The first two years that were disappointing • The impressive immigration to Eurobasket • and the goal that was abandoned due to his signing in Jerusalem • Oded Katash, who gave up two of the senior positions in Israel for Panathinaikos, will end his role in the Israeli national team the next day
Katsch.
Pau preferred the team
Photo:
Bernie Ardov
1.
If you do not apply a significant shift (and the world then nothing is certain), the next day to finish Katash the Israel national team coach role after four years.
Although Israel has risen impressively to EuroBasket 2022 and the rosy future of Israeli basketball is already here, Katsch preferred to give up two of the most senior positions in Israeli basketball - the Israeli team and Hapoel Jerusalem - in favor of the Euroleague team with a glorious past and mediocre past as Panathinaikos.
The opportunity to enter the circle of Euroleague coaches fascinated Katsch more than the option to continue the journey to the top of European basketball with the Israeli team.
2.
With his appointment in October 2017, Katsch accepted the team after the fiasco at EuroBasket 2017, in a comfortable situation for him.
He received a very high salary and conditions that no previous team coach had, and for that he had to be responsible for the development of young people (which was abandoned due to his signing in Jerusalem in February 2018) and set the team's rejuvenation as the main goal.
The union leaders, who in May 2017 saw in their vision the team advancing to the world championships and competing for the entrance to the Olympic tournament in Tokyo, did not make it difficult for Katsch to take advantage of the lack of many stars due to the Euroleague crisis to set the team qualifying for Mondobasket 2019. 'Nano Ginzburg's, teams we have won this decade, finish among the top eight teams in the world.
3. The
first two years of team coach ketch were disappointing.
He invited 28 (!) Players to the team, which became a train station.
A gift in the form of FIBA recognition of Jake Cohen as an Israeli did not help at all, and he also skipped the middle generation of Israeli basketball like Oz Blazer, Sean Dawson and Amit Simhon.
Disgraceful defeats to Greece's third squad in Crete and Yad Eliyahu and an embarrassing 78:62 loss in Tallinn to Estonia led us to a critical game in the UK, where Gal Makal's wonderful ability lifted us to the next round.
In the second year we have already seen buds of change.
Home victories led by "young" Guy Panini over Serbia and Germany gave a good feeling, which was mixed with a double loss to Georgia and a scandalous end in Germany.
Tamir Blatt and Yuval Sussman led Israel to the heroic game against Dennis Schroeder and his teammates, but what we will remember from this game is Tomer Ginat with a 90:92 advantage, two seconds to go, instructed to miss from the line but does it wrong - which allowed the Germans to equalize and win in overtime.
4.
Although there was no doubt for a moment about the team's qualification for the Eurobasket (three immigrants in a house of four, which includes weak Romania), it did so in style.
The victory in Poland was nice, but Katsch's highlight was on November 28, 2020 in Valencia.
Israel was already 18 points behind Spain, but the heroic second half led us to an 87:95 victory.
The team scored 12 threes, the combination of stick and blat, backed by Yam Madar, looked great, and Tomer Ginat, who was swayed by Katsch in a strange move in February 2020, became the X Factor in the power forward position.
5.
Katsch's replacement will have the privilege of leading the golden generation of the Israeli basketball reserve, perhaps to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket 2022. On a clear day, one could also dream of a Mondobasket 2023, but Israel is also expected to suffer next winter from the clash between FIBA and Euroleague. Tamir Blatt (Alba Berlin), Yuval Sussman, Oz Blazer (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Danny Abdia and probably Yam Madar will be sorely missed by the team to step up.
