Goodes’s time at Maccabi Tel Aviv all but over

Head coach set to be fired after yellow-and-blue drops to embarrassing BSL defeat to Ashdod

By ALLON SINAI
Despite having a guaranteed contract for next season, Guy Goodes (center) may have coached his final game for Maccabi Tel Aviv (photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Despite having a guaranteed contract for next season, Guy Goodes (center) may have coached his final game for Maccabi Tel Aviv
(photo credit: ADI AVISHAI)
Guy Goodes’s tenure as Maccabi Tel Aviv coach is on the verge of ending after the yellowand- blue suffered yet another humbling defeat on Sunday night. Maccabi fell to 3-2 in the BSL with a shock 88-83 defeat to Maccabi Ashdod at Yad Eliyahu Arena, all but dashing any hope Goodes may have had of retaining his job.
Goodes entered the game in an impossible position, with Maccabi already searching for a new coach. Israel national team coach Erez Edelstein admitted that he turned down the option to replace Goodes earlier Sunday as he is unwilling to take charge of a team mid-season.
Former Maccabi guard Sarunas Jasikevicius of Lithuania reportedly already rejected the opportunity two weeks ago.
Maccabi dropped to 1-3 in the Euroleague for the first time in 17 years on Thursday, after losing 77-66 to Brose Baskets Bamberg in Germany and hosts Darussafaka Istanbul in a crucial continental contest on Thursday.
It is hard to see Goodes surviving until that game, with the club’s ownership running out of patience with the team’s desperately disappointing displays.
Only discord in the club’s ownership saved him from already being sacked a couple of weeks ago. Goodes’s hours, not to mention days, at the club looked to be numbered after the side opened a Euroleague campaign at 0-2 for the first time since 1998 before dropping to a humbling BSL defeat to Hapoel Jerusalem at Yad Eliyahu.
However, with the different factions in the team’s ownership failing to agree on the identity of Goodes’s replacement, the coach remained at the helm, although that is unlikely to save him following the defeat to Ashdod, which had lost its first three games of the campaign.
“I can’t explain what happened to us in the fourth quarter,” said Goodes, with Maccabi being outscored 34-18 in the final 10 minutes. “I know I can revive the team, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. A lot of players need to raise their level. It doesn’t matter what will happen tomorrow and if I or someone else will be here. Many of the guys are not playing at the required level.”
Maccabi led by 12 points (71- 59) with eight minutes remaining, but an 18-4 run over the next six minutes capped by a Diante Garrett basket gave Ashdod a lead it would convert to a memorable win.
“We lacked courage in the fourth quarter,” added Goodes.
“I can’t control what isn’t in my hands. I’m giving my all.
This is the toughest point of my career. But I’ve been through tough times in life and as a player and you need to know how to handle it.”
Garrett led Ashdod with 34 points, hitting 14-of-19 fieldgoal attempts, including four three-pointers. Sylven Landesberg had 14 points for Maccabi.