Offense slumping, Rishon Letzion faces the rare prospect of relegation
By Arie Livnat
Besides Maccabi Tel Aviv, two other teams have never been relegated from the newly formed basketball league, but at the end of the second round, both are at the bottom of the table. Galil Elion, in the top tier for 30 years, shuffled its coaching team this week. But Rishon Letzion, 20 years in the top league, made its changes over a month ago, and in the five games played since the appointment of Ofer Berkovitch as coach, it has won only once.
"We had a series of tough games, but it's no excuse," Berkovitch said. "Negative momentum has lowered our spirits, mostly because of the team's youth. Oded Shaashua's injury ruined the team's balance, and we hope he'll be back in two weeks."
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Rishon has other talented young players that need to give its offense a boost; the team is the weakest in the league averaging 79.7 points a game. Under former coach Adi Azulay, Rishon was strong on defense. But under Berkovitch the team has conceded between 84 to 85 points a game.
"It's always good to have a strong defense, but Rishon scored 75 points a game and was still down," Berkovitch said. "I wanted to change our style and up our score. We just faced all the strong teams."
Rishon's main problem is its Israeli players' contribution. Itay Lev and Haim Shimonovitch were the team's leading Israelis last year, but they have had a tough time so far this season. Shimonovitch has sat on the bench, and Lev has lost his place in the opening lineup.
"If in the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv a youth team player (Chen Genosar) played 15 minutes and Tal Dan was the best player of the night, then that says it all," Chairman Moshe Kalisky said. "Lev has not lived up to our expectations. It's not that he isn't trying. It hurts him more than it does us."
Lev agrees. "I feel fine but haven't been able to fulfill my potential," he said.
Rotem Erlich, Auzlay's assistant coach last year, says the Israeli players' weakness stems from the foreign players' failure to get them involved. "If the foreign players hold the ball 60 percent of the time, then the Israelis won't score," Erlich said.
Two years is a long time in sports, and in Israeli basketball it's an eternity. It's the length of time between when former coach Guy Goodes led Rishon to the playoffs, and its status as a bottom-of-the-league team.
Erlich, who is no longer at Rishon, claims to know why the team's fortunes have changed. "Rishon is run by good people, but they don't know a thing about basketball, and had they brought in a general manager, that wouldn't have mattered. Azulay needed a coach like me, not Nadav Zilberstein. He needs someone to instill order and discipline."
Kalisky said in response: "It's easy to say a general m anager is needed, but most teams don't have one. Regarding the choice of Berkovitch as coach, it was made in a time of distress. But Adi is no less strict than Ofer - on the contrary."
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