After a dismal campaign, the Israel national team admits: "We needed everyone with us"
The Blue and Whites closed the August window with an 85:70 loss to Latvia and a 2:6 record in the World Cup qualifiers. After a campaign missing key players, Beit-Halachmi admitted: "In this way, it is difficult to implement a style of play," Sorkin added: "We cannot look like this."
The Israel national team closed the August window of the World Cup qualifiers with another loss — 85:70 to the Latvian national team and a dismal record (2:6). The chances of qualifying for the World Cup after the loss to Poland on Thursday became slim, but with no pressure, the hope was for a better basketball performance. Ariel Beit-Halachmi's group was in the game until the end of the second quarter, and even led, but afterwards was forced to chase the opponent without success.
In the big picture, the story of the two summer windows revolved around the non-arrival of many senior players, including Deni Avdija and Ben Saraf, who did not receive release from their NBA teams, in contrast to other players in different national teams who did take part in the windows. In the last day, injured Tamir Blatt and Adam Ariel were removed from the roster, and then Rafi Menco, who is expecting the birth of his child in the coming days, moved up his flight — so the feeling that remained even before stepping onto the parquet was that the national team is not at the top priority of the players, unlike other national teams on the continent.
All this puts in question the two next windows in November and February, which will be for protocol only. This time, from the start and not as a default, players who do not get many minutes in their teams will arrive, because the senior players will be in the Euroleague — both at Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv. If Cadyen Carrington is not released from his new team, Hapoel Tel Aviv, this window was his last as a naturalized player in the national team, with the aspiration in the Eurobasket 2029 campaign being that the slot will be filled by Deni Wolf.
On the sidelines, Ariel Beit-Halachmi ends his contract with the association in February — when the recent results are expected to influence the decision regarding his future. Beit-Halachmi, according to sources in the association, was appointed to the position mainly thanks to his pair of wins with the youth national team in 2018 and 2019 and the close ties with the players who moved up to the seniors. At the same time, in the test of results, the biggest achievement of the national team under him — even when Avdija took part in it — is reaching the round of 16 in the Eurobasket, which as remembered ended in a crash against Greece.
"We need everyone with us"
"I think we don't have the privilege to appear without our prominent players," said Beit-Halachmi at the end. "We were missing quite a few players, and it affects. Every window different players appeared and it is difficult to implement a style of play. Israeli basketball does not have the option to throw games, we needed everyone with us. Other national teams run with the same roster for a period, unfortunately with us it is not like that."
"I can say that on the side of the players, which I am a part of, we must look better," added Roman Sorkin. "We cannot look like this. We need to play better, I am talking about myself right now and not criticizing anyone. I have no excuses, I only have the fact that we must play better and appear in a different way to the games."
