Far Beyond Labor Relations - There Was Real Friendship | Israel today

For twenty years Eric and I have been together, and I can define him more as a professional father - just a father.

At the age of 17, we took a trophy with the Netanya youth team, when he was the coach and I was the captain who lifted the trophy.

Since then our paths have not parted.

On Tuesday I was at the hospital, and then I went to the training of my team, Urbani Nahariya. On the way back I was debating whether to return to the hospital or go the next morning.

Something in his heart said to travel.

I was there until one at night, I drove home, and after two hours I got a call that Eric had passed away.

I immediately went back to the hospital. Good thing I was with him that night. It's something inconceivable, even though we knew how difficult the situation was.

At first I was in a kind of repression and thought it would come out of it, but later I already understood the situation.

I realized that the body was not getting the treatments, until the bitter news came.

I had conversations with him when he got sick, and he did not understand why it happened to him.

I can say that if he looks down and looks for someone he has hit - he will not find one.

After I was an actor of his, already during the army, I became his assistant in the youth department of Elitzur Netanya for five years.

Later, when he moved to coach the senior team, I worked alongside him for three years - a year in which we were promoted to the first division, and another two years in the senior division.

The sequel was three years in Nahariya, and in the fourth year when I finished the season in Yavne, I came to be by his side as a consultant in the last two months of the season.

I was privileged to be by his side.

It was much more than a working relationship.

Our two families were like one family.

The employment relationship was marginal - there was real friendship there.

There's been a difference of more than ten years between us, but we connected so much because that's the way Eric lives.

His conduct did not suit his biological age.

He knew how to adapt to any environment in which he found himself.

He was loved and revered.

The most successful coach who left Netanya.

He was the father of the actors and also a friend of theirs, and knew everything about them.

Coaches are afraid of being too close to the players, Eric was not like that.

He believed that if there is a good relationship and a player trusts you - it will help the team.

He had no problem when it came to being one of the guys.

He knew in his own special way to get players to be committed to him.

After Pini Gershon, Arik Alfasi is the biggest "game animal" in Israeli basketball.

No wonder his relationship with Pini was so good.

There are many similarities between them.

Eric liked to coach less, however he liked to run the game.

Always producing solutions, always creative.

Just a wizard of the game.

Eric had hostels for the mentally handicapped.

You will not find another coach who deals with this.

It proves about his personality, about how special he is and how much he is a man of giving.

Eric was a humble man, not one of the offended, not one who thinks he deserves everything.

His legacy is to enjoy, smile and make the environment feel good.

The environment before the self.

He believed that if those around him were happy - he would be happy.