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Fired live on TV
Orli Klinger
,04/15/2005 |
The mayor of Ramla along with the team’s management announced tonight live on TV that Tal Natan has been relieved of his coaching duties a few minutes after the 84-63 game 1 loss at Ramat Hasharon. This is not the first time Ramla fired a coach during the finals but it’s still ugly. Natan’s reaction and quotes from the players inside.
Game 1 recap
The mayor and management reached the conclusion Natan had to go during the game and that letting him know through the sideline reporters is the way to go. We gathered a lot of quotes from both sides but it’s still hard to take in that a professional club could act in such a way. Only in Ramla.
Over the last 3 years, Natan took Ramla to 3 Cup Finals and 3 playoff finals. Last season Ramla recorded a historic double, wining both the cup & championship. Now he’s going home and the future is unclear.
We tried to get some juicy response from Tal Natan after he learned that he was fired live on TV, but he did not stoop to the management’s level. “You should ask them, I don’t put out a bad rep for family and Ramla is family. You won’t hear one single negative thing from me on them. Every man has his way.”
Two years prior to Natan’s arrival in Ramla the team wallowed around 6th place in front of empty stands, and the coach was replaced every seven games or so. The last 3 years brought Ramla back to the spotlight as a major force in women’s basketball. Natan won the hearts of all the fans, they must not be happy right now.
There’s no logic in the way Ramla’s management & mayor chose to say goodbye to their coach, even though it’s the 2nd time this happened in Ramla . “Anything can happen” said Natan. “Does it look like I’m taking it hard? We would have won this series but forget it, there’s an U-18 NT practice tomorrow.”
We’ll never know if there’s truth to that statement by Natan but for those who forgot, 2 years ago Ramat Hasharon came out victorious of almost the same exact situation. Ramla won game 1 at home 83-61, nobody was fired in Ramat Hasharon and they went on to win the title in game 5 on the road. But in Ramla, they live by the saying “you’re only as good as your last game”.
Yoel Lavi, the mayor/owner/sponsor/assistant coach did not think firing a coach live on TV is disrespectful or demeaning to the club. “We discussed it after the cup and made up our mind at the half. The score speaks for itself, we should’ve fired him at the half” said Lavi on TV without blinking.
Crystal Robinson has been through so much, she’s no doubt one of the most fun players to talk to as she always speaks from the heart and is brutally honest: “I don’t think it’s fair, we started this season together, we fought all the way to the end together, we had a lot of ups and down and still made it to the finals. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes which I’m not going to discuss” she said. “You can’t blame the coach. The players actively get on the court, the players play, the players have to go to practice and practice hard. I take just as much responsibility for this loss as he does. Everyone is accountable, him, me, the management. In my basketball career I’ve never seen anything like this”, she continued. After I updated her that this exact thing happened in Ramla in 99/00, when they fired a coach after game 3 of the finals and won the championship in game 4, she just said “in the WNBA I had seasons when we were like 9-7 at the All Star break and made the finals. Things happen in basketball, it’s not over”.
“You don’t do these things, maybe we should talk to Yoel cause we need a coach” said Gourevitch. “A team left without a coach in the finals, it’s not right.”
Shameka Christon, who’s a little younger than the other two we just quoted, didn’t want to comment on the firing but spared her team and herself no criticism. “We gotta stick together despite the awkward timing of this, it’s only game 1, it’s still early. We’ve been through a whole lot worse this season”, she said. “Whoever wants it more will win, but the fingers need to be pointed at us. I look in the mirror”, she continued. “If we don’t come ready to play in practice, we won’t be ready to play in games. This wasn’t a good week of practice, I’m not even gonna lie, the practices have to be better”.
We asked the opposite side about the firing also. Chasity Melvin did not recall it was against her Karmiel team when Ramla fired Edne Dagan in the finals, but assured us that it’s not her fault. “There’s always some kind of mess in Israel,” she added with a smile. Ornit Shwartz wasn’t smiling much however, “I’m shocked and I’m very sad for him, it’s not nice the way they did this but we have to stay focused on us and not on Ramla’s provocations.” Orna Ostfeld had her share of differences with Natan but also agrees this is no way to treat a coach. “The whole system there has been panicing since the season started” she said.
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