Opinion | The experience of the coaches worked: on the victories of Holon and Jerusalem Israel today

When looking at the best coaches in Europe, they were mostly mediocre players.

For example, Obradovich, Messina, Lasso, Pasqual, Itudis, and of course Pini Gershon and David Blatt.

But in the two victories of Holon and Jerusalem, the experience of their two coaches as stars in Maccabi Tel Aviv stood out, and especially the attempt to move through series in a European setting.

Playoff series are a completely different beast from early games and the league.

Halperin has been a first-year coach, Goodes for more than a decade, and yet their experience as top players has helped them manage the games and make the decisions that decided the outcome, and possibly the series.  

Hapoel Holon went through a particularly fine pre-season with Maurizio Buscalia, finished the round in second place in the league, and reached the play-offs in Europe.

But when the money stage came, the Holon management felt that their coach was not spending the maximum, in fact not even 70% of the capacity of their team, and replaced him before the critical week of the season, in the middle of the series and after a home loss.

It's a very brave act and a huge gamble on both sides, and I admit I thought I should have appointed assistant coach Sharaf, at least until the end of the series.

But you will criticize a crazy foreign victory in Turkey, and you will explain that Guy Goodes, after only three days in office, made the difference between victory and loss.

And most importantly, you'll argue with Fortuna.

In the end, when you win by one basket, it's also a lot of luck.

And a little Guy Pnini will not hurt.     

In the opening game of the season, Hapoel Holon defeated Maccabi Rishon Lezion by Guy Goodes 67: 101.

And now, three months later, watching the pre-match motivational call, and Goodes saying "we'll get stressed" and "we'll close for the rebound and run," it sounds a little weird.

Has the "we" already been formed so quickly?

Guy Goodes stated that he came for the adrenaline rush.

Hello, this is not an amusement park, this is Holonia.

The point is that a win in such an adrenaline-laden game, a correction of the embarrassing loss in game 1, and certainly a win in game 3, will significantly shorten the process of absorbing and assimilating Goodes in Holon.

After this game, there is already "we".   

At the break everything seems upside down.

Holon looked weak and not at the level of the opponent, the eyes were on the ground, and only Adam Smith left Holon at a single-digit distance.

I have no idea what happened in the half call, but Holon came out of the locker room differently.

And the reduction in the third quarter happened thanks to Goods' exchange management.

This is what a new coach can do.

Especially a coach who was a star player.

Holon came up completely differently for the second half, Photo: Champions League, official website,

He knows how to feel players and put the right ones on the field.

Goodes dared not use Adam Smith, narrowing the rotation and leaving Ragland, Misgav, Johnson, and Manco as an almost permanent quartet.

Then improvised between Pennini and Kaiser at the level of offensive defense, which won the game.

He raised Kaiser for the final defensive move (which Buscalia did not do in Game 1, which cost him his job).

And he remembered to raise Guy Pnini, the biggest clutch player since MIKI and Meir Tapiro, to the course of the victory basket and the final delivery.

They know from the team, know from the league, know half a life.

There is an advantage in madness.

And there's a crazy game 3.

This time Goodes will not need a motivational call.

A big victory for the Holon management, and for the Good Guys duo.

When it comes comes.  

At Hapoel Jerusalem, too, the coach is not the one who started the season, but the coach is the person who built the team, so coach Yotam Halperin now corrects the mistakes of Yotam Halperin, the professional manager.

But wait, when he releases two players and brings in two others, does he do it as a professional coach or manager?

In general, the fact that he did not appoint a professional manager in his place, says something about the essence of the role of the professional manager in Israeli basketball.

But when it works so well, over a significant period of time, and changes the season of Jerusalem from end to end, what do we (and the Jerusalem management) have to worry about? 

Yotam Halperin.

Changed the season of Jerusalem from end to end, Photo: Alan Shiber,

The psychological and physical roller coaster that passed through Jerusalem in one week is a concentrated capsule of the life of a professional basketball player.

Reach a season-long game at Manresa, play at an unconventional time unfamiliar to the body, and win in overtime.

Then fly to the country for a game 48 hours later?

The body breaks down and the brain fluid.

It is therefore permissible to lose to Gilboa, and it is even advisable to use a league game to release the tension and release the body.

It is allowed to use the league for success in Europe.

Something that Maccabi Tel Aviv, for example, has not yet learned to do.

And so come fresh and concentrated to the first home game in the next series and explode. 

Jerusalem's game ended before it started, in a stunning first quarter, with the entire team in an amazing shooting zone.

80% of three in half.

And with all the threes (Jerusalem threw for three more than for 2), on the smart game and in my team the great winner Suleiman (Braimo), whose return (Halperin's most important correction) fixed all the team breakdowns.

What is important to remember is that this is a series, and winning by a point is equal to winning by 40 points. Halperin knows how to beware of such games, and would even prefer to win by ten points than by thirty, because it will leave the team in good spirits ahead of the second game, which starts at 0-0.

Although the galloping foal Adam Ariel did not allow the difference to narrow and even set a career record in Europe, Yotam will know how to conserve energy and keep them hungry.

Although he is a novice coach, he has been in this movie many times.  

Adam Ariel.

Career record in Europe, Photo: Alan Schieber,

Were we wrong?

Fixed!

If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us