar-timor","tag-eurocup","tag-guy-harel","tag-hapoel-jeusalem","tag-oded-katash","tag-tashawn-thomas","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cI am hoping that the tournament will take place either here or at another location. Without fans I don\u2019t see the tournament taking place, but we will do our best that we can and maybe perhaps even have fans to finish this season.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe EuroCup is in a tough place and ten days ago they called to invite us back to the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure all of the clubs worked hard to bring back their players and it\u2019s too bad that the players needed to go back to the United States but better that they go back if they are having an issue being here. I\u2019m very content with the squad that will be on the court in June 20th and hopefully on July 30th as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m happy that we have been able to return and up until the Coronavirus we were playing great basketball. It\u2019s not easy to come back and although basketball is a team sport its also up to the individual players. Even though J\u2019Covan and Tashawn won\u2019t be with us we will do the best that we can under the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cJust two weeks ago we had a Zoom call with the Gilboa Galil team that won the championship. Jeremy was a dominant player on that team and although he\u2019s not the same player he was it\u2019s great to be back with him once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWith all of the issues that we\u2019ve had now, Roberto the fitness coach has been doing a tremendous amount of work. I\u2019ve heard a lot of conversations that it may be dangerous to play but the players are in good shape and if you are playing sports then we are following Roberto\u2019s lead in getting the players back to their best shape.”<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAll of the players know how to play and they will fit into the system which we won\u2019t change. Of course we will miss Tashawn and his size. We aren\u2019t looking into bringing a player in for him and once <\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe trust those that made he decisions and just two months ago we just wanted to have players practice one on one and we couldn\u2019t. But everything will take time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think the biggest challenge is to handle the changes that we have made and go aback to the basketball we played before. We will each have to bring more due to the loss of Jcovam and Tashawn and will have to bring extra to fill that vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe are doing the most we can to make the quarantine as easy as possible and there may be some lightening up the restrictions. We are here and will follow the rules and regulations as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"