When Xavier Manford signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, the members of the club felt that a circle had been closed.
The player's name appeared as a permanent member of the professional team registers for every summer in recent years, but the deal never came to fruition, for financial and professional reasons, until last summer.
If everything had gone well, Manford would not have landed in Tel Aviv at all and would continue to play at the highest levels of Europe.
The American guard finished a very successful season personally in South-East Melbourne of the Australian league, where he scored an average of 16.6 points per game, to which he added 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game on average and held an expensive contract.
The Reds realized at a very early stage of the summer and as a lesson from the previous season that they must find a player who can play alongside Jacob Brown in the back line, complement him and take the burden off his shoulders.
"Not every player can play alongside Jacoban, for better or for worse. We were looking for a very specific type of player who can step into this position professionally and socially; a player who can be firepower on days when nothing is working, but also one who doesn't demand to be the star. Manford fit that perfectly ", they said in the club.
Manford (left).
Not afraid to dream big, photo: Oded Karni
"His agent is a very good friend of mine, he is a player we talked about for many years and tried to bring him here, but it never materialized. Xavier earned very high sums throughout his career that we could not necessarily pay, and he reached a point in his career where he felt he wanted to play in a European factory Hapoel Tel Aviv coach Danny Franco told Israel Hayom.
The Reds went out for hire and earned a player with rich European experience, who would doubtless have landed in Israel a few years ago.
The 30-year-old Manford has a resume of 24 games in the NBA, along with good seasons in the development league, in Turkey, China and also a term in the Barcelona uniform.
Danny Franco.
Earned a great player, photo: Kobi Eliyahu
"He hasn't played much outside the US, and this time it was the time and place that suited both sides.
The club made a certain financial leap that allowed us to bring him, and he reached a point in his life where family is also a factor in decision-making, and he wanted to go to a place that is nice and fun for the players," explains Franco.
Belongs to the higher levels
Manford integrated seamlessly and very quickly into the club, and looked fantastic already in the first pre-season games where he led the Reds to an impressive victory over Monaco with a memorable winning basket.
Already in his first preseason game in Israel, he demonstrated impressive ability with 33 points and 5 three-pointers, even though he suffered from poor fitness.
"Whoever signed Manford understands basketball and knows what he is getting. This is a high-quality and very experienced player who belongs to the highest levels of basketball," says Dan Shamir, who knows the player closely and has coached against him for the past two years in the Australian league.
"He is a proven player with rich European experience. He is the type of player who can succeed in Israel and coaches really like him."
Xavier Manford.
Jacob Brown came to the rescue, photo: South East Melbourne
"When both of them are good, we are good, they are very important for us. Even before the season, you can see the combination between them," said Franco about the relationship between Manford and Brown.
"There is a very good understanding there and we are talking about two comfortable people. Two people with a lot of basketball. There are not many players who contribute on both sides of the court like Xavier."
The club is talking about a positive person who connected with the team and the city, and the guard does not hide his intense affection for the fans on social networks.
"Xavier is a great person, a good friend, quiet and intelligent. A person who is very comfortable to work with. We had a lot of conversations throughout the summer about the atmosphere and energies around a club like Hapoel, so it was clear that it could fit in great. We won him and I am happy that he is with us," the coach is satisfied the red.
Although it is only the first stages of the season, Manford is not afraid to dream big.
"I don't want to put too many expectations on our team, but we have a great team, and everyone here has one thought and that is to win the Eurocup, that's our goal," said the player.
Tonight, in the home game against the Italian Taranto, Guard and his friends have the opportunity to take another step on the way to the big goal.
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