Sophocles Hortsianitis does not often give interviews, but when he does, in Greece he is given the stage befitting a former player of his status. The one who won the Euroleague with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and finished as the vice-champion of the world and achieved a European bronze medal with the Greek national team, recalled yesterday (Tuesday) the saddest moment he had in his term in Israel: the pursuit of a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan after an away victory in the derby.
“Sofu” was asked what was the most terrible thing he had heard on the basketball court, and he did not hesitate: “The only comment I can think of is the one I received when I was playing in Israel. Someone said something really terrible to me. We finished a game with a lot of hostility between the two teams and someone told me ‘I’m going to be raped. your daughter and your son'”.
As I recall, the incident happened at Hadar Yosef after a Maccabi Tel Aviv victory. Chortianitis ran into the stands and tried to reach that fan, when on the way he hit the son of Hapoel’s coach at the time, Erez Edelstein, who was sitting in the honor stand. The Greek’s teammates stopped him in time and prevented the incident from escalating. Last year, the actor referred to that evening and said: “This is the first time in my life that I felt that I could kill someone. I would have smashed him to pieces. Luckily, this did not happen, because I would have caused him a lot of damage and put myself in serious trouble.”