Last update - 00:00 22/02/2007
Basketball: For once, Maccabi Tel Aviv really does represent Israel's hoopsters
By Yoav Borowitz
Maccabi Tel Aviv Chairman Shimon Mizrahi likes to say his team "represents Israel," but for years the connection between the state of affairs at Maccabi and that of Israeli basketball has been tenuous at best. This season there is a symbiosis between the two. Both are a flop.
Three factors were at play this season in favor of Maccabi's Israeli hoopsters:
1. The weak American signings
2. The Russian Law
3. Maccabi coach Neven Spahija likes Israeli players
"I look at a player's quality, not his passport," Spahija said at the start of the season when he gave almost unlimited credit to forward Lior Eliyahu and guard Yotam Halperin.
The inclusion of the duo as starters in Spahija's roster surprised many, but as the season progressed it became clear that the Croat, unlike his predecessor Pini Gershon, doesn't think American players are necessarily better than local hoopsters.
The fact that most of the Israeli players haven't seized their chance is one of the sad things about Maccabi's season.
Eliyahu and Derrick Sharp are the exception. Eliyahu has had a breakthrough season and is playing the best ball of his career. Sharp is only Israeli through marriage, but Eliyahu is a bona fide blue and white talent.
One player who was supposed to have stood out alongside Eliyahu is Yotam Halperin. However, the guard has failed to fulfill the promise he showed at Olimpija Ljubljana last season. Halperin's output has been the lowest in the team per minute and the combo guard has fallen out of favor with Spahija. "Goran Jeretin is our starting guard," Spahija said this week. The Croat seems to have despaired of Halperin even more than of Will Bynum.
Eliyahu and Halperin are opposing poles when it comes to Spahija's Israeli experiment. The ability shown by Yaniv Green, Sharon Sasson and Jamie Arnold shows why Maccabi's season is more like Halperin's than Eliyahu's.
With Gershon, Sasson showed glimpses of his shooting ability but this season he has returned to being an insignificant player on Spahija's roster.
Green's case is even more saddening. The most talented Israeli center has failed abjectly to take advantage of Maceo Baston's departure, Noel Felix's weakness and Arnold's instability. As for Arnold, he is surely sorry that he turned down Tau Vitoria's generous offer last summer. The naturalized forward made a strong start to the season, but his ability has since gone downhill.
After a six month absence due to injury, veteran guard Tal Burstein put in a stellar performance against Cibona, but since then he has failed to find the kind of form he showed before his injury.
The one person who is perhaps worried most by the declining form of Maccabi's Israeli players is national team coach Tzvika Sherf.
"Just as I never told Pini Gershon what to do with his Israeli players, I have no intention of telling Spahija what to do," says Sherf, who has been taken aback by accusations that he has tried to gain capital from Maccabi's failures.
"One thing you can't say about me is that I don't want Maccabi to succeed," says Sherf, "and just to make sure all the good souls don't let their tongues get carried away I haven't even attended Maccabi's games this season."
Maccabi has five players on its roster who Sherf could be calling on at the European Championship last-chance qualifying tournament this summer.
Isn't it incredible that because of speculation and conjecture you can't do your job?
"Don't worry. I see everything, I know everything and I am following everything. I know exactly what is going on with each of my players."
Do all of Maccabi's Israeli players have a guaranteed spot in the national team roster?
"You'll have to wait until the summer to find that out."