The two-time EuroLeague champion head coach was introduced in Tel Aviv on Sunday
Itoudis is 'motivated' and 'honored' to take over at Hapoel
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Ofer Yannay has a lot to be proud of since taking over as Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv's owner. He reached a new high last week with the signing of two-time EuroLeague champion Dimitris Itoudis as the club's new head coach. Itoudis will step in as head coach, while the previous head coach, Stefanos Dedas, will remain as an assistant coach, the same role he held under Itoudis before at CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
On Sunday, Itoudis was formally presented at a press conference at Hapoel’s arena in Tel Aviv, where for nearly an hour, he spoke about the team’s goals, his relationship with Yannay, working alongside Dedas again and much more.
"Hapoel always had the best fan base and what we did in the summer, we managed to get to have a pretty good roster and now we have the best coaching staff," Yannay said while introducing Itoudis. "If you want to be competitive, if you want to build something for the long term, all of the things are extremely important and I'm very very happy to have Coach Itoudis with us and I am looking forward to see what's going to happen next."
When it was Itoudis’s turn to talk, he said that Yannai's "passion and his vision matches my expectations of trying to build something great."
The coach went on to liken the building of a team to building a house, commenting on a new home he recently built in Greece. While the original timetable was planned for before the spring, he did not get the keys until after the summer. Likewise, there is no rush on getting Hapoel to be its best version of itself, there is time for that later.
"We're still looking how we gonna become a better team. As I said, with all the coaching staff, we had a four-hour meeting yesterday and a practice. I cannot get deeply into the details because I want to be honest with you, I haven't seen the team in action in full roster. I scouted the team. I watched games. I talked with Stef [Dedas] a lot of times about the team, but still, if I'm not coaching the team then, I cannot go into more details. The expectations and the wish to accomplish things is great. We need to also be in reality sometimes because basketball you're not playing alone, you have great opponents," Itoudis continued.
The coach lamented the fact that the timing of the FIBA national team window will keep several players away from training this week, including center Bruno Caboclo, who will not practice under Itoudis until after the team travels to Bulgaria for Thursday's game against ratiopharm Ulm.
He later explained how important being able to work with the players one-on-one is to building the team he envisions. "I need to challenge some of the players to see how they're gonna react under pressure. You know people that they work with me, they know how much I'm gonna get deeply into the criticism because I believe in eye-to-eye contact and criticism. The picture never lies. I do spend a lot of time watching film."
Naturally, both Yannay and Itoudis were asked about the status of star center Johnathan Motley, who was one of the club’s marquee signings over the summer, but left the club abruptly several weeks ago. The big man has a relationship with Itoudis from their time together at Fenerbahce.
"Jonathan Motley is a great player. The contract with him is valid and we expect him to return. I can say that his agent communicated with George Hinas on Friday evening," Yannay said. "I hope this is the first step to him coming back to Hapoel."
Itoudis followed by saying: "Mot is a point of emphasis for us. It’s a completely different team when Mot is in and contributes offensively and defensively and when he’s not. We as a coaching staff, we would love to know the situation sooner than later because this is how we can move to the next step."