It's not every day that an Israeli basketball team meets an opponent from Denmark.
Danish basketball receives most of its publicity thanks to the two Euroleague players "Ipa" Lundberg and Shavon Shields, who play for Virtus Bologna and Armani Milan.
Nevertheless, there is one team that has been working in recent years to become a reputable club in European basketball, and that is Bakken Beers from the city of Aarhus, who will host Hapoel Jerusalem tonight.
Bakken qualified this season from the qualifiers for the group stage in the Champions League, and this is not her first appearance in the factory.
It is a kind of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Danish basketball with 18 championships. The Danish basketball expert is coach Erez Bittman, who has lived in the country for several years. He was first the national team coach for four and a half years, and now he is the director of an academy in Copenhagen.
Bittman is also the man who almost put basketball in the country, which is very far from the European top, in the most unexpected place.
He was one basket away from one of the biggest sensations - promotion to the last European Championship, and more so when he eliminated the great Lithuania.
After the dramatic loss in Lithuania, the match observer said to Bitman: "You were close to the biggest sensation in European basketball in the last 50 years."
Despite the great and surprising success, Bittman did not continue with the team because of what he calls "probably we succeeded too much".
The coach explains: "I'm not talking about my salary at all, they couldn't provide the necessary conditions and resources for the team. There's nothing to compare the envelope that the Israel Basketball Association gives to what the national teams receive here. We didn't come to an agreement. They simply couldn't meet my expectations."
Since another coach was appointed to the team, he has already been replaced.
The heads of the association have already checked and will check in the future the possibility of returning it.
In the meantime, he was already a candidate for coaching the Swiss national team and he wants to continue with the national teams.
Bateman in action.
I think Jerusalem is a favorite, photo: FIBA website
"Suggest not to underestimate them"
The 54-year-old Bitman was previously an assistant coach at Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem and a coach at Hapoel Galil Iliyon and the youth teams, and even coached for short periods in Greece, Belgium and Germany. About Jerusalem's rival, he says: "This is a team that works and is managed according to European standards.
They are managed nicely and professionally.
They have a big sponsor and even a subsidiary team in the first league.
She succeeds thanks to her ability to maintain continuity in the foreigners she signs and by recruiting leading Danish actors.
They have been in the European factories for ten years and reached a record achievement - the Final Four of the European Cup last season.
I suggest not to underestimate them because of their experience."
However, it is understood that Jerusalem is significantly better, and beyond that, the start of the season for the Danish team is not good.
She has already lost twice this season in the league, the number of losses she usually has in an entire season.
She started her appearances in the group stage with two defeats, when she scored an average of 63 points.
"They are not playing well," says Bitman, "Unlike previous years, they replaced most of the foreigners, and the quality of the replacements is not sufficient. They brought two local talents, but they are still very young."
One of the foreigners who left and is sorely missed is David Afiani, who moved to Hapoel B.S. The Israeli coach says that the 2,000-seat hall will be full: "Even though Jerusalem doesn't look the best at the start, it is a clear favorite.
This game depends on her."
Carrington., Photo: Liron Moldovan
How is it that Danish basketball has two senior representatives in the Euroleague - Lundberg and Shields?
"These are two different cases. Shields is actually an American who has Danish citizenship. He played in colleges. Lundberg, on the other hand, is a real Cinderella story, an amazing development year by year. From a mediocre team in Denmark, through the Spanish league and now the Euroleague (last season there was even a short period in the NBA).
"This is a unique story. When he was younger and unknown, I recommended him to one of the teams in Israel, but due to the fact that he is from Denmark, which is not known for its level of basketball, the proposal was not really considered. In general, I recommend that everyone pay attention to the Scandinavian market - it has enormous potential . See what Finland did in the last EuroBasket."
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