"We were disappointed with Carrington. Lofton is Matan Adelson's baby"

Gal Mekel, co-owner of Hapoel Jerusalem, was a guest on the latest episode of "Double Dribble" and spoke about the turbulent summer Hapoel Jerusalem went through, the construction of the intriguing roster, EuroLeague dreams, and more.

On the possibility of Hapoel Jerusalem becoming one of the new EuroLeague franchises: "The EuroLeague is looking for something broader here - first of all, what kind of ownership do you have. If it's a partner you can build on for years to come. This license will cost a lot of money. It will cost between 50 and 85 million euros." When asked if the club is the one that needs to pay, he replied: "Certainly. I don't know many clubs that can commit to such amounts... We are ready to pay and present a comprehensive plan to get this franchise, obviously."

On the appointment of Sasa Obradovic instead of Yonatan Alon: "First of all, in the life of a club and a team, there is sometimes a point where you say - okay, I've exhausted this, I want to go in a new direction. We came to the conclusion that we want to do some kind of refresh. We knew we wanted a proven character, a figure, who would also be some kind of statement at the European level. And Sasa was at the very top of our list. We met with a few other coaches. I personally appreciate him very much, I played against him my whole career. He is the type of coach that you play against his teams and you finish the game and you say 'Wow, they are coached'. You feel it on your hands, you feel the intensity."

On the intriguing signing of Kenny Lofton: "We brought him as the team's starting 4. He can, in a certain constellation, also move to the 5, but in principle he is a 4. That's how he played most of his career, and he is very versatile. He passes, he shoots, he plays post-up. This is his (Matan Adelson's) baby... Waking Matan up at 3 AM - that's Kenny Lofton."

On the possibility of adding Tomer Ginat, Yam Madar, and Tamir Blatt this summer: "I think there is a difference between the level of probing and checking the situation with an agent, and coming to a player under contract, talking to him, and trying to tempt him. These are two different things. So Tomer, I'm taking out of the equation for a second. During the period when Yam wasn't playing, which was almost most of the season, there was a thought that this was something that could happen. I think it would have been very right for him professionally. But at some point, after the amazing end of the season he had, we understood that we were talking about numbers that were within a budget we are looking at and where to divide the cake, so it's something that is less right for us to do... Yam specifically, I think, could have played with Jared. A good combination... With Tamir it's a less good combination, Jared and Tamir together. We thought less about that."

On Jared Harper staying: "There was a lot of interest, but we did everything for him to stay. And Jared is special, he wants to stay. He really appreciates the fact that we let him be who he is. And there aren't many players like that who say, 'Okay, it's worth it for me to give up some dream because I want this achievement of bringing Hapoel to the EuroLeague to be in my name'."

On the departure of Kadine Carrington to Hapoel Tel Aviv: "I can say that during the season we made him a very nice offer. He said no. By the way, that's legitimate. After a few weeks we said, 'Okay, how much do you want? Come on, write a number. We want you to stay with us'. So he stalled, it was already towards the end of the season. Stalled, said 'Let's talk about it at the end of the season, I give you the right of first refusal, I want to stay here, I love the club' etc. And at the end of the season we saw that it wasn't happening. And in hindsight, all the talk about a deal at Hapoel Tel Aviv connects... How we hugged and wrapped Kadine throughout this whole period and supported him in many difficult and happy moments, so we were disappointed."