Licking its wounds: Hapoel Tel Aviv began looking for blame for the collapse in the derby

Hapoel Tel Aviv blew a 23-point lead and lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Winner Cup final. Club chairman Stas Shacham published a message seen as a dig at coach Dimitris Itoudis, and owner Ofer Yannai called for lessons to be learned from the painful loss.

Hapoel Tel Aviv is still struggling to digest the painful loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Winner Cup final, after squandering a 23-point lead in the third quarter. The day after the derby, club chairman Stas Shacham and owner Ofer Yannai published messages that sparked interest. Shacham wrote on Facebook that "this is not a local league, this is not a B team, this is not a development league," which was interpreted as a dig at coach Dimitris Itoudis, who said in an interview with Eurohoops that EuroLeague teams should establish reserve teams in local leagues. Yannai called in a post on X for the players, the professional staff, the management, and the fans to learn lessons from the loss. The loss is particularly painful given the way the game unfolded, and the Reds remain without a first local title since 1993.