Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s captain, Guy Pnini, celebrated winning his seventh Cup: “Let them (his critics) talk, I’ll keep winning titles.” Head coach David Blatt: “We have great Israeli players.”
By Amy Samin
Following his team’s victory in the title game for the 2014 Israeli Cup, head coach David Blatt said, “We have great Israeli players: Ohayon, Pnini, Blu, Landesberg, Tyus. We knew we’d use Sofo. I kind of messed up in the semifinal game, because I wanted to give him minutes. He works hard and is very professional; he gives everything and doesn’t get much.”
“All of the staff, past and present – and the players too, of course, that have worked with me in recent years help me reach these achievements,” Blatt went on. “I’m proud to be a part of a club that gives us the support we need to succeed. A huge congratulations goes out to Eilat, they had a harder road to get here to the Final tonight, and they beat both Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv. Our road was a little easier, but it’s good that we came into this game in the right frame of mind and won it. It wasn’t easy. We could feel their will to win, and the support of their fans, and I wish them success as the season continues. Except when they play us,” Blatt added with a grin.
Blatt went on to speak of one of his players. “Sylven (Landesberg) deserves a lot of credit. He hasn’t played a lot of minutes recently, through no fault of his own. He’s a great example to our young people; he didn’t look for excuses and didn’t give up. He just kept on working, and proved to me that he needs to be playing. Joe (Ingles) played tonight with a fever of 102° F (39°C). We weren’t sure he’d be able to play. Sylven took advantage of the opportunity and gave us an exceptional performance. I salute him.”
Team captain Guy Pnini was elated after the game. “People can talk all they want; tonight I’ve won my seventh Cup. They can keep on talking, and I’ll keep bringing home titles. Everyone needs to just do his own job. A teammate of mine, a great player, once told me, “If they’re talking about you, you must be interesting.” So I guess I’m interesting, and bring a lot of talkbacks and ratings. When they stop writing about me, I guess I should worry.”
“Aside from all that,” Pnini went on, “I’m happy for this team, we worked hard for this and we’ve reaped the first fruit this season. The guys really deserve it, each and every one of them. Sylven Landesberg had a great game, and he showed us how much character he’s got. David Blu also gave us a fantastic game after going through a tough period. There will be more cups; this won’t be our last title.”
Game MVP David Blu, who came out of retirement to rejoin Maccabi this season, revealed the secret of his success: “I’m happy I came back and that we reached one of our goals. We have a couple more we want to take further down the road. The secret is that I came here before the game and practiced shooting. I got into a good rhythm and it continued during the game.”
Yogev Ohayon, who had a great game with 15 points, added, “I couldn’t rest this afternoon. I was covered in sweat. I still come to these kinds of games shaking with excitement. I’m happy that we controlled the game from the beginning, and even when Eilat came back, we were able to put the stops on them – something we haven’t always done in the past. Every game has pressure, but we had one game to win the title. Everybody knew that we just had to win. We have another title that we’re lacking, one they took from us a year ago. We’re up for that challenge.”
Someone else who gave Maccabi a great game was Devin Smith, who finished with a double-double. “To reach this position, year after year, and win – that says a lot about the club and the players on the team.” When asked his thoughts about Guy Pnini, Smith replied, “He’s a great guy who comes ready to work every day, and you can’t ask for more than that. We’re all behind him, because we know what kind of guy he is and what he is capable of doing out on the court. We supported him.”
Sofo Schortsanitis also shared his thoughts: “I’m very happy; it’s always great to win a title. We did what we needed to do, it’s like a prize for this last good period we’ve had. Now we just need to keep working hard in order to win some more important titles. The Israeli teams are really improving, and the games are getting harder, but the title is definitely worth it.”
