The players were in high spirits after winning the Israel Cup. More from Pnini: “I have no explanation for this entity called Sharp. If only he could stay another ten years.” Anderson: “It’s fun to bring the Cup back to Maccabi. It’s a great feeling.”
By Amy Samin
After three years, the Israel Cup is once again in the hands of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Last season Pini Gershon led Maccabi to the championship, and now he has added another trophy to the already crowded cabinet.
“We’re happy to once again hold the Israel Cup,” said Pini Gershon.
“For most of the game we were better than Bnei Hasharon.
We guarded well, and kept them to 32% from the field which is hard to do.
If we had played better on offense we would have won the game sooner, but they say that harder is sweeter.
I hope for the fans and the assistant coaches there will be many more cups.
I told the players to do everything they could to send Derrick Sharp to the president again.”
“You see the happiness here in the locker room and you understand that we don’t take anything for granted,” added the coach.
“Recently we’ve made a lot of changes, professionally.
Some of them are not yet evident, but maybe in another two or three weeks they’ll be noticeable.”
Gershon also talked about some of the comments he made before the game.
“I don’t think about being the favorite in a game and talking like a favorite.
I’m pretty sure you don’t expect the coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv to come out before a game, in which we’re the favorites and the better team, and say something different.
Some of the things I said were like marketing.
I don’t think that to say we’re the better team and deserve to win the Cup is bragging.
I’m not that boastful.
We always have something to lose.
It’s a lot harder than to go into the game as the underdog.
I have no intention of lying, being stupid or looking foolish.
Everything I said before the game was proven during the game.”
“There’s no doubt that in one game anything can happen, and we weren’t surprised at all that it was close,” said assistant coach Sharon Drucker.
“They came with tactics that were good for them in a game like this, with four guards, but in the end we recovered and won.”
Drucker summed it all up in one sentence: “It doesn’t really matter what happened over the last 40 minutes, what counts is that the Cup is back where it belongs.”
“It was a really tough game,” said Maccabi veteran and team captain Derrick Sharp, who once again received the Israel Cup from the hands of the president, this time Shimon Peres.
“People don’t understand how hard it was. We’re proud to return the Cup to Maccabi.”
Guy Pnini talked about the abilities of the veteran guard: “I have no explanation for this entity called Sharp.
If only he could stay another 10 years.
I think he has a contract for next season.
It was my dream to come to Maccabi and of course to win a title with them.
It’s sweet, it’s fun.
Look how happy everyone is.”
Alan Anderson: “It’s fun to bring the Cup back to Maccabi.
It’s a great feeling.
It wasn’t an easy game; we worked hard.
We had some turnovers, and we didn’t get some calls, but we were able to finish the game with a win.”
Yaniv Green: “It’s about time we won the Cup.
It was very important to bring the Cup home, and from now on it will stay here for many years.”
About the game, the center said, “Bnei Hasharon played well.
Our fans really gave us a push at the end and made all the difference.”
On the other side, Bnei Hasharon garnered many compliments on their fine performance but remained disappointed that they couldn’t do more at the end of the close game.
“Congratulations to Maccabi on the win.
Overall, they dominated for most of the game,” said Dan Shamir, head coach of Bnei Hasharon.
“We were able to come back from the big deficit we were in during the first half, and I’m proud that it was a close game.”
Shamir added: “What were we missing at the end?
A couple of good decisions, I can’t think of one at the moment.
Overall it was a good game with good basketball, and congratulations to Maccabi on the title.
Again today we showed who we are, a team of 70 points, a good defensive team that comes to every game, no matter who it’s against.
We hope to win close games like this one in the league in the future.”
When asked about the young Dori Assaf’s absence from the game, Shamir said, “It was my decision not to let him play, he didn’t do anything wrong.
I don’t intend to involve anyone else in my decisions.”
