Akunis.
I still remember Eldad Akunis coaching the Bnei Herzliya youth team 25 years ago, with Yaniv Green, Tal Burstein and Uri Yitzhaki.
He is the oldest chairman in the league after Shimon Mizrahi, and has served in the position since the previous millennium (1999), one of the most prominent voices in the league's administration.
Over the years he has always tried to bring in the best coaches, and mostly hit the best foreigners (Paul Thompson, John Hudson and Lee Nylon just as an example), certainly under the modest budget he gets every summer Melanie Recanati.
I am very happy for both of them that this year they have such a quality team, which presented an exciting game in the semi-finals, and dismantled the favorite Holon, at least on paper.
Akonis always thinks outside the box.
It is not obvious to sign Sandy Cohen on loan from Maccabi Tel Aviv. It is not really likely to return Sean Dawson to the league after such serious injuries. From the penalties in Grandma's shot.
But Akonis along with his partner from this year for the professional decisions - Zofar Abdia - are not conventional people, and the team we built this year plays a very smart and very diverse basketball, which is very difficult to defend against.
And the most important action was the signing of the coach, because Oren Aharoni is the ace in the sleeve of the Bnei Herzliya.
Akunis is celebrating.
Reaping the Fruit, Photo: Alan Schieber
Aharoni.
Oren Aharoni grew up at Hapoel Holon, during the big years of its youth department, which built dozens of players for the senior team.
Aharoni played basketball until advanced age (35), and is remembered mainly as part of the smart trio of Givat Shmuel veterans, with Moshe Brenner and Dror Cohen.
When he moved to coaching, he never shortened paths, worked with all ages, built players, and waited for his opportunity.
He has gathered a great deal of knowledge and experience, which this season are erupting into an orderly method of play and smart and surgical game management.
For this game he prepared his team excellently, and Herzliya went in the opening to its big man, who scored the first nine points.
It's rare to watch our districts play with a real Big Man, and Herzliya's use of Onoako is movement singing.
For every Goodes reaction to Aharoni there was a contra, then also a contra, and the game became Garbage Time in the second quarter.
It's very difficult to chase after 20 points, but even harder to keep up with 20 points, so Aharoni, very wisely, changed vehicles and defenses all the time, to keep his players' arousal and urgency.
It was clear that Herzliya was much more prepared for the game than Holon, and the shooting percentages also said that.
Basketball school of Oren Aharoni, Eldad Akunis and Zofar Abdia.
Onoaku.
Its use is fantastically managed,
Holon.
Hapoel Holon was very excited for this game.
If a year ago the fans rallied to fund a fifth foreigner for the semi-finals, this time they helped each other to fund tickets and help all the youngsters and soldiers get there.
And despite the advantage in the stands, the view of the fallen on the field was so stunning that a handful of the fans allowed themselves to confront some of the Holon players and curse them during the game!
With all the understanding for the pain of the fans, it is a shame, disgrace and scandal.
These are fans who do not understand their role and place, and I hope they will apologize to the players.
But if we look at Holon with professional eyes, it is a team that is built incorrectly, and is limited in attack, already in its second season.
She has no real Big Man, and she plays around the arc of the three and is totally dependent on long-range shooting.
If she does not score at least 12 threes at 45% she does not pass the 70 points, as has happened in most of her games this season.
She scored 9 threes (most only at the end) at 25% and reached only 63. The low five raised by Goodes did not match the level of aggression required, and the change came too late.
And even though Ragland came to play this time, another guard is missing creating and penetrating next to him.
The mistake was not to dress Adam Smith, who with his own hands raised Holon to the semi-finals, and also to the top 16 in Europe, and to prefer Maggie, who is in the country for barely a week, only thanks to his explosion in the previous victory over the Germans.
Holon is beginning to understand the troubles of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the problem of having a team with seven foreigners in different rules in the league and in Europe. It will face difficult decisions soon, especially when a quality acquisition like Hayden Dalton has not yet tasted parquet.
Goodes and Pnini in a moment of rage, Photo: Alan Schieber
The mistakes of the basketball association.
The basic mistake of the basketball association is to change the trophy factory from popular to prestigious.
The very reduction of participants to the top eight of the Premier League has abolished the long-standing tradition of games between National League and Premier League teams.
A decade ago, Hapoel Tel Aviv advanced from the national league to the semi-finals and lost by a point to Netanya, thus avoiding a derby in the final. But even if the Premier League teams always advance to the final, the mixed games ignite the basketball scene Tel Aviv to Afula, Hapoel Jerusalem to Hod Hasharon, and Hapoel Holon to Ma'ale Adumim.
It's not terrible, it's great for all of Israeli basketball.
Plus, the worst thing is to change plans because of the groups that came.
From the moment it became known that there would be a derby in the semi-finals, the expectation of high income led to a sequence of wrong decisions, perhaps also because of the media media struggle between the union and the principal and the union's expectation to return the Premier League management to it.
The eve of the semifinals has always been the annual party of Israeli basketball.
Four groups in one evening.
Everyone who loved basketball was there.
The most fascinating moment was when the teams of the second game would start to climb the stairs and peek at the first game.
And their fans would start cheering for their favorite opponent in the final.
But all this went down the drain because of the desire to maximize revenue, and the decision to take out the entire crowd after the first game and replace it with new fans, who will again pay the ticket price too high, and very unpopular.
Which requires extreme playing hours (17:45 and 21:15) and does not make sense, which eventually led to the splitting of the evenings.
Mistake upon mistake.
It could have been done in a much smarter and more elegant way, and to preserve the tradition of the double show, especially when there is no (thankfully) Final Four, and this is the only opportunity for a party.
So in this game they also closed the top stand.
It was possible to move to a smaller hall, it was possible to hand out invitations to veterans and children and schools, to make the game an experience for them.
As Herzliya has made it an experience for hundreds of its fans, hoping to recreate 1995, and bring another trophy home.
Dibertolomeo and Timor, today on a journey ahead of the derby. Not everything is money, Photo: Alan Shiber
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