Hapoel Tel Aviv is just two wins away from accomplishing the unthinkable – playing in the prestigious Euroleague – as they headed into Tuesday night’s opener EuroCup best-of-3 finals series against Gran Canaria.
The Reds hold home-court advantage, as Games 1 and 3 are being played in Samokov, Bulgaria, due to the security situation in Israel, while Game 2 will take place at Gran Canaria in Spain.
While the Reds are one of Israel’s historic basketball clubs, most of their European success came in lower-tier competitions. The club has spent many years out of the top tier domestically and only recently re-emerged as a serious contender, especially under the ownership of Ofer Yannay.
After defeating Valencia 2-1 in their semifinal series, Hapoel Tel Aviv and its owner Yannay were raring to go, with history within their grasp. Yannay, who has been celebrated by many fans as the club’s savior, reflected on how his team was able to conquer Valencia in three games, with the decisive tilt taking place at one of the toughest home courts in Europe, La Fonteta.
“We had an amazing evening. What I felt, what everyone felt, amidst all the tension, was a calm that everything would be okay. It came from the players’ determination, led by Yam Madar’s incredible sacrifice. Madar told me that he had been asking himself how many more seconds he could play. Despite everything, we managed to win it and it’s simply amazing.”
Madar played through injury
Madar, who had been suffering through a serious knee injury, decided to put his own personal fitness interests aside and go out and play the best that he could, which resulted in him not only leading the Reds to victory but also being named the series’ most valuable player.
“You saw a 23-year-old player with his future ahead of him, risking millions of dollars of future earnings, with the clear thought of not losing this game,” Yannay said.
There’s no question that winning a series against a team of Valencia’s caliber can’t be taken for granted, as they have been in the Euroleague numerous times over the years, including just last season. That, coupled with Spain being a very tough country to play in – with arguably the best domestic league outside of the NBA – is clearly something Yannay didn’t take lightly.
“You can’t minimize this achievement,” the owner said. “We won in a country that is not friendly to us, on a very tough home court, and with refereeing that didn’t show us mercy. We beat a team that is amazing and they still don’t believe they lost this game.”
“In my opinion, this is one of the greatest victories ever in Israeli basketball—regardless of its importance – but purely in terms of basketball. If we qualify for the Euroleague, it will be the greatest victory ever,” Yannay said enthusiastically.
Building up the team
Over the course of last summer, Yannay tried to build the best team that money could buy and was able to coax NBA guard Patrick Beverley to sign with the Reds. While Beverley was released a couple of months ago, the signing gave the club instant credibility across the basketball world, which led to other players joining the team for the 2024/25 season.
“We recognized an opportunity at the beginning of the season that stemmed from the situation in Europe and we managed to create some magic that attracted a number of big names – Jonathan Motley, Patrick Beverley even though he left, Dimitrios Itoudis, Yam Madar. High-level names. It took the team time to connect, but it meant that in the decisive moments and the peak of the season, we would be right there.”
Yannay also didn’t miss an opportunity to take a dig at his city rival.
“My goal is to advance to the Euroleague and from there, the goal will be to defeat Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final. The problem is that for that to happen you need a good Maccabi Tel Aviv team – one that can reach the final – because right now it can’t even reach the play-in. We hope that improves.”
The owner continued: “It’s important for Israeli basketball to have many good teams. I also wish that Hapoel Jerusalem will be there. With all the recent talk related to the NBA and Europe, Israel has a big advantage because 80% of the team owners in the United States are Jewish. I hope Hapoel Jerusalem will also make an effort and we’ll see three teams in the Euroleague.”
Yannay brought in Dimitrios Itoudis
Possibly the biggest and most critical moment of the season was when Yannay decided to hire Dimitrios Itoudis to take over the head coaching job from Stefanos Dedas, who was then demoted to assistant coach back in November. It’s never easy to make such a move, but Yannay felt that he needed to bring in a top-level bench boss in order to maximize his roster of players and see them take the next step in helping the team reach its goals.
“We’re a club that has had to learn its way,” Yannay said. “Brian Angola is not a bad player at all; he played injured in Game 3 in last season’s final series and became an enemy of the people. Fans think they understand basketball – I thought so too until I met Itoudis. Perhaps the best decision I made was bringing him to Game 2 of the final series last season as a guest.”
“I thought something, and Itoudis would always explain to me why I was wrong. I don’t understand anything and neither do the fans. What we had were fans who wanted to release players so many times – like Antonio Blakeney and Marcus Foster – who both gave incredible performances in the game three win over Valencia. Simply a crazy show yesterday. Blakeney went 5-of-5 from beyond the arc in the final quarter, which was a Eurocup record. It was an amazing evening and at the end of the day, we won by two points. I’m glad we won, but we still have work to do,” the owner concluded.
With Yannay at the helm, Hapoel Tel Aviv seems prepared to put in whatever work it takes to scale the European hoops mountain.
