Catching color: Will the Israeli national team bring Jake Cohen back to business? | Israel today

The 3,500 fans who came last week to the Israel national team's practice match at the Menorah-Mvathim Hall apparently came to watch the return of Washington Wizards forward Danny Avdia to the national uniform after two and a half years of absence.

The young star, who swept the crowd and led the team's scoring against the American Auburn College, was indeed dominant and led Israel to victory, but this effort would not have been complete without the excellence of veteran interior player Jake Cohen, who finished the game with 17 points (the third in his career in the team's scoring after Avdia and Yam Medar), and contributed his part with several key moves in the last quarter that helped secure the victory.

Goodes: "He gives confidence"

There are players whose dry statistical line does not tell their story.

Those who find other methods to influence and change the game even in ways that do not appear in the analysis of the game or the tapes of the performances.

For such players the old statistics do an injustice.

Usually, these are tough defensive players, or quiet leaders on the floor, who don't necessarily finish the game with a noticeable amount of points on their balance sheet, but if you ask coaches, they will explain to you at length the extent of their influence on the game.

Cohen is a similar case, part of a generation of players that is disappearing, who came every game anew with the aim of fighting and playing with their heart, without fear of hard, dirty or gray work.

Players you saw from the sidelines and felt as a viewer that you could connect with them and identify with them.

They are not the most talented, not the strongest or most athletic, but players with heart and soul, usually also with game wisdom and experience, who make their friends better and make the team a winner.

After the game against Auburn, Avdia referred to Cohen's influence on the team and recalled with nostalgia his first days in the Maccabi Tel Aviv uniform, when as a 16-year-old boy he got to learn from the experienced inside player. "Jake is amazing, it's an experience for me to play with him.

He was there when I went to the seniors at the age of 16 as a kid and helped me a lot.

He is the anchor of the team, he is smart, experienced, knows how to say the right thing, connects and consolidates us all and knows what he is doing.

There's nothing on Jake."

Jake Cohen and the Israeli national team.

"He is the anchor", photo: Alan Shiver

The coach of the national team, Guy Goodes, praised the veteran player and explained his importance to the formation: "Jake is not a young kid, he has a lot of basketball and rich experience. He has a distinction of the game and things that only he has and cannot be taught. He is a mature player with experience that gives confidence to his friends His".

Roman Sorkin, his friend and partner on the front line at Maccabi and the national team, explained Cohen's influence: "Jake is the player I like playing with the most. It's fun to play with him, he's unusually smart, understands the game better than anyone and contributes in every area. He can do everything".

The past season was not easy for the veteran interior player.

Cohen saw how his numbers gradually decrease and the minutes of the game decrease as the season progresses, alongside cases in the Euroleague where he was not registered at all on the game form.

Default, so what?

This summer, Cohen's professional future at the temple was clouded.

The Yellows pursued and wooed Tomer Ginat and TJ Leaf, who preferred to sign elsewhere, while Cohen remained on the sidelines by default, awaiting a decision regarding his continued career at the club.

It finally came only on July 25, and Cohen was the last player to be officially announced as a member of the team's roster remaining from last season.

Oded Ketch, Maccabi's new coach, highly appreciates Cohen's professional ability, understanding of the game as well as his quiet leadership.

In Ketch's four years as coach of the national team, Cohen was the best player with the highest point average and the highest index point average.

Sources privy to the details say that when Maccabi realized that both Ginat and Leaf would not be coming, Ketch reassured the club's people and said that he was very satisfied with the naturalized player's stay and that he was sure that he would be able to return him to his past ability, the one that made him one of the top Israelis.

Cohen always showed loyalty to the team.

Even when he played in the Spanish Oberdeiro he arrived, and the peak was last February when within 20 hours he played with Maccabi in Istanbul, flew to Israel and played with his teammates against Germany on Friday at noon even without training.

By the way, the crazy schedule was according to his will and request to solve the unpleasant blunder created between the parties because of the Euroleague and FIBA ​​fight.

At the age of 31, precisely after a personally disappointing season for him at Maccabi, in which he rarely played and contributed and recorded the lowest number of minutes and points in his career in the playoffs in Israel, Cohen is being rejuvenated in the national uniform.

Jake Cohen at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Will he recover after a disappointing season?, Photo: Alan Shiver

Now he hopes that the team will help him get back into business, and he will do everything to help them achieve success in the European Championship, which will start in a few weeks.

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