Knowing how to manage a career is a profession, any player or coach in the world of basketball will tell you.
Entire careers of great players have skyrocketed or gone backwards due to making the right or wrong decisions at a crucial moment in their careers, where they stood at a crossroads.
Last summer Michael Brisker will probably not remember well in the future, and at the sports management school in Wingate the decisions he made will probably not be included in the study materials.
On 23.5 the player's season ended after he was eliminated from the playoffs with Gilboa/Galil, on 3.6 he was honored and chosen as the season's most improved player in the Winner League.
Five months later, Brisker signed with Kiryat Ata with a feeble response and put an end to a long and disappointing summer for him.
Brisker.
Peak season with Gilboa, photo: Barney Ardov
When the cucumber season began, things looked completely different for the Israeli guard who had just finished the best season of his career and held the strongest card given to a player - power position.
From the first moment he marked the option of going to Europe as his preferred destination, but 'forgot' to inform the people of Gilboa/Galil, in whose ranks he held the contract.
Finally, in an act that looks like something out of a thriller, the center left his district at Gan Ner in the last hour he had left according to the original agreement, paid compensation to the team and became a free agent.
"Michael wanted to break away from the local swamp, change the atmosphere and go to Europe. He was very determined in his goal," said a source close to the player.
Indeed, throughout the summer, the guard received several offers from different teams in Europe, but they did not match his initial requirements and did not seem attractive enough for him.
"Michael wanted to play in the first leagues, he was not interested in the second league in France, Spain or Turkey, but to be honest he did not receive sufficiently attractive offers," a source privy to the details told Israel Hayom.
In the middle of the summer, when Brisker and his agent began to realize that the offers coming from all over Europe were not as attractive as they initially thought, they began to put pressure on Hapoel Jerusalem with the aim of closing there.
"Michael really wanted to feel that he was progressing, he had an offer from Kiryat Ata already in July for the exact same amount he signed, but he saw it as a step backwards, not a promotion. For him, playing in Jerusalem, a club with a large fan base, tradition and a European framework, could have been Good," says a source close to the player.
Brisker.
He really wanted to play in Jerusalem, photo: Barney Ardov
The capital looked into the possibility seriously and even entered into talks with the player, but quickly dropped the option.
"Jerusalem was looking for another Israeli guard and considered Michael, but the stories about his character and behavior in the locker room, along with his time in Hapoel Tel Aviv, 'burned him' a bit. He got a reputation as a player who cannot succeed in big teams and this bothered the people of Jerusalem," says an industry source.
At one point, the actor and his agent approached various parties in the city, with the aim of trying to convince the owner Eyal Chomsky, that Michael has changed and fits the situation, when once the parties even met for a chance meeting and talked at length about it, but the Reds decided to give up his services.
"In Jerusalem, they were afraid that he would not accept his status as a supplementary player and would start making faces at them in the locker room. They thought that he would not agree to move from a senior Israeli to the third or fourth guard in the rotation, so they decided to sign Or Cornelius, who by his nature is more suitable for the definition of the role as a supplementary player," says the source with the details .
Tried his luck in the
NBA
At the end of the summer, when the option to play in the second French league also fell through, the player tried his luck through the preseason camps of the NBA and began training with the players tested in the Houston Rockets, but even those around him realized that an overseas contract was not realistic at this point.
"He tried his luck, but it was mainly a move that slightly raised his position in the market."
When the season started, deep into the month of October, the player found himself with only two offers in hand, one from Bnei Herzliya and the other from Kiryat Ata.
The cup holder who was looking for another Israeli throughout the summer wanted the player but did not agree to pay him the sums he demanded, and he landed in Kiryat Ata, with a contract estimated at 140 thousand dollars per season, an unusual amount for an Israeli player outside of Maccabi Tel Aviv or Hapoel Jerusalem.
"We wanted him since the beginning of the summer, Sharon Abrahami realized that there was a shooting problem in the team and made sure to make it clear to the management that Michael could make the difference between relegation and staying. At the end of the day, our door was always open for him," concluded sources around the northern team.
Abrahami.
He really wanted Brisker with him, photo: Liron Moldovan
Tonight, after almost half a year in which he did not play basketball, Michael Brisker will make his debut in the Kiryat Ata uniform and host Hapoel Tel Aviv.
The guard enters a trial year and knows that he must deliver the goods in order to return to the top of basketball and a position of strength.
Did he act correctly throughout the summer?
only time will tell.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
