“Like a pillar of cloud,
Thus shall you go before the herd,
understand everything, know,
Don’t say a word.
like a column of smoke,
disappear into the room,
Something in you will tell you to continue on your way…”
(The late Ali Mohr)
I am far from the best in basketball. I always watched and loved basketball, but I didn’t really pretend to understand it. So I will not be the person who can explain or analyze the success of the Maccabi Tel Aviv coach on the field. For this, there is (Also on this site) people older than me. But excuse me for not wanting to talk about Lorenzo Brown, Wade Baldwin or even Roman Sorkin. I want to talk about a man named Oded Ketch.
Ketch has been with me since childhood. Since when I was a little boy, and he is a big star in Maccabi Tel Aviv. These were years when Maccabi itself rather faltered in relation to Europe – the mid-nineties were years when the yellow empire still shone above the league, but on the continent looked a bit faded and far from impressive. Except that within that Maccabi, Ketch starred in a phenomenal way. He was the thing for whom it was worth watching the gray Maccabi of those years. He was a hero.
And these years have made me the one who looks at this man, to paraphrase the film, really – and closely. Something about Ketch has always impressed me – his ability not only to be a very talented basketball player, but also an extraordinary person. Israeli sports are full of cowardly types at best – and toxic at worst.
But Ketch is one of the only examples of a person you can truly fall in love with – for his ability to be human. To leave for a moment the need to be clichéd and “know how to speak”, as the saying goes, but to say something real and speak emotion. It was Ketch, whose facial expression always looked a little frozen in front of the world, maybe even apathetic – he was the one who won my heart.
It happened when the NBA dream ended because of the strike. It happened in that Final Four in Thessaloniki, when you saw this very dilemma on his face – of a boy who grew up in one team, and dreamed all these years of succeeding in it, then the hand of fate came and put him on the side that wins it. It happened with the terrible injury and the press conference where he had to say goodbye to the thing he loves most in the world (“paint without colors”).
It happened when he started to become a coach, and encountered difficulties that he did not know as the “golden boy” when he was a player. It happened with the big break in Maccabi Tel Aviv, when he succumbed to the impossible system of pressures that was around him. It happened after the championship in Gilboa/Galil, at Maccabi’s expense in the church, when he stood in front of the camera and said: “I thought about my father.” Of all these cases , he could run away towards the easy solution – towards the clichés, but he was a human being in them. A human being who is not always perfect, but always whole.
And at every stop he passed, he always had to face skepticism. Against those who turned up their noses at him, those who claimed that “it’s not really”. that Katz was thought to be earning something because of his big name as a player, and not because of an outstanding coaching job. Those who still labeled Ketch as “inexperienced” when he returned to Maccabi last summer – even though he went through every possible station in Israeli basketball, including the national team, and even coached in the Euroleague. And in almost every station he left behind success. And despite all that, he still wasn’t really trusted.
Not sure how this season will end (last season’s Maccabi Tel Aviv also made playoffs in the Euroleague, yet the taste of this season was quite bitter). But one thing should come out of this season without a doubt – Oded Ketch is a basketball coach at the highest level. One who entered Quite a few left the system with teeth and eyes, and manages to lead it with genius. To play with it the most beautiful basketball we have seen in years, to have a dressing room full of stars (and quite a bit of ego), and to create a positive atmosphere in a club that has not known such for many years.
But for the professional facts, as mentioned, there are better people than me. Beyond them, there is Oded Ketch the man. A personality that has accompanied me from afar since I was little, and in my eyes is a symbol – a symbol of self-belief that does not contradict humility, a symbol of quiet and unostentatious work, a symbol of a star from a young age who experienced exactly how stars fall – and had to start everything from the beginning. And in other words, in a place where there aren’t many people like Israeli sports – Ketch is a man. And the moment when this humanity also connects with success, is a moment that allows you to get really excited.
“Unintentionally,
let yourself go
All calculations
will end by themselves
like the sycamore tree
to resurrection from the fall
Something in you will tell you to continue
go straight
go alone
Do not be afraid
do not be mad
Go innocent
Go one…”