Greenberg quietly confident ahead of new basketball season

The New Hapoel Jerusalem coach was full of praise for his team, cautiously optimistic ahead of season.

By ALLON SINAI
Brad Greenberg 370 (photo credit: Courtesy of Maccabiah website)
Brad Greenberg 370
(photo credit: Courtesy of Maccabiah website)
New Hapoel Jerusalem coach Brad Greenberg was full of praise for his players and cautiously optimistic ahead of the new season when the club held its official press conference to open the 2013/14 campaign on Monday.
The 59-year-old American guided Maccabi Haifa to the BSL championship last season thanks to a stunning victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the league final, but refused to comment on Jerusalem’s chances of repeating the feat this season.
“Our goal is to try and come as close as we can to our capacity,” said Greenberg. “What that means in wins and losses I don’t know. But I’ll feel good if I feel that our guys truly want to reach their capacity. That’s how I judge if we are successful or not. You never know how far you can go. You need to get lucky and have things fall your way to really do something special.”
Jerusalem will display an almost completely new roster when it gets the pre-season Winner Cup underway next Monday in a game against Barak Netanya, with Josh Duncan and Elishay Kadir the only senior players back from 2012/13.
Hapoel has made some intriguing acquisitions during the summer, signing the likes of Belarusian giant Artsiom Parakhouski and NBA veteran Ronald Dupree, as well as experienced Israelis Yotam Halperin and Yaniv Green. Greenberg is delighted with what he’s seen from them so far.
“You need high character people if you want to achieve anything special,” he explained. “This group has shown in a short time the willingness to connect, to be purposeful as a group and not just as individual people. Unselfishness is a very admirable trait and we have that in abundance with this group. I don’t think I’ve ever been with a group that after 25 practices I can say that I haven’t had a bad day.”
“It’s a long season and your goal is to get better step by step and I think this group has the character to do that,” he added.
“In a week we start for real and we hope we can play basketball that will get the city excited.
This is not just about this season, this is about building a strong foundation for the club that will have significant ambitions and goals for a long time.”
Halperin echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“I’m very excited to be here,” said the former Maccabi Tel Aviv guard. “There is something real happening here and we have everything we need to succeed. Sometimes it takes time for things to fall into place, but we have long-term goals and we mainly need time and patience to accomplish them.”