After unexpectedly announcing his retirement from basketball, Gal Mekel was a guest in the studio of “Talking with Shay Housman” to summarize: from the reasons behind the retirement, through the situation of Willie Sims, the unsuccessful period in Maccabi Tel Aviv, the more successful period in the NBA and the failure in the last Eurobasket .
Can you play basketball this year?
“Yes. At the standard that I used to play at the physical level, the energy, time and maintenance I had to do to play at this level is enormous. Is it possible? Yes, but it’s abrasive. And I don’t really know what the body would give, because in the last two years, unfortunately, it showed A thousand and one variations that I didn’t even know existed. I don’t think it’s a waiver. It’s a decision, something that sat in my stomach and in my head. I felt it even before the European Championship, I gave it a chance.”
Who was the last offer that separated you from retirement?
“I have a few more offers that came close to the retirement announcement. Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Yerushalayim.
If the offer was more professionally and financially attractive, would you go there?
“Nothing to do with it. It had nothing to do with a professional or financial aspect, it was purely my feeling. Sometimes you have to say enough.”
In “Fives” you hinted to us that there is one group you are targeting, and from which you did not receive an offer. Hapoel Tel Aviv.
“Right. Great question, I asked myself too, and I think I would have finished anyway.”
Take me to the moment the token fell.
“After we lost to the Czech Republic, I talked to my dad on the phone and I had tears in my eyes, I said to myself, ‘Come on, this could be it.’ , I tried, I did things, not some bombastic thing – but this is another nail.”
At this time you instruct the agents not to listen to offers?
“Mishko told me that I would update him on what was happening in Europe, he was also aware of the family situation with Willie Sims and knew that I might not be open to Europe. Deep inside I knew that I was not open to Europe, no matter what. I heard offers in Israel from many, many teams, I was really moved I am wanted and appreciated.”
So you were looking for the thrill and didn’t find it?
“I told myself, in every situation I get to, there will be about 10-15 moments of excitement and happiness during the season. It’s not a lot, but much more often I’ll have moments where I’ll ask myself, ‘Wait, why?'”
Take me to the moment when it’s finally over.
“It’s hard for me to tell you, but it was about two weeks that it was clear to me that it was going there. At some point I talked to the family and we said let’s go.
In between, there was a series of events that weren’t just injuries that you’ve experienced in recent years. From your mother’s medical condition to Willie Sims’ condition.
“Yes, a year and a half ago my mother got cancer, now she is in good condition. I was in Malaga and I told her that I felt something was wrong and that she should go get checked. I was with her in Israel when the season ended. It was a market, wow, but I am very practical in my nature. I see project and say, ‘Well, we have to succeed.’ I had to be with my mother, hug, caress, understand, listen. Very quickly, within two days, we prepared an action plan and immediately checked who was number one in the country and set off. I navigated from here, it was in the summer and I said “Well, I’m here.”
Another family crisis that you have experienced and are still experiencing, is the event that Willie Sims went through, but of Danielle that you are married to.
“It happened three months ago, he doesn’t call at the moment. We still pray and believe. If anyone can pull through something like this it’s him, he’s very strong, both mentally and physically. I always laugh with Daniel and say to her, ‘Why do you think I’m behaving like that? Pretty?'”.
Because as soon as he wakes up he will probably be terribly angry.
“Very well”.
I heard that you were actually there with him, I fed him, you told him.
“Yes, at first it was very intense. I tried my best, it’s hard.”
How much weight does such an element add to your shoulders?
“It wasn’t part of the considerations to finish, but it adds a lot, especially to the team. When it happened, you are first of all in shock, sadness, emotional turmoil, fear. Then you say here is the team that I built on and the European Championship for a very long time. But yes I had The experience because I had other incarnations like this with family crises back when I was at Maccabi. I was used to when I returned to the field, during a training session or two, to minimize the window, upload it to the cloud and concentrate on what is necessary.”
Much of your thought time was there when you dined him?
“I don’t think so, no.
So where did the thoughts go?
“They were very focused on the team, we were before the European Championship and that’s where I went. More of a small picture than a big picture.
Let’s summarize the episode. Do you feel you have received enough appreciation in your career?
“Sometimes not. At the press conference that was held, I came to this head that you say, and I saw that it was 180 degrees. The amount of messages and appreciation I received warmed my heart.”
When you look at your career, are you enjoying it in real time?
“No”.
“There was a system decision at Maccabi Tel Aviv, or Nikola’s decision, that I no longer play”
One of the places you don’t enjoy playing is Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“There were moments when it was.”
It never worked.
“True, factually true, but let’s put things in order. I arrived in the middle of the season after the season before Maccabi lost the championship and was relegated to the Eurocup. I was already locked up at Maccabi in the summer with a performance contract, but I couldn’t sign. I don’t know why, a feeling in my gut, something bothered me about my conduct” .
Who behaved in front of you?
Danny Federman, who was great, but there was some kind of leak that I’m signing… there were signs like that, an inner feeling. I signed with Red Star, there were two unpleasant months, I was not paid. Then I said to myself ‘Come on Gal, what did you give up?’ Somewhere in Maccabi it’s such a conflict because you really want to be there. Both the stage, both the financial side and also because this is the top of our basketball.”
I remember Mishko and Abi Zilberman talking to me, telling me to get on a plane and come to Israel for a meeting with David Federman. We met, I apologized for what happened in the summer and told him that I needed them and they needed me. I signed for three and a half years. The team was in bad shape. I felt that on a personal level I was excellent, but we were not a good team.”
The following season, a season where you were supposed to go a step further – things didn’t work out.
“There was a decision that I wasn’t playing, I didn’t play for two months.”
Why?
“I don’t know. Coach’s decision, Nikola’s decision. When you don’t play for two consecutive months, it’s just a decision. I probably didn’t dress well in Nikola Vujic’s professional eyes. When I didn’t even get the chance, I told myself there was something suspicious here.”
Did you have any conversations with Nicola?
“Hardly. When you want to create some kind of agenda, it’s very easy to tell stories, certainly true to that moment. Rami (Hadar) is a great coach, but to be the head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv after coaching for a year in the Premier League – that’s a leap. So for sure there is something behind it here.”
What doesn’t work at Maccabi Tel Aviv?
“I still don’t know the answer to this day. At the energetic level, there is something not happy there. It’s okay to have pressure, expectations, this is a team that should have these things – but you also need joy, and that’s not there.”
“What happened in the last Eurobasket was stinky and it stuck to the clothes”
The last Eurobasket is a trauma at the level of Israeli basketball.
“Disappointment, unequivocally.”
why did this happen?
“Wow. Can’t put my finger on it exactly, but it’s a disappointment. Certainly for me, I’ve built on it so much in the last two years. There was a feeling in the process with a touch of magic, that we can beat any team.”
So it’s about goods?
“It’s about everyone, it’s also about the team, it’s about both the players and the union. You know, you’re with a coach who succeeds with him, everything looks good, and suddenly you end the contract and he doesn’t continue to the European Championship.”
At the level of the players, you did not recover from it.
“There are players whose relationship with Oded was so strong on a career level. Tamir, Rafi, Sussman and myself. There were many occasions when I felt that we as a team and as individuals did not make the switch and said ‘come on let’s give it a try, whatever was was will be.'”
In the gentleness of your wave of a stick, you say he didn’t get 100% credit from the people who have to deliver the goods.
“I half agree with you, but it wasn’t expressed on the floor, but in the vibe. It’s not good enough. The atmosphere in the dressing room after Holland? That’s where I knew we wouldn’t go. There were also some incidents in the game with bad vibes, conversations between players that weren’t relevant. This negativity, the lack You could say ‘Fuck it, it’s bigger than us’, it gave us all an unpleasant feeling. It smelled and it stuck to clothes.”
In my opinion, you have never had anything like this in the team.
“No, there were some teams where the social situation was worse. There was simply crazy expectation here because of the last few years and because you have a brilliant squad and Danny (Abadiah).”
Tell me about the incident with Danny Avdia.
“Two styles were created in the team. One style of basketball, of fluency, of several moves in the attack. Something that ran for several years and looked good. And another style that is more of one move in the attack, a style that is more suitable for the NBA. In the end, this style is the one that gave the the tone.
And was it a mistake?
“In my opinion, yes.”
Professionally, Avdia and Godes did not find an equal valley.
“It could be, yes. Listen, Danny is a basketball star. He really likes to pass, he reads situations at a very high level, he has a best skill set for everything. But I think we forgot, both some of the players and some of the team, that he is still 21 years old. He is still Boy, he still needs the caress, the guidance and the hug.”
And he didn’t get it?
“In some cases no. On the other hand, he still has some obligation of a certain maturity, what does need to work and what doesn’t work. There was something in the middle that didn’t flow, there was no synchronization. Players who are more used to flow were less able.”
In the last move against Finland, when you didn’t give Dani Avdia and he got angry, what should have happened?
“He’s not 100% free because if he was I would have given up. I wanted to give up, I looked at him and I also looked at Guy. But it’s seconds you don’t bet, certainly not on the half. Once you make a decision, then you go with it. I made a move, run away I had the ball, and I got the best shot I could.”
And how did he react?
“What kind of body language. I didn’t feel it, he didn’t say anything to me. On the contrary, after that he told me ‘how did you screw it up, I would run and run over you in a hug’.”
“David said, ‘You may not know it, but you’re an NBA player.'”
You hardly had seasons where you start and finish in the same team. It is good? do you recommend
“I would really like to find a home, I found my home in the national team in all the years. On the other hand, this is how the career unfolds, in most cases I had excellent seasons and I was upgraded after that.”
Your career was on a sharp rise and from the moment you were released from the NBA there were also some wobbles.
“I had options to go to the Euroleague and be a second coordinator, but I told myself that I wanted to lead.”
What did you lack professionally to be the first coordinator in the Euroleague?
“Just a situation”.
Are you a talented basketball player?
“Yes”.
Are you underrated?
“Do not think”.
One of the strangest things that happened in Israeli basketball, the most unexpected, was the moment you suddenly became an NBA player.
“I saw it coming a year before.”
how?
David (Thorpe) saw me and said to me after two practices, ‘You may not know it, but you’re an NBA player.’ It was very exciting. There was a situation where I got a ‘workout’ in Utah. I paid for the plane ticket myself. Jeff Hornacek gave me a “workout” with Millsap and two other players from the team. We played 2×2, everything went well, every pick’n’roll is a goal, I danced. They told me they wanted me for a training camp, they tried to arrange a visa for me and it didn’t work out bureaucratically. David said to me ‘What are you upset about? You hit a home run here, now the whole league will follow you.”
First NBA game against Atlanta. how is the pulse
“Very exciting. Not understanding it properly, without enjoying the moment enough.”
Should you have fought harder and gotten a new NBA contract?
Obviously it tickles when you’re there in that golden cage, obviously you want to continue, but at that point in time it was realistic and there was the European Championship which was important to me and I wanted to be in shape.”