Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv is both the hottest team and the scoring leader in its first-ever season in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Shining brightest for Hapoel is point guard J’Covan Brown. The 32-year-old, who is in his second season with the club, leads the EuroCup in assists with 7.5 per game and has already notched MVP of the Round honors twice.
Hapoel has reeled off five consecutive wins, and a victory on Wednesday over Dolomiti Energia Trento would clinch its place in the playoffs, all of which made Brown an ideal subject as this week’s EuroCup interview. "When I’m on my A-Game, we're one hell of a team to beat. Even when I don’t have great nights, my energy will always be there and I can do other things to impact the game," he said. "I can’t let bad shooting nights interrupt what’s the most important thing, and that’s winning games."
Congratulations on the win against Turk Telekom. When you were down by 9 points in the fourth quarter, and with all the momentum with them, where did you guys find the strength to turn the game around?
"Thanks. We always knew that we would have the opportunity to make a run… the game of basketball is a game of runs. It’s about who has the last run. We knew that we had them. We just had to get the right stops and once we got the right stops, it was up from there. X [Xavier Munford] led the way. I think he scored all the points in the last three minutes if I’m not mistaken. It’s good to have him on our side. So, those last three minutes were all him on offense. On defense, you know they were making some tough shots. They were having a great night shooting the hell out of the basketball and they’re a great shooting team, but they missed at the wrong time; X was making them at the right time and that’s what we needed."
What was the mindset going into the game, knowing that you were playing just 48 hours after beating Turkish Airlines EuroLeague side Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in the Israeli League and without three players out due to illness?
"Our mindset is the same for every game. It doesn’t matter who steps on the floor: 11 players, 12 players, eight, five players. We feel like we have enough in the locker room to get the job done once everybody is locked in. We knew that it was going to take a team effort from everybody, and Jaylen [Hoard] and X played unbelievably for us. That kept us in the game. Credit to them two for stepping up."
You went viral with the traveling call in the game. What happened?