Oops, we did it again: will Maccabi Tel Aviv regret the release of Keenan Evans?

Chris Jones rushed to get rid of, Tyrese Rice and Keith Langford gave up because of financial gaps.

Over the years, Maccabi Tel Aviv has often parted ways with promising foreigners after only one season.

Do not be surprised if even Keenan Evans who left this week she will try to bring back in the future a large sum

Walla!

sport

13/07/2022

Wednesday, July 13, 2022, 1:30 p.m.

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Danny Abdia practices shooting with personal trainer Drew Hanlan (from Instagram)

Maccabi Tel Aviv parted ways this summer with its two main anchors last season - Scotty Wilbkin and Anta Žižić - but it is possible that she will regret another player who gave up on him most of all.

Keenan Evans, who signed for Zalgiris Kaunas yesterday (Tuesday), could have worn yellow-blue in the opening season, but the team chose not to exercise the option to keep him after he was one of the highlights of the season.

Evans averaged 8.2 points, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals in the Euroleague and displayed only sparks of his impressive potential, but mostly paid the tuition most first-year Euroleague players - especially coordinators - pay as they try to drive a stake in a more physical, tactical and tough league than ever before.

Few will be surprised if next season Zalgiris wins from the no man's land and gets it in a better and more complete version.

Few will be surprised if Maccabi Tel Aviv realizes its mistake and tries to turn the wheel back next summer - but it is possible that by then Evans' price will rise and he will be targeting richer and more accomplished clubs.

Either way, Maccabi Tel Aviv's fear is that the negative precedents of the past will repeat themselves.

After all, this is not the first time that the Yellows have given up on a promising foreigner after only one season, seeing him flourish in another team and trying to bring him back to the arena.

Here are some examples from the past.

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Will history repeat itself?

Evans (Photo: Kobi Eliyahu)

Chris Jones

Euroleague averages in Maccabi Tel Aviv

(2020/21 season): 17.4 minutes, 7 points, 2.8 assists.

:

minutes, 13.1 points, 3.6 assists, 1.5 steals

.

Jones had until then been around in third- and fourth-tier teams in Europe, and the season before that stood out in the Turkish Bursaspor uniform.

Indeed, during the season in Israel he had a number of flickers, both in the Euroleague and in the Premier League where he excelled in the semi-finals and playoff finals, but that was not enough to convince the Yellows to exercise the option to keep him for another season.

Yannis Sapropoulos had a hard time connecting with Jones' multi-dribbling style, and the Yellows gave him up in favor of betting on another potential - the same Keenan Evans who also gave up a year later.

After a brief flirtation with Barcelona, ​​Jones landed in Wheelerban and became one of the improving players of the season in the Euroleague.

A year later, the same Maccabi Tel Aviv marked him as a candidate to fill the position of senior coordinator - and the price was double.

Although Jones was not high on the list and in his box was placed a more senior and proven foreigner in the form of Lorenzo Brown, but next season in the Valencia uniform he will try to make another leap, and surprise Maccabi Tel Aviv again.

Was not far from returning with high interest rates.

Chris Jones (Photo: official website, the official website of Maccabi Tel Aviv)

Tyrese Rice

Averages at Maccabi Tel Aviv

(2013/14 season): 20.6 minutes, 9.5 points, 3.2 assists, 2.1 rebounds.

: 29.2 minutes, 12.4 points, 6.1 assists, 2.1 rebounds.

The heroic money of

the sensational win in the Euroleague could have become a Maccabist symbol if he had not left the team after only one season, during which - also tend to forget - had a very hard time until the explosion in money time.

Even if Maccabi Tel Aviv fans will never forget him, his story in the yellow-blue uniform should have had a different ending.

Sadly and sadly, a few tens of thousands of dollars prevented him from continuing with the team for a second season.

"I wanted to double my contract from the first season, and earn a million dollars. There were small gaps between us of a few tens of thousands of dollars, but in the end it was Maccabi Tel Aviv that refused," Rice later said.

"I was offered a certain financial upgrade, but not what I thought I deserved. And after realizing that they would not move from their position, I instructed my agent to move forward with the other options, in which I was offered a lot more money."

Rice responded to a "financial offer from a year of life," he said, from Moscow's elimination, with which he earned two million dollars a season.

But since then, he claims, he would have stayed in Israel if he had received half the amount from Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Rice continued from Himaki to Barcelona, ​​quarreled with the Catalan club and almost returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2017 (for an amount similar or higher to the one he demanded in the summer he left, presumably), but before he could get his release from Barça, the Yellows had already signed Pierre Jackson.

At other stages in his career, there were some explorations between the parties, but the rematch never materialized.

A few tens of thousands of dollars could have saved the mental anguish of both parties.

It should have ended differently.

Rice (Photo: Meged Guzni)

Keith Langford

Euroleague averages at Maccabi Tel Aviv

(2011/12 season): 23.9 minutes, 10.8 points, two assists, 2.5 rebounds.

: 31.3 minutes, 17 points, 2.9 assists, 2.9 rebounds.

Money

a year before the summer saga of Tyrese Rice, Maccabi Tel Aviv faced a similar dilemma against Keith Langford.

The diverse scorer rolled into Israel almost by accident, after recovering from an injury that lowered his price and allowed the Yellows to land him - and from the outset it was clear it would not be easy to keep him for a second season.

Langford opened his term in a lazy arena, but slowly removed the rust and was one of the prominent factors in the impressive achievements of that season, in which Maccabi Tel Aviv won the Israeli double and the Adriatic League championship, and was within touching distance of qualifying for the Final Four in the Euroleague.

Langford's price jumped back, and although Maccabi Tel Aviv agreed to raise the salary to $ 1.1 million in accordance with the option in his contract, it refused to improve the conditions when better offers flowed.

Langford paid $ 100,000 in compensation to be released and signed a very high contract in Milan.

Although Maccabi Tel Aviv won the European Cup without him, it continued to woo him.

In the summer of 2015 he was on the verge of signing, but just before the announcement an opportunity was created to sign Sonny Wiems and the Yellows withdrew from the agreement.

In retrospect, Langford also regrets not staying with Maccabi Tel Aviv at the time.

"I definitely think Maccabi Tel Aviv could have been my team for many years. Leaving Maccabi was the hardest decision I made in my career," Langford said in an interview last season.

The flirtation continued years later.

Langford (Photo: Kobi Eliyahu)

Kin Evans

Euroleague averages at Maccabi Tel Aviv:

25.2 minutes, 8.2 points, 3.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds.

Professional

days will tell whether Evans will be on Maccabi Tel Aviv's list of misses or whether the decision to release him was justified.

Meanwhile Zalgiris, who struggled with the Yellows for his services last summer as well, is building mountains and hills on it and commentators also believe that the entire profit of the Lithuanian runner-up.

"Throughout Scotty Wilbkin's tenure at Maccabi Tel Aviv, the team was looking for his ideal partner. It was difficult for everyone, and so was Keenan Evans," Lithuanian journalist Donats Urbanas analyzed the situation a few weeks ago.

"It seems to me that this year Evans will make that huge step, as Chris Jones did in Wheelerban. Evans is in a better situation, he is more experienced. There is a high chance he will make a leap."

We'll wait and see.

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• Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball

• Kin Evans

• Chris Jones

• Tyrese Rice

• Keith Langford