1.
For half a year now, Oded Katash has been sitting at home.
The coach, who some of his acquaintances define as a workaholic, started the season without a team, for only the second time in the last decade, and has yet to find the right job for his size.
In recent years, Katsch is without a doubt the most senior coach in Israeli basketball.
He led Hapoel Jerusalem to good years with two wins in the state cup and reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League with it twice, while presenting attractive and fun basketball.
In the middle of last season he left in favor of Panathinaikos, but if he did not do so, Jerusalem owner Eyal Chomsky said of him that for him Katsch would be the "Ferguson" of the club and would stay for a long time.
In the Israeli team he did an excellent job and led the rejuvenation process, which ended in the great campaign in the European Championship qualifiers, with impressive victories over the Spanish and Polish teams.
The team also did not continue not for professional reasons, but due to a problematic relationship with the heads of the basketball association.
"Encourage the best coach in Israel," one of the coaches told me honestly a few months ago, thus expressing the professional appreciation in the industry towards Katsch.
Despite this, the coach is still out of work.
2.
It's not that there were no Katsch proposals.
After Stefanos Dadas informed the heads of Hapoel Holon at the beginning of the summer that he was moving to AEK Athens, they contacted his representatives, but immediately realized that he was not interested and returned to the foreign coach's option.
Later, other teams in Israel checked, one of them is Hapoel Beer Sheva, which was looking for a coach instead of Rami Hadar, and they also received a polite answer that there is nothing to talk about.
There were also several offers from abroad, most notably Bamberg, who wanted the Israeli coach to be responsible for a project that would bring her back to the top of German basketball and success in Europe, but Katsch refused, and after a few weeks the Germans appointed Oren Amiel. From a group in Eastern Europe that aspires high (Promitey style and Nano Ginzburg), but also received a refusal.
Meanwhile, the 47-year-old coach is concentrating on preparing the next generation of basketball coaches in the country.
In October, he joined the teaching staff of the Future Generation Coaches' Training Program at the Wingate Institute.
The course has been updated and refreshed in recent months under the professional director Yonatan Alon, Katsh's good friend, and according to course participants, the coach invests a lot and is on the floor for long hours to guide the trainees, among other things to satisfy his hunger to work on the field.
Katsch.
Meanwhile Guiding the Future Generation of Basketball Coaches, Photo: EPA,
3.
So what is he waiting for?
Why did Oded Katash reject good offers submitted to him in recent months?
When he decided to leave Hapoel Jerusalem in the middle of last season and move to Panathinaikos, the coach did so with a heavy heart, but explained to his associates and club leaders that he had a golden opportunity to enter the vicious circle of Euroleague coaches.
Katsch feels he did a good job, which was also reflected in his ability and results in the Euroleague, until the corona blow that befell the team.
He finished the season with a trophy and championship, and club managers, Dimitris Diamantidis and Fergiscus Albertis, wanted to keep him, but the troubled owner Dimitris Inacopoulos decided otherwise.
Today there are many in Athens who regret the move.
"Encourage a coach with a method, like the one Oberdovich coached. There are not many coaches in Europe who have a method like his," Pini Gershon, one who understands Euroleague coaches, told Israel Today in the past. There was no professional reason for him not to continue in PAO. "
Katsch actually wants to stay on the wheel of Euroleague coaches and wait for the opportunity he believes will come.
This is the main reason why he sculpted the additional options.
If an offer comes from a senior Eurocup team, it is not impossible that the coach will take it, partly due to the possibility of reaching the Euroleague with it next season.
By the way Eurocup, when Locomotive Kuban recently fired its coach Yevgeny Pashtin, Katsch's name also came up, but the heads of the Russian club decided to go in other directions.
And it is impossible to ignore the elephant in the room - Maccabi Tel Aviv. The heads of the yellow club make it clear at every opportunity that the status of Yannis Sapropoulos is solid. Only Katsch's name is relevant.The club appreciates him professionally and also in terms of personality, and the love of the fans could not be missed at the entrance ceremony to the Hall of Fame just a few weeks ago.
At the Maccabi Tel Aviv Hall of Fame ceremony, Photo: Alan Shiber,
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