Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv will depart tomorrow (Wednesday) morning on a special flight to Moscow to start the final stage of preparation for the Euroleague Final Four.
The team will practice in the evening at the Dynamo Palace, where they will train also on Thursday morning. Their first training session at the Olympiysky Arena, will be on Thursday afternoon. Panathinaikos Athens, Maccabi’s opponents in the semi final, will arrive in Moscow on Wednesday evening and will practice at the Olympiysky as soon as the Maccabi players will clear the court.
On Friday morning Maccabi will hold another training session and at 18:10 (Israel time) the will face the Greens from Athens. The second semi final between CSKA Moscow & TAU Ceramica Vitoria, will take place at 20:40.
It will be Maccabi’s fifth appearance in the Final Four in the last six seasons. Coach Pini Gershon lead the team on all four occasions (2000, 2001, 2004 & 2005), reaching the final every time. In 2002 David Blatt was head coach and Maccabi were eliminated in the semi final. For assistant coach Jacob Gino it will be his first Final Four and for the second assistant coach Dan Shamir, the second.
For capatain Gur Shelef & Derrick Sharp this will be their fifth F4. Anthony Parker & Tal Burstein will participate in their fourth., Yotam Halperin his third as well as Sarunas Jasikevicius (one with Barcelona). Maceo Baston & Nikola Vujcic will play their second F4 whilst Nesoras Kommatos, Yaniv Green, Assaf Dotan & Regev Fanan will have their first.
