The head coach of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv celebrated his victory and praised his MVP: “Langford is one of the best guards in Europe. We came to the game tonight to play good, enjoyable and attractive basketball.”
By Amy Samin
David Blatt was excited after winning his second straight Israel Cup as head coach of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv. “This is a very complex season, with a lot going on, and we still came to this game to play good, enjoyable and attractive basketball. It’s very important to our fans. Our mission is to win titles, and I think that so far in this atypical season we’ve done very well.”
The coach had plenty of praise for the star of the evening, “Langford was excellent, he’s one of the best guards in Europe, but for some reason he doesn’t get recognition here in Israel, not as a player and not as a person.” The coach went on to explain what motivated the team to win the Cup: “We wanted those who had never won a title to have that experience.” As to which cup victory was the sweetest, the coach quoted the team’s chairman, Shimon Mizrahi: “The sweetest cup victory is the most recent one.”
Blatt also had good things to say about Rishon Lezion: “I salute coach Effi Birenboim on what he’s doing with his team. It was fun for me personally and an honor to coach against one of the best coaches in the country. Credit also goes to the fans of Rishon; they support their team in the best possible way.”
Game MVP Keith Langford said, “I was very disappointed in myself in the semifinal game, especially in the first half, so these last few days I really just took it upon myself to lock in and refocus, and not be the guy who was the weak link. Today, the game got off to a good start, and I’m definitely happy to be in this spot right now, because those guys [Rishon Lezion] definitely played a tough game. This is the first title I’ve won in my career so far, and hopefully it won’t be the last one I’ll win with Maccabi. It’s exactly for this reason that I came to the team. We’ve had a few tough moments this season, but we’re getting better week by week.”
Team captain Tal Burstein, who was one of the top scorers in the game, said, “It’s a special victory for me, because it’s my first as captain. It was also an honor to have the President [Shimon Peres] here. Every cup is special and every title is a lot of fun. We work really hard for this, and we’re always happy to win titles. It’s what gives us the energy to go on.”
Richard Hendrix (10 points and 9 rebounds) added, “We have a lot of respect for Rishon Lezion, but we’re happy to have won the cup. We always play with heart. Keith was unbelievable tonight; he started strong and hung in there. I hope we’ll give the fans more moments like this one. We’re playing well in all three leagues, and we hope to win more titles.”
Forward Guy Pnini noted, “It’s our first title this season, one of four. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve come a long way to reach this moment. It’s been a long road with a lot of games, and we can finally say that we’ve won a title – it’s an amazing feeling. We still have three more goals for this season, though we’re not really looking quite that far ahead yet. We’re looking at our next goal – on Sunday we have an away game against Hapoel Jerusalem, which is an important game for the club. We have tonight to celebrate, we’ll go to [restaurant] 206 to celebrate and eat, and then we’ll go home and get some sleep.”
Point guard Yogev Ohayon summed things up: “It’s the first title of my career, and it’s a wonderful, amazing feeling. I’m happy, and it’s given me an appetite for more titles. As a team, we’re having a great season, meeting the demands and goals we’ve put on ourselves. We want to keep winning and to do everything we need to do to make our fans happy and to keep on our path. I hope we’ll have a lot more titles as time goes on; I can’t describe how excited I am. It’s a kind of satisfaction I’ve waited a long time for. I can’t wait to celebrate, and I’ll say it again: I want more!”
