Ben Sharaf scores 32 points in the National League (from YouTube)
Two moments could have changed the negotiations that took place between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Lorenzo Brown in the last month, and which ultimately led to a contract extension until at least the summer of 2025.
The first happened around the match against Alba Berlin three weeks ago.
Brown appeared for the first time this season at a Euroleague pregame press conference and talked about what makes his season so far the best.
"I stay focused on my art, come almost every day to throw more extra shots and the method here helps me. Being around the guys here makes me relaxed on and off the court. The atmosphere here motivates me."
A day later he injured his ankle and Maccabi Tel Aviv already saw how things were going wrong for them.
Until his MRI was deciphered on Friday afternoon and it became clear that it was not a season-ending injury for the yellow star, some people at Maccabi did not sleep well.
"Even if Lorenzo had been injured for a longer period of time, no one here would have given up on him," says one of the Maccabi today, "maybe it would have changed something in the talks, but we wouldn't have let him go."
A week later, news was published on a Spanish website that Brown had already signed a contract with Real Madrid for next season.
Maccabi Tel Aviv is recalling this news today and one of its people says: "We knew it wasn't true, and we weren't sure if someone was trying to convey a message to us at an advanced stage of the talks, or if it was a delusion of the writer. In any case, we knew the truth even then."
The contract he signed was with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Brown (photo: official website, courtesy of Maccabi Tel Aviv)
About three weeks ago, Maccabi Tel Aviv started initial talks with Brown about extending his contract, when his American agent Andrew Morrison was visiting Israel.
At the same meeting, Maccabi Tel Aviv expressed their desire to open the contract of Brown, who had an expensive exit option this summer, in order to prevent him from joining Real Madrid, the team that was marked as the most prominent candidate to receive him.
Brown, for his part, expressed to his teammates and Maccabi people many times the fact that he is having a great time in Tel Aviv, and is getting the conditions he wanted at Maccabi.
As you remember, Brown came from Kazan, and before that he enjoyed a difficult professional situation in Fenerbahce, and played in Red Star Belgrade, which was far from being at the top of Europe.
In the last week, the parties increased the pace of negotiations until the contract was closed.
What closed the picture for Brown was the fact that Maccabi decided to give him a guaranteed contract until the summer of 2025, when he will be 35 years old, with an option for another season, and although he would have made more money next season in the Spanish majors if he got there, he had to bet on himself again when just getting older
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5 million dollars for 3 years: Brown's new contract at Maccabi Tel Aviv
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Avoids the need to bet on himself (Photo: Danny Maron)
The previous time that Maccabi Tel Aviv acted at this stage of the season to sign players to long-term contracts, as it did in recent days with Roman Sorkin and Brown, was during the 2019/20 season, when it opened the contracts of Scotty Wilbkin and Othello Hunter and gave them more money and more guaranteed years to the contract
None of them, by the way, stayed for the last season according to the team's option.
The next target in the Yellows' puzzle is Wade Baldwin.
The guard signed this season for just over a million dollars with a two-way option to leave in the summer, when Baldwin could leave with an offer from the NBA.
Maccabi Tel Aviv knows that the chance of this happening is not high, but they want to close any uncertainty and give him a contract for a period similar to Brown's.
A guaranteed contract for another two years, until the summer of 2025, with an option for another season.
Baldwin's situation in terms of age and progress in his career is different from that of Brown, but both his camp and Maccabi Tel Aviv have assessed in recent days that the direction is positive, and it is not impossible that he too will sign a new contract soon.
The direction is positive.
Will Baldwin sign soon? (Photo: Kobi Eliyahu)
The figure that Maccabi Tel Aviv put in the front in the contract extensions of Sorkin and Brown is Avi Evan, who was the team's coach in the last part of last season, and who has served for the last decade as the head of the team's scouting system.
The placement of a stone in the front is not accidental.
After the departure of Nikola Vujicic from the position of professional manager at the end of the current season, Maccabi Tel Aviv is reorganizing, and Evan is the one who is destined to receive a large part of Vujicic's powers, including everything concerning negotiations with players.
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