Eurocup summary: Hapoel Tel Aviv - Paris 104:86/Sport1
Before the start of the season, Hapoel Tel Aviv's media team made a series of videos about the state of the team.
"It's the same verb, with a little more money", was the chosen slogan.
Some of the players and club personnel were shown with expensive items compared to the older, cheaper items they supposedly used until now, or were photographed receiving luxury treatments instead of standard treatments.
The reality of Hapoel Tel Aviv is not a reality of luxury, but there is no doubt that the 2024 model in red is starting to feel like a team that has made an economic leap, in almost every possible aspect.
Starting with the squad, through the conditions and conduct during the war, and up to inexpensive decisions designed to make it easier for the players to concentrate on basketball and bring their best ability.
It is not certain that it will end with the desired title that the fans and the management dream of, but one thing can be determined for sure, at the current point in time - for the first official derby of the season, tonight (Saturday, 19:00) against Maccabi Tel Aviv, it puts them in a very good position.
The rich of Tel Aviv.
Tomer Ginat and Jaylan Hurd/Barney Ardov
Last August, the move that had been planned for almost a year was completed, in which control of the club passed from the fans' association into the hands of Ofer Yanai, who now owns 51% of the team.
Avi Seidenberg owns another 30% and the fans have 19% left.
The association still has control over many things, but the general control is Yanai's.
According to the agreement, the new owner injected NIS 30 million into the club's coffers immediately, and in practice began building on the money, committing to higher contracts and assembling a more expensive than usual squad even before the agreement was approved.
Already last season, when Seidenberg increased his investment, Hapoel Tel Aviv took a step forward, and the trend continued this season.
Three new foreigners were placed, two of them (Kyle Alexander and Brian Angola) for more than $400,000 - sums that have not been recognized in the club until today - while the contracts of Jacob Brown, Xavier Manford and Jaylen Hurd were upgraded, and the team was ready to attack all the titles .
When the injuries began to pile up from the middle of last month, with the decision to send Brown for surgery, the Reds once again put their hand in their pocket.
Will Cummings, an expensive foreigner in Eurocup terms, was signed until the end of the season, and Dez Wells came from a big contract in the Chinese league.
"HaPoel has taken a step forward when it comes to the players it is targeting," says a senior player agent, "if last season it was not able to compete with other Eurocup teams for some of the players, such as Alfa Kaba for example, this season it could take Alexander who was a candidate for Bayern Munich and was in her lists. Cummings is also a very senior player, certainly in relation to the market that exists in the middle of the season. The club has risen to another level. It is not yet at the Euroleague level in terms of names and money, but at the highest level below."
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October 7 also had far-reaching effects.
Hapoel Tel Aviv, like the other teams in the Premier League, helped players who wish to leave Israel.
But just like Maccabi Tel Aviv, they couldn't sit and wait for developments, because about ten days after the outbreak of the war, they already returned to play in the Eurocup and switched home games with Venice.
Even before the group had a temporary home in Belgrade, it began to move around Europe, until it settled on Belgrade.
"The first month was also difficult from a logistical point of view, and it was a serious expense that only we and Maccabi Tel Aviv absorbed at that time," the club recalls.
"Hapoel Holon and Hapoel Yerushalayim began to play much after us, and we conducted ourselves for quite some time in uncertainty, when it was not clear whether the State of Israel would participate and pay, and with how much money."
Hapoel, by the way, like Maccabi Tel Aviv, also cut the wages of some of its employees, according to the outline requested by the state, only that the things did not come out, and it is not a horizontal cut for all.
Within this situation, the conditions presented to the Reds were improved, when some of them were already in the system as part of the upgrade that the operator went through in recent years.
When the team was divided into Israelis and foreigners between games, even before the return of the Premier League, the Italian fitness coach Andrea Cavallari remained with the foreigners.
After that, when some were still afraid to return, a personal trainer stayed in Serbia.
And now, when some of the foreigners remain in Israel due to injuries, they are receiving treatments around the clock, with another special team that includes a physical therapist and a personal trainer.
In total, according to Hapoel, four full-time employees were added to the various departments of the club.
Linai and the people of Hapoel Tel Aviv it was important to preserve the Red community after the October 7 disaster.
Therefore, they decided to fly out to the game against Venice last month more than 160 families of kidnapped and murdered people related to the club, and did so with the full funding of the management.
When Brown was injured, money talked again.
The club initially left him for treatment in London after the away game against the Lions, and when it was decided to have hernia surgery - he was sent to a world-renowned specialist in Germany who performed an advanced procedure that should return the center back to the field a month ahead of time.
The additional financial cost did not stop the move.
Last week another flight was added to the list.
The owner and his team heard the complaints of the players and coaches about the exhausting flights and the fatigue that accumulates and causes injuries, and decided to take out a special flight that would bring them back right after the match against Paris so that they would arrive more prepared and fresher for the derby.
Will return sooner than expected thanks to a special medical procedure?
Jacob Brown/Official website, Hapoel Tel Aviv
Yanai, just like Seidenberg before him, is up-to-date on almost everything that goes on in Hapoel Tel Aviv.
He and his people know about almost every candidate, and certainly about every player who is negotiating, and were in favor of getting stronger during the last period, including an interior player, something that was eventually stopped by the professional team under Danny Franco.
Yanai's plans for the future are to continue and expand.
Already last year, Hapoel began to be interested in the possibility of renovating the Shlomo Hall or building a bigger hall that would suit the next goal - entering the Euroleague.
Yanai knows that a bigger hall will bring more income and a bigger budget.
In Hapoel Tel Aviv they still remember where they were until a few years ago, and are in no rush to agree to any move.
Chairman Cohen is the one who ultimately gives the last word, even if a large majority of the proposals that are put forward receive approval. Not only the "lean" days were traumatic; there are those who remember and recall the era of Vladimir Gosinsky's big money and what happened after it, That is why the club tries to conduct itself responsibly, so that today's money remains for tomorrow.
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