He was the pride of the Maccabi Tel Aviv family, one of its favorite sons. Oded Katash was a smart kid and was embraced affectionately by papa Shimon Mizrahi, Maccabi Tel Aviv's chairman.
When he left the nest to play for Greece's Panathinaikos and gained fame there, they were proud of him. In the summers he would return home, but it was no longer the same. Time had changed Katash and his relationship with Maccabi had cooled. From the start of Katash's tenure as Maccabi's coach, the difference was noticeable. When he was sacked from that position earlier this season, he renounced his faith and the break was complete.
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Then, the former protege returned home to play against his old team. This time as the coach of Hapoel Galil Elyon. Ahead of the encounter, Katash had insulted one of his teachers, current Maccabi coach Zvika Sherf, in a TV documentary. Also, he had broken the Maccabi code of ethics by revealing how he was treated by the club. Now, he was supposed to be taught a lesson by Sherf on etiquette and basketball; instead, he triumphed and put his former team's weaknesses on display.
Of course, Maccabi's weaknesses have been obvious since the start of the season and much of them are Katash's fault. But despite Maccabi's abysmal record in the league, the notion that its home-court advantage in the playoffs will give it an edge over its rivals persisted.
This premise, too, was on Thursday obliterated. Sherf deserves praise for reviving Maccabi and taking them to the Euroleague finals. But never - not even during the '93 season when they last lost the championship - did Maccabi lose its deterrence in the national league.
Katash is no basketball prodigy and his team is one of the league's weaklings, which reflects even worse on Maccabi. How ironic that the flawed team Katash wrought in the start of the season will be the same that should save him as coach of another team at the season's end? The loss to Galil denied Maccabi one of its greatest assets, its home advantage.
An air of defeatism now blows from Maccabi's quarters and even winning the league championship will not be enough to vindicate its performance. Maccabi is at the moment the exact sum of its parts, and that means the team will have to be rebuilt from scratch. Otherwise, they are destined to fail.
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