Hapoel Jerusalem did not plan to land here in the middle of the season Dainius Adumitis. But as part of a chain of dramatic events that have happened at the club since the outbreak of the Corona, the Reds lost Oded Katash to the Euroleague team, and thus began a new era in the capital. The Lithuanian coach comes to a cohesive team, with a locker room that he really liked the previous coach – which makes his challenge even more complex.
His start was less than ideal: relegation from the Balkans already in the debut game, and even before that, he watched from the stands how he inherited a team that did not depend on itself in the battle for promotion to the next stage of the Champions League. Just before taking off for the decisive game in Limoges, Adomitis gave his first interview in his new role and talked about his new adventure in red, the disappointment with the Lithuanian team, the relationship with Sharas and the plan for the future.
He had already missed the hummus
Even before he arrived in Jerusalem, the members of the club made sure to tell him that Adomitis in a free translation into Hebrew could be interpreted as “The Mighty Red.” The coach says with a smile: ‘Maybe that means I’m in the right place. I like that. My impression so far is very good. Hapoel is a very professional club, which takes care of the players, the coaches, the whole team, everything works – as we say in Lithuanian – like clockwork. If you need anything, the people here are very helpful, and I’m very happy to be part of such a professional club. ‘
How do you manage in closure?
‘It’s almost the same story as in Lithuania. We also have the same closure, so it’s not new. I like to cook so I cook at home and buy groceries to make something, a salad, for me it’s not a problem. My favorite Israeli dish is hummus, but in the meantime everything is closed, so as an actor I was almost always used to eating pasta, chicken, pasta, chicken… so it stays for life. “
You are a family man, you have three daughters, how hard is it to get to a foreign country in the middle of the season without the family?
‘I see it as a big challenge. This is a great opportunity and I accept it. “Every decision we make is a decision of the whole family together, so I hope the quarantine will end soon and my family will come to visit and be with me, especially when the children are at school and everything is done online, so it doesn’t matter if you live in Vilnius or Jerusalem.”
“Players will have to put aside ego and statistics”
Usually teams change coaches in the middle of a season after failures. Is it easier for a coach to get to a team where the change is made not for professional reasons, compared to a situation where you were able to get after firing a coach?
‘I do not think I should continue to do exactly what the previous coach did. I am very happy for Oded, we are good friends from many, many years ago, we played against each other in the national team, in the Euroleague, and I have great respect for him for what he did here in Jerusalem, those were three great years. “This club showed a lot of respect for him when he agreed to let him go.”
“From my point of view, part of the idea is to keep a few things, but at the end of the day every coach likes to play with his original ideas. So Oded’s basketball is a little different from my ideas. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but as a method, as a philosophy, there are differences “The fact that he is now coaching the Euroleague team proves that his philosophy is very good. So for me it is a challenge to replace him here, but the biggest challenge is to explain to the players what I want from the team in terms of my vision.”
It is not easy to get to a locker room where everyone loved the previous coach and you have to earn their trust
“There is no doubt. It is normal in any organization, not just in sports. The coach should be the leader. He is on the standard of the chief who should control the process, everything. For me here it is very easy. I believe that if you respect the people – the people will respect you. I have not “A shadow of a doubt that we will build a good relationship day after day. I respect the players, and they will certainly respect me.”
Tell us about your believing self in basketball. What basketball do you like to watch?
‘I believe that the team is above all, and that sometimes players have to put aside their egos and statistics. That’s the main thing. In terms of philosophy, it is very important to me that we know what we are doing on the field at any given second. It takes a very long time to learn it, this process is not easy, but that’s how I see basketball. You have to play to your advantage. ‘
From the little training you have done so far, and from the single game you have been on the lines, do you already have an idea of what you want to change in the team?
‘We’ll change a few things in defense so we play the way I see fit. On offense we will go for some new exercises. It all takes time, but it’s not something that will be difficult for the guys here to learn. The players here are very smart, some have already played the method I want to play, but it will take time. ‘
Lithuanian basketball has always been based on local talent. Do you feel that the local staff you currently have is enough to meet the group’s goals?
‘One of the challenges is the league rules. We currently have six foreigners, but only five can play in the Israeli league, one Israeli should be on the field, so for me it’s getting used to the situation until it becomes automatic. We have such a rotation that we can not allow even one player to be injured. ‘
Do you think you need to bring in another Israeli player?
“If you ask any coach, everyone will tell you that they will be happy to have 10-12 players at a uniform level in the team. In that case you can play really active basketball, you have a very good rotation, and you are not afraid of any small injury. Of course, the addition of more players will help the rotation, but that is the situation at the moment and we will see what happens next. “
“It really was me, no demons took over”
Although he is still in his infancy, Adomitis received the keys to the Lithuanian national team early in his career. He visited Israel at EuroBasket 2017 (“We were the whole family here and my wife said – if you ever get an offer from Israel – you will take it”), and failed at the World Championships last year, when he failed to qualify from the home stage. Adumatis is remembered mainly for what happened at the press conference after the dismissal, so he harshly criticized the judges and the FIBA, and happened to be in the “fucking joke” situation.
‘It was mostly emotions,’ he recalls, ‘but it was really me. It’s not that demons suddenly took over me, that’s how I felt at the time. I was very disappointed, because when you see the road so far to these games, you play to achieve your goals, and you see all the work the players have dedicated, how they sacrificed for the team… Someone made bad decisions more than once so it takes out more of you Emotion and everything erupts together. We’re all human and you can not always hide, it’s just coming out of you. ‘
It does not happen often that a coach resigns on his own initiative from a national team
“In Lithuania, basketball is the # 1 sport. Before any championship, the goals are really high – a medal, or winning a championship. Every coach and every player sets their goals, and the European Championship, which was my first tournament as a coach, did not go in the direction we wanted. In the World Cup the goal was to finish in the top 4, and we did not meet that goal. At the end of the day, you need to be honest with yourself and make a decision. The decision was very difficult for me because we played really good basketball but did not meet the goals. So I made the decision and it’s over. ‘
You probably know that your colleague Sharas had a great career here in Israel, and from a huge player he became a huge coach. What is so special about him?
‘He understands basketball really well, for details, he knows exactly what he wants in every situation. In addition, he had the best European coaches at the time – Oberdovich, Pasqual, Kazlausex, and many more. And he plays with some of the ideas he sucked from. He’s tough, he respects everyone. He was one of the best players in Europe at the time, maybe even in the world. So when you put it all together, the knowledge, the reputation, the hard work and then you get a successful coach like Sharas. ‘
Before you came here, I talked to a lot of Lithuanian journalists, they all told me they were convinced you would be Sharas’ replacement in Zalgiris. Why did it not happen?
“I do not know. This is something you’ll have to ask Zalgiris. I always respect those who make decisions, they decided to go the other way, so everything is fine. It was not up to me. ‘
You reach the final round of the Champions League when things are not in your control. Do you have any concerns about how the group will react in the event of a dismissal? Maybe from changes you will need to make to the staff?
‘I do not think about these things, honestly. I always think that what happens – happens, and each of us has to do his job in the next training session. “
So my last question was supposed to be about the future, if we’ll see you here next season no matter what happens this season. But you generally only think about the next workout…
‘Of course everyone wants to plan their life, it’s normal. I think every coach would love to work here in Jerusalem, in such an organization, in such a group, because the conditions here are perfect. The city is very nice, the country, the people are very helpful and nice, so of course every coach and also Dainius Adumatis will want to stay in Jerusalem for a very long time. “
If you were interviewing yourself, what would you ask?
‘That’s a good question… I would ask what you need to be successful here. And my answer would be luck. Because in the end, luck in sports is very important, because a lot of games are decided in one position, or in one basket that gets caught or not, so that’s what I would answer. ‘