James Nanley has been at the center of quite a few incidents since joining Maccabi Tel Aviv. Allow him to take off with the team for a game that may decide the future of the Greek in the arena? We will try to make order.
Maccabi very much dislikes Nanelli’s approach in recent weeks, while at the same time the team has a very big disappointment from him on the professional side, even though he averages 12.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in the Euroleague this season.
The club claim that there was no disciplinary event that led to the decision, but rather a general mood surrounding its conduct, with Sapropoulos’ decision coming mainly as an attempt to produce some kind of shock among the players.
A hint of a storm around Nanley, could have been obtained already in training yesterday. The guard-forward left training first, and when he left he told the sports channel: “We just have to win. One thing I do know – I’m not this team’s problem.”
Beyond basketball, as mentioned, Nanley has been involved in several incidents that indicate unrest. One of them occurred after the loss to Nes Ziona in the league, so Nanelli confronted Yiftach Ziv in training the Yellows and the two were sent to the locker room and were not allowed to train.
Another incident occurred in a game against Alba Berlin, when Nanali scored a confrontation with Yuval Sussman, the Yellows’ ex, who claimed that he was “cursing and swearing in an unacceptable manner.” In that game, as I recall, Sussman scored two threes in a money-time clutch that closed the story and ran in the direction of Nanley defiantly to shake his hand. “He kept cursing me and pushing me throughout the game, even when I was on the bench and not involved,” Sussman explained at the time, “he called me derogatory names in an unbearable way.”
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