Almost 15 years after leaving Maccabi and a few moments before playing against his former team, Beno Udrich tells about his journey in the NBA, his friends and the chance to play in the EuroLeague
Beno Udrich is longer the wonder kid who came to Tel Aviv from Ljubljana back in 2002. As a 20 year old Beno got numerous chances from Coach David Blatt enroute of winning the Israeli Championship and Cup. In 2004 he made the jump to the NBA.
Udrich had his fair share of experiences playing for San Antonio, Milwaukee, Orlando, New York, Memphis, Miami and Detroit. In last December after 13 years in the NBA, Beno joined Zalgiris. Towards the game he reminisced the marvelous journey he had, and also talked about the game.
After so many years in the NBA how does it feel to play in Europe again?
“It feels great, it’s different to comeback after 13 years in the NBA, you need to get reacquainted with the system, the rules and the balls, but I’m fortunate to be able to play basketball”.
Can you share with us the process of making the decision to join Zalgiris with Saras as head coach?
“Everyone knows who Saras is and what player he was. It was my decision to come and play for him as well as to learn from him. I saw that Zalgiris are playing good in the EuroLeague, so I wanted to add something extra to the team so that I could help them reach the playoffs and to get as far as possible. I thought it was a great opportunity for me, and I agreed to join the club”.
How does it feel to meet your former team, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv?
“It’s going to be special for me. I know coach Neven, I played for him after leaving Maccabi. I played with Nikola Vujcic and I’m very excited to see them. It’s been so long since I played there, but I obviously have good memories from Tel Aviv playing for Maccabi, they are like family, but just like any other game I’ll try to win for my team and we’ll see what happens”.
What’s your best Maccabi memory?
“I remember we made it to the Top 16 phase in the EuroLeague, we won both the Israeli championship and the cup. Being in such a team with such a history was simply great and it gave me a lot of good memories”.
What can you tell us about the game on Thursday?
“I can’t predict the future, but I hope we will have a full house of our fans supporting us. There’s no doubt that this will be an intense game, both teams are fighting to make it to the playoffs, so this will be like a playoff game”.
