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The senior Israeli reinforcement?
On the drying up of Jake Cohen at Maccabi Tel Aviv
His return to Maccabi Tel Aviv was natural, but Jake Cohen found himself in the farthest place from the floor in Yad Eliyahu when his situation may be even worse in the future: "Not playing and seeing the situation does not improve, it is difficult."
Will the Israeli team save him?
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Jake Cohen
Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball
Almond light
Saturday, October 23, 2021, 11:00 p.m.
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Thursday, minutes before the presentation of the players in the Euroleague game at Yad Eliyahu against Panathinaikos, the players who did not dress at Maccabi Tel Aviv went up to the parquet area. Oded Brandwin and Oz Blazer dressed in the club's official white shirt came out first. After them came Jake Cohen, dressed in sweatpants, not particularly pleased with the situation. The last to enter the floor is Dragon Bender, who in a few months will make Cohen one who is not sure he will also play in the league, very smiling.
Throughout their game, Cohen, who was introduced as the Yellows' senior Israeli reinforcement player this summer, sat behind the basket a little behind Shimon Mizrahi and was far from showing enthusiasm. When the team ran and went up to 20 points, he applauded, but the situation he got into gives its signals and despair is already visible on his face. In five Euroleague games he only dressed twice, and even in the games he dressed, he did not come up to play. Tonight (Saturday, 20:15) against Hapoel Jerusalem he will try to mention his abilities again, hoping to change his current situation.
Pushed to the edge of the bench, and it's not going to get any better.
Jake Cohen (Photo: Danny Maron)
Back to the summer of 2020. Returning from the Corona to the Premier League was discouraging for Maccabi Tel Aviv who saw how their great Euroleague season is not coming to an end.
Jake Cohen suddenly stood in the center of the fire alongside Scotty Wilbkin criticizing the league manager and the conversation around him was not positive.
Even when Maccabi Tel Aviv won the championship, there was a feeling that something would not work out with Cohen, who actually finished his best season with Maccabi with 10.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in the league and 5.4 points and 2 rebounds in the Euroleague, twice as good as any other season in his factory.
In the summer, the contacts between the parties did not work out, especially on the part of Cohen who felt he needed to change the atmosphere. He signed with the Spanish Overdioro, started the season very well, weakened later and saw how the Yellows begged for an Israeli inside player throughout most of the season until TJ Klein arrived and did not really impress. Cohen's return was quite closed in the area in May, when Maccabi was still playing in the playoffs, and the parties were happy to sign a two-year contract. Recently even the status of a citizen changed for him when he won the approval of the Exceptions Committee of the Basketball Association as well as John Dibertolomeo and is considered Home Groan for all intents and purposes.
Maccabi Tel Aviv is trying to point out two moments that changed the picture for Cohen. The first was the retirement of Omri Caspi, which caused the team to sign another Israeli player, when the tide fell on Roman Sorkin, who was generally interested in going to Europe most of the summer. In this situation, there is another competition for the position with a younger player who is on the rise. The second moment was the preparation for the season when Cohen was just not playing well enough, and Yannis Sapropoulos started to prefer Sorkin over him.
"If we go back to the August area, the thought was that at least in the first season Roman would be the player who swings between the staff and the stands and not Jake," agrees one of the Maccabi men, "but things look different in training. Yannis chooses the players according to their training ability and fitness." .
When asked Yannis Sapropoulos last night at the press conference about the decision not to dress Cohen and Oz Blazer laughed and asked journalist Josh Hellman who asked if he was their agent, then chose to answer: "I love all my players, and I trust them, but I have to Think about what the team needs, my decisions are not easy, they are difficult. I trust everyone, but I only have 12 players I can dress. This is a long season, we have over 70 games, all the players have to be ready. They played, and they should be ready to play against Jerusalem. "
More on Walla!
Spirus' victory: Maccabi Tel Aviv's show almost ended in another mishap
To the full article
He knew he would be a bench player, but did not imagine such a situation.
Jake Cohen (Photo: Danny Maron)
Maccabi Tel Aviv testifies that Cohen is a professional, continues to work in training and tries not to let things affect him. Despite this, his friends also say that it is clear that the situation is difficult for him, "If I were in his shoes, I do not know how I would react," said this week one of the team players outside Elijah, "not playing, and seeing the situation does not improve week by week it is difficult."
Cohen has arrived this season with expectations. He knew he was supposed to be a bench player on the team, but thought about whether he would get a few minutes or a lot, and did not imagine such a situation. "I do not take it for granted, it is very challenging to be effective even in a few minutes, to influence the game. I hope I will play a lot, but I am comfortable even if not," he told Walla! Sports in July.
Cohen's situation in the league is not much better. Although he won 20 minutes in the loss to Gilboa / Galil, in every game he is behind Roman Sorkin. Even when he got his chance to win the game at Candle Garden,He missed the free throw outside the arc.
"It's hard to come to him with complaints," one of the Maccabi Tel Aviv officials added about Cohen.
On the team he is an anchor.
Jake Cohen (Photo: Official Website, FIBA Official Website)
Cohen is currently one of two players who does not dress for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Euroleague, and as long as there are no injuries, his situation should not change. The decision to continue Matthias' move to Maccabi next month may bring him back to the squad, but at this point Oz Blazer is also not dressed and it is unclear whether Yannis Sapropoulos will prefer to return Blazer to the squad before him or not. Later, Dragan Bender is also expected to return to the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad and push Cohen's legs a little further out of the squad.
What may bring back part of Cohen's joy of life is the Israeli team. The basketball association is already in talks with Maccabi Tel Aviv, which will release Cohen from the Yellows' trip to Berlin, and thus he will be available to Guy Goodes in the game against Poland and even be part of the training. The members of the Israeli team said this week that in their conversations with Jake he expressed a very great desire to join the team.
"EuroBasket is something I'm very excited about," Cohen said in an interview in July. "I hope I can play next summer, because it will be a very nice thing. I represented Israel for many years without playing EuroBasket. ".
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