It would have looked like a dream season for Hapoel Tel Aviv’s basketball team after the shuffle in recent years. The team has even fantasized about a double, so some of the players have already started to sign for next season and also coach Danny Franco.
But since the loss in the cup final to Bnei Herzliya and the injury of Jacoben Brown, it is not the same team. The team that in recent weeks does not mention that of about two months ago even found itself in the lower house and is now fighting for promotion to the playoffs.
Despite everything, chairman Rami Cohen conveys optimism in an interview with ONE and is sure that the team will still record success this season.
Rami Cohen (Hagai Michaeli)Will this dream season turn into a nightmare season?
“It will not become a nightmare, it is a difficult definition, it sounds like relegation. This failed season is out of the playoffs, I hope that is not what will happen either. “I still want to be optimistic, until a month and a half ago we played good basketball and I want to be optimistic that we will return to playing the same basketball and I guess no team will want to meet us in the playoffs.”
You do not want them to remember only the three victories in the derby against Maccabi Tel Aviv and that is it.
“I want us to advance to the playoffs and play like we played most of the season.”
Jacoben Brown’s injury ruined your season?
“Right now these are the facts, without him we would not look good. But he will be back soon and I hope the whole team will come back with him, even without him we should have looked better. “
Jacoben Brown in the warm-up (Itzik Blanitzky)Do you believe that from the bottom house you will be able to advance to the playoffs?
“The first two are coming up and I very much hope and believe we will be there. After ascending I hope we will continue to play well again, be competitive, make it difficult and play equally with those who will not come. But first you have to get up. I do not want to think of a script that I do not come up with. We deserve to go up, we did a good job except for a few first games that took us to connect because of injuries and things like that. We had a good season until after the cup final and then there were injuries and stuff like that again. We are a better team than where we are at the moment. It will be a huge failure if we do not advance to the playoffs. “
Why were you not in a hurry to sign Danny Franco for next season?
“I have 15 years here and 10 years in the Premier League, I know the coaches here, Danny is one of the best and I think we should give the system peace and run with someone. There is not one moment that I regret it, I think he is the right man and we all need stability and build a good system and it will succeed. I very much hope that this year and if not this year then in the season after it and if not then in the season that follows but I think it will succeed ”.
Danny Franco (Itzik Blanitzky)You’re negotiating with Jacoben Brown over a new contract, where does that stand?
“Things like that take time, I guess by the end of the season we will know.”
You resigned from the membership in the board of the basketball association and you remain a member only in the board, we see there an exchange of letters and an entire kindergarten going between the parties. How do you think this story will end?
“My mom told me when I was a kid‘ you should be a lawyer ’, so with all these accusations and letter forwarding I’m really sorry I did not go to be a lawyer (laughs), they at least make a living from our nonsense. I believe it will end in everyone receiving common sense. This thing goes too far because there is some kind of structure to these crises and people are starting to fortify their positions. “I think at the moment the principal is doing a good job and the union does not really want to dismantle it, but such people who start are dragged to bad places before getting along, I want to believe that this time too this will be the case.”
Cohen continued: “But it is clear to everyone that the principal is doing well for basketball in the Premier League and she should continue to work. The rest of the things for either side are solvable. By the nature of such processes that happen many times they work out by nature and I think here too it will happen. The union’s call to put the principal under its hands is valid from next summer, so it could be that because a great many people fall in love with the position of the quarrel and conflict then it will only have to be resolved in the middle of next season. But I believe that things are clear and solvable. “
“The principal should keep working.” Rami Cohen (Hagai Michaeli)You resigned from the union after being a very dominant name, taking advantage of the fact that you are not there?
“I’m not connected. One of the problems is that the management of the association is 29 people so in any issue that arises there is really no influence for Premier League teams or national league teams because each such team is 4-5 people. The union would survive even without me, I do not think anyone is taking advantage of the fact that I am not there to do things because none of us have much influence. “There are a lot of things I did there and I was involved, such as youth committees and the like, but there are other people who do it and the basketball association will manage without me.”
Who would you like to meet in the playoffs if you go up to it?
I want to meet Hapoel Migdal Haemek (laughs). “Maybe they are big on us with how we look at the moment.”
Have you already called Maccabi Tel Aviv to congratulate them on advancing to the Euroleague playoffs?
I think one of the things I try very hard all these years is to make people realize that Hapoel Tel Aviv is big and strong enough, maybe more than any other sports brand and it needs to deal with itself and understand that if it does not succeed, it does not succeed because of itself and vice versa. We need to get out of this perception that we are something that accompanies something else in the industry. We are in the center and big enough and heroes and we do not deal with others. “
Yiftach Ziv and Sorkin at the end