Gershon: “Come to the Final Four and see if we win”

By Amy Samin

“By the skin of their teeth” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv escaped with a 71 – 69 victory over Bnei Hasharon Monday night, taking the best-of-five series 3 games to 2 and qualifying for the Final Four, where they will face Barak Netanya (in the other game, Hapoel Jerusalem will meet Gilboa/Galil).

After the game, Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon remarked, “I don’t think Bnei Hasharon needed to go to the line so many times.
You did a character assassination on one of the judges with four minutes left in a game.
The call by Sammy Bachar that came with 3 – 4 minutes left in the game was, in my opinion, blown into a big controversy; either it was a good call or it wasn’t.
Go and check who the judges were in all of the games we’ve lost.
First and foremost, I ask that you go and apologize to Sammy Bachar.
You did a character assassination on him; the fact that we lost two out of three games just this year with the same referee didn’t even show up in the press.
What is this?
You show up at a game with a whistle and show how big of a hero you are, you’re not afraid of Maccabi Tel Aviv?
I respect the fight that Bnei Hasharon gave us here tonight.”

“There’s a certain situation that we didn’t need to get into, but we did get into it.
In my humble opinion, there are things that don’t just depend on us.
In a game with this much pressure, it’s only natural that a team’s production will go down.
It doesn’t only happen to us.
If a soccer team can take the championship only in the 92^nd minute, we’re also allowed to be down by ten with thirty minutes left.
In the last game, we got a technical foul from the official observer.
Go and count how many times that has ever happened.”

“We’re playing without Lasme, who is a real anchor for us on defense, and Dan (Shamir, coach of Bnei Hasharon) in his wisdom knew how to take advantage of that.
They have three good inside players, and for long periods during the series we had a hard time with that.
I think if they had had the team they do now from the beginning of the season, they wouldn’t be in the place (8^th in the league) they are now.”

“With all the respect that I have for Bnei Hasharon and Dan Shamir, there’s not a fifty point difference between the teams; but in two of the three games we’ve lost this season, it was with the same referee a few times.
I’m not accusing anyone, I’m just telling you to go and check.
We’ve had reactions from dedicated fans of Hapoel (Maccabi rival Hapoel Jerusalem) who say they haven’t seen officiating like this in the Israeli league in a lot of years.”

“Come to the Final Four and see if we win.
We’re the team with the best percentages from three point range.
I was speaking generally when I said to check with which officials we lost games.
The only thing I said was to go and check; do some investigative reporting.
Everyone says I complain about the officiating after we lose; as a matter of fact it’s after a win that is the right time to do it.”

“It was a fifth game with a lot of pressure, the whole season hung in the balance and the balls weren’t dropping like they do in practice.
We were missing from three point range and they were missing from the free throw line, which is supposedly an easier shot.
It’s okay that there’s pressure in this kind of game.
The fact is that at the crucial time we did our jobs.
I don’t think that the difference between the two teams is as great as it would seem from the percentages.”

“From the first game I said that in my opinion things don’t only depend on us, and now I can explain what I meant after the first and fourth games; you don’t have to agree with me.”

“It’s only natural that teams under pressure see a decline in their productivity because of the pressure, it happens to the better players.
I compliment Bnei Hasharon on the struggle they put up; they were a stubborn opponent and they had a part in how we looked; it could be that if they had scored with better percentages from the free throw line, the game would have ended differently.”

“I’m not worried about my own minutes,” said Maccabi team captain Derrick Sharp. “I try to believe in myself and to do my best.
Thank God I was able to bring the crowd into the game, and to win it in the end.
We had one foot in the grave and the crowd got us out.
Pnini has a big heart.
We have to play with emotion.”

Guy Pnini added, “They saw how much pressure there was and that we weren’t playing our basketball, but when you’re playing for a symbol and you give your all, it works.
Our guys showed amazing character.
Bnei Hasharon were amazing, they deserve a lot of respect.
It was a good series for Israeli basketball.”

“They had a good match-up with us, they took advantage of our deficiencies, but I’m happy that in the end we got the job done.
We’re going into the Final Four after a tough series but with a good attitude.
We’ve already shown that we’re above this league.
Everyone should go back into their holes.”



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