Ketch's first mistake: before the meeting between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Monaco

The coach's outburst regarding the commitment that was immediately corrected came too early in the season and he will need not to be reminded of it.

Maccabi Tel Aviv meets Monaco, including the best player it could bring, and Mike James who is so hated in Menorah Hall

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18/10/2022

Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 12:00

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Summary clip of the day in Sport, 18.10 (Sport1)

1.

Oded Ketch in the 2022/23 version at Maccabi Tel Aviv tried not to stand out too much.

work, and hope that the results will come, build on the good relationship with everyone, with the audience, with the management, and run forward.

Hope everything sticks.

Then he made the first mistake when asked about the team's defensive ability against Fenerbahce during the press conference for tonight's game (Tuesday, 21:05) against Monaco.

"Not all of our squad are individual players, their strongest point is defense. We need to be able to hide some of these shortcomings and also be creative and make up for them with a lot of coordination. There is also a lack of concentration, the commitment is not always there, also a lack of effort, and this is most important for tomorrow ".

Lack of Commitment.

Big and difficult things said by the coach, who when asked about it two minutes later, understood what he had just said and immediately repeated it.

"Maybe the choice of words for lack of commitment is not the best, I don't think there are any players here who are not committed. You see extreme cases, players who suddenly forget themselves in defense after being active, a more correct choice of words is an inconsistency."

Who does he mean?

Ketch (Photo: Liron Moldovan)

In a world where everything is quoted and photographed, even Ketch's immediate repetition of his words will not help.

So although it is not a big sensation, and it really seems that the coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv did not mean lack of commitment as a problem that players do not want to succeed or are not committed enough to the team.

But this spewing of the mouth will create the spark that the yellows will not want, and the talk of commitment which are not exactly the things they will want in the club that will be talked about at this stage in a negative context.

Ketch was already in the club where he stood in front of the media time and time again, Hapoel Jerusalem, perhaps with an intensity no less significant than in Maccabi Tel Aviv, but his starting position there allowed him to make one or another mistakes.

In the current situation, even pointing towards something that is not sure to exist, by mistake, is something he does not want to do.

His start must be on the right foot, if the results are not perfect, so that they don't talk about his suitability for this level, and the small slip yesterday, is his first mistake at an early stage.

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The yellows hesitated, and missed.

Tonight they will meet, Brown (Photo: Danny Maron)

2.

Tonight at the hall will be one of the players who could come to Maccabi Tel Aviv this summer and upgrade it significantly.

And no, it's not about Mike James, which we'll get to later.

In his last two years in Kazan, John Brown became one of the most valued American players in Europe thanks to his defensive abilities and his connection to Italy, where he played his entire career until the episode in Russia, led him after the outbreak of the war to sign with Brescia and not impress there in terms of numbers, something in which he does not stand out significantly .

But Brown is considered by many to be the best defensive player in Europe.

"Yes, in my eyes he is like that," agreed Oded Ketch with the statement.

Brown was a player that if Maccabi Tel Aviv the 2022/23 version had started moving a little earlier they could have pounced on him, but while the Yellows were still busy with the leftovers of last season, the forward/center signed a three-year contract in Monaco.

In Maccabi Tel Aviv they said during the 2020/21 season that Brown was there that they checked back in his days in Italy, but it didn't help in the end.

For many of the people in the player market, the fact that Brown did not reach one of the Euroleague giants is an incomprehensible thing, but what is certain is that if he was willing to reach a team of the size of Monaco, a financial effort by the Yellows could bring him to Menorah Hall.

"It wasn't impossible, but Maccabi wasn't there at all at this stage of the summer," says one of the senior players in the player market.

And Brown is going to be a big headache for the Yellows ahead of tonight's game.

Oded Ketesh said that you should attack where he is not, Josh Nibo said that you should look for him in defense, which will make the home team's task this evening more difficult. Surely what we don't need," said one of the group's members last night.

Not loved in the hall, but "Monaco is much more than Mike James" (Photo: Danny Maron)

3.

Mike James is one of the most engaged basketball players on Twitter.

When Maccabi Tel Aviv published the post that compared Scotty Wilbkin to Wade Baldwin, he was there to say that "it's crazy", and then stated that he will not come to Maccabi in the future for several reasons and responded with bites to the fans who tried to send him messages.

This kind of relationship between the yellow crowd and the American star has been going on for several years, and he is one of the least loved characters in Menorah Hall along with Nikola Mirotic from Barcelona.

Since going to the Phoenix Suns and returning to the EuroLeague, James has had good games at the Menorah Hall, including a game-winning basket for Panathinaikos in his first game since returning, but mostly mediocre performances where he didn't stand out.

His current Monaco back line, where he stars alongside two other talented guards - Eli Okobo and Jordan Lloyd, gives him the stage to do what he knows how to do at the highest level.

"It's been a long time since it's not just Mike James," agreed Oded Ketch.

Maccabi should put special emphasis on James tonight, like every team that plays against him, but the current Monaco is a bigger team than him, and he doesn't always flourish in such a system.

For Monaco to go far is worth the Final Four, and if James can do it with her, he could enter the history book of European basketball.

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• basketball

• Euroleague and European basketball

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• Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball

• Oded Ketch