Hapoel Haifa's exciting return to the Premier League • The significance of the fan in the days of the Corona • The hope that the playoff series will justify the change • The alarming migration of senior Israelis to France • And why we all deserve to see Caspi in action again • Ido Eshed opens season
Maccabi Tel Aviv players in the Corona era. Starting a season
Photography:
Alan Shiver
The team that makes me happiest at the start of the 20/21 season is Hapoel Haifa.
One of the oldest and most important clubs returned to the Premier League this year.
From the days of Yitzhak Mizrahi, Haim Kastan and Avraham Hemo, through the 80s with the big star Haim Zlotikman who led the team to success in the league and the Korach Cup, until the 90s generation, Hapoel Haifa was a leading and threatening club.
As a young player in Holon, I remember the special angle from the bench, which in the days of the old Romema Hall was lower than the surface height, where I watched Cannon Roland Houston dismantle all the chins in the league.
The return was built with patience and love by dedicated fans who have been there ever since, waiting 20 years to return to the major leagues.
They deserve it, and we deserve it.
2 The crisis that the Corona has brought into our lives is reflected in the change and refinement of the relationship between the fans and the teams.
If you could usually buy a cheap ticket, walk into a hall and feel a sense of belonging, today the job of a fan is hard and less rewarding.
The corona, without a mask, filters out true sports fans from the pile of victory, show and show fans.
What remains is a Sisyphean love for your group, which is expressed in participating in discussions on social networks and sympathy through the screen, to the point of buying a virtual subscription, with the understanding that this is a direct contribution to the actual existence of the group.
Even if it does not translate into presence in even one game.
3 For too many years we have used the bad idea of the Final Four to produce championship illusions here.
Due to the budget differences between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the other clubs, and mainly due to the glorious team of Pini Gershon with Sharas-Vujicic-Parker, the leaders of the administration became convinced that it was impossible to win a championship in the series against Maccabi, which would also keep potential sponsors away.
Although teams like Holon, Gilboa, Maccabi Haifa and Jerusalem won the championship, and their players, and especially their fans, had the supreme feeling of being a champion, they were achieved in a snap - in two games within three days, and not in the way professional sports championships are decided.
Did it bring in wealthy sponsors and increase the basketball box office?
Too little, if any.
It's good that we're back to the series, and hopefully they will justify the change.
4 For the first time in a long time, we exported players to Europe.
The pride in our three "Frenchmen" and the hope for them, is not just about their professional success.
It's even more related to their sense of status in a foreign league.
They learn for the first time in their careers what it is like to be a senior player, when there is no law that forces you to share, when you have been chosen over Americans and Croats and Slovenes and other French.
Understand the meaning that you must give the output of a reinforcement player.
Tomer Ginat, Itai Segev and Rafi Manko had to travel to France to feel equal, valued and vital.
To me, this is a certificate of poverty for our flooded foreign league, which sees local stars mostly as a tax burden.
I very much hope that they will succeed there, and that along the way we will also arrange the tax relief for foreigners and treat the blue-and-white players as our most senior rank.
5 And we have many more players from this level: Yam Madar, who will be freed from the (justified) draft thoughts, will manage the talented foreigners and lead Hapoel Tel Aviv to at least the semifinals. Yiftach Ziv, who will reset the shooting from afar, will continue to learn from the talented coordinator. The team's leading coordinator, Oz Blazer, will continue to advance and occupy a permanent place in Maccabi's quintet, not only because he is Israeli, but because he is a diverse and talented player, and Ben Carter will remember Father Mike's great days and take a permanent place on the team.
And I kept the good for the end: I so want to see Omri Caspi on the field again.
Watch again the talent, the determination, the leadership, the back-generation that scorched the NBA defenses and collaborated with Kevin Durant and the Splash Brothers.
We deserve it, and he deserves it.