By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Tel Aviv sent an official letter to the Israeli League on May 10 which among other things stated that the club won’t be able to play its games if EuroLeague decides to resume the season as well.
However, Hapoel Jerusalem CEO Guy Harel shared via Twitter that nothing of the sort was brought up during the conference the clubs had on May 8 despite everybody involved having ample chances to do so.
“The scorpion will remain a scorpion. The first time a team revealed they had a problem with another league was today, 48 hours after it was decided to resume the league. There was a very long session on Friday. In my opinion, everyone in attendance expressed their stance and difficulties (and there were some difficulties). Everyone also spoke at length and even more than once. The excuse that there might be a clash with another league was not raised,” he wrote.
Harel also explained his comment – which was used by Maccabi in the official letter to the league – that Hapoel would have had the same mindset if the Basketball Champions League’s schedule was overlapping with the Israeli League:
“Probably if we knew the Basketball Champions League was going to play in July we probably would have raised the question, trying to find alternatives and the demon knows it. If there were no solutions, we would not have been able to vote for the resuming the league while we know we have other commitments at the same time. But most of all – I assure you that we would shout it in real-time and make real-time decisions.”
He added that even if the above-mentioned were the case, they wouldn’t be asking of the national league to prioritize other competitions and wait for others’ decisions:
“We probably would not expect the entire league to wait with its decision until there is a discussion in the league we are participating in to make decisions that affect all Israeli basketball teams. And it’s nice that the same club that threatens not to appear in the Israeli league in favor of a European enterprise is asking the state for support. Oh, the irony.”