Eurocup summary: Hamburg - Hapoel Tel Aviv 91:98 (after extra time) (Sport1)
The EuroLeague's choice to award Nikola Vujicic the title of factory legend is one of the justified ones, and he will receive the award tonight (Thursday, 21:05) before the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Valencia.
The giant Croatian was a central part of a team that is considered one of the greatest in the history of European basketball, and for years he was considered a distinct symbol of the golden age in yellow.
His place in some sort of hall of fame should go without saying - as a player, of course.
Everything that happened to Vučić since he retired, cracked the historical status he had built for himself.
To say the least, it is difficult to say that he was a great success as the professional manager of the Yellows.
His term did start with the Euroleague win in 2014, but in the nine years that have passed since then, the club has mostly experienced failures.
There is nothing more symbolic than the fact that on the very evening when he will be honored with the honorable ceremony, and will receive a trophy from the hands of CEO Diane Bodiroga, the Yad Eliyahu Hall will be filled with buzz around the status and future of the coach - one should say, another coach - after a little more than two months of work. And this, on one leg , the story of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the last decade.
Even if Ketch's opponents were right, who trusts them to choose the right coach?
The coach with Vujic and Mizrahi (Photo: Udi Tsitiat)
The following does not come to defend Ketch and his work at Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Yellows are showing an unworthy defensive game that is not improving, whatever the legitimate reasons may be, and stand at 0% in the away games, including a few losses on nights when they simply had to win.
A month after the comfortable opening arranged for them by the schedule of games, they find themselves in a negative balance, and at this stage they will have to make a real change in several aspects in order to start a new way.
Ketch's arrival was accompanied by headlines about the change he had made, but did his resume justify it?
Was the short tenure at Panathinaikos, the two trophies at Hapoel Jerusalem and the beautiful days at Hapoel Eilat and the calm Gilboa/Galil enough to place him on the Euroleague coaches' wheel?
As usual at Maccabi Tel Aviv, opinions are divided: there are those who believe that the answer to this question is positive, but there are influential factors within the management who did not support the appointment of the Israeli from the beginning.
Maccabi's recent results, and no less important than that - the way, the ability and what appears to be a lack of process - may be used as a gusher to justify the path of the opponents.
And even if they were right: if the ability to find a proper coach is so bad, what makes those who create the noise think that they will be able to find a better coach this time?
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Two legends will meet tonight on the hall floor.
Diane Bodiroga and Nikola Vujic in better days (Photo: GettyImages)
Roughly ten months have passed since Yanis Spropoulos was fired.
From the time he was fired to the arrival of Ketch, four and a half months passed.
In this period, Maccabi Tel Aviv could have closed with a coach, and not hope that things will work out in the summer against their teams as was the case with Xavi Pascual and Andrea Trinchieri.
However, the Yellows and the man who headed the professional system, Vujicic, did not do the job properly, and thus the decision to appoint Ketch unfolded before them, adding David Blatt to the system along the way.
The same Spropoulos was the first successful coach during Vučić's time, after the episodes with Guy Goodes, Jean Tabak, Erez Edelstein, Rami Hadar, Einars Bagatskis, Eric Shibek and Nevan Spahia.
The Greek managed to stabilize Maccabi Tel Aviv after a few bad years, brought it to the well during the Corona season and completed three years until he was fired following the failure in the Euroleague and the series of losses to Hapoel Tel Aviv last season.
And here,
Tonight, when Vučić gets the title he deserves, it will be worth remembering his great days as a superstar.
It is also important to remember the farces that existed during his time as a professional manager (who will finish his position at the end of the current season) and the inability of the system under him to make correct decisions and position itself as a successful team.
If he manages to stay with Ketch as coach until the end of this season, he will be able to break the chain, and maybe start a new and more sane process with the yellows, one where the coach is not the first to pay the price.
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