“I know that before people know me, they can ask, ‘Who is this coach, what is he doing? He’s yelling and raving, he looks like a farmer.’ But after understanding me and seeing what effort I make for the team, they realize I’m a normal person.”
This sentence is perhaps best summed up in the Stefanos Dadas – Because how many coaches do you know who would talk like that about themselves? But Dadas is a different type. Very emotional, very direct, not one who will pick out words even when in front of him there is a TV camera or a recording device. “My approach to life and basketball is pretty much the same,” he says in an interview with the sports channel, after signing a contract extension with Hapoel Holon, and just before the semi-final of the State Cup against Maccabi Tel Aviv. “I like to use a lot of humor, sarcasm, even in front of the actors. I like to laugh, I’m a pretty funny person. I think that’s always the right attitude.”
“Hapoel Holon highlights my strengths and succeeds in covering up my weaknesses”
Last season Hapoel Holon signed an anonymous Greek coach named Stefanos Dadas. At the time it seemed like a kind of gamble, but the nature of gambling is sometimes to succeed, and that’s exactly what happened with Dads, which will continue next season as well. “I believe in personal relationships and we have a good match,” he says. “I’m well connected to the management and the fans, so for me the contract extension was not a surprising move. I’m fine here and I know they are happy with me. The most important thing is to start talking to players we want for next season, keeping the team at bay regardless of results. I believe in chemistry. And in continuity. ”
How did this connection between you and Hapoel Holon come about?
“I am an emotional guy, one who lives the game, so the atmosphere in Holon – which is even more emotional, makes me look normal.”
Do you feel you are doing your best?
“Yes, Hapoel Holon highlights my strengths and succeeds in covering up my weaknesses. Just like with players, you want to hide their weaknesses and highlight their strengths, so it is with coaches. In Holon I can coach without unnecessary interruptions, it does not really matter that I am a stranger “And let’s face it, I’m not from Switzerland, I’m from Greece. It’s close. After we win, the fans send me songs in Greek, songs I do not even know.”
How much do you lack to train in front of an audience?
“I got to” get to know “the fans three months, before the Corona last season, and I still have a headache from their screams behind the bench. I miss them, obviously. In this squad especially, when there are aggressive players, guards, who generate momentum during the game – it was amazing If they were with us, I’m sure if they were with us, we would be even better. We need them in the difficult moments. With fans, for example, we would not lose to Nes Ziona, I have no doubt. They are missing in the difficult moments. But I know they appreciate the effort. “Ours is also away from home, that we play until the last ball, that we do not fall apart. I hope they will at least return to the playoffs, for my part there will be only fifty, they will make a mess. Maybe that’s even enough, that way you can control them …”.
“We do not need a bad day of our opponent to win”
Dadas leads Holon so far to a great season: The team overcame a crisis at the start of the season and climbed the highway, qualifying for the second time in the second round of the FIFA Champions League – while playing eye-catching basketball, based mostly on shots and offensive spacing. I wanted us to play, “Dadas explains.” We had a few injuries at the start of the season, but after Maxim de Zhao arrived, we were even more able to instill the style I want. “People who see seeing our game can say it looks like we’re playing street ball, but everyone here understands how hard it is to play like that.”
Why do you believe so much in this basketball?
“In this method, what matters is that we are never dependent on our opponent, we maneuver the game the way we want, and it does not matter if we play against Maccabi Tel Aviv or against Nahariya. We do not need a bad day for our opponent to win, we Trying to be dominant all the time.It was not easy to convince the players, management and fans that this is the right way to play, that everyone is shooting from the outside.But when you see the details, the results, the offensive rebounding data, the points per possession, you realize we built something good here “We have the fewest points in erupting attacks in the league, but we score the most points in the league for possession. We have the most effective attack, we see in analytics. It is not easy, it is different, it is special.”
The key is the highs?
“Yes, that’s the big difference for me. American combo guards who create – that’s the ‘easy part’ in building a team, there are a lot of players in that style. The high ones are what make us special. I do not understand why all the teams do not play like that, why they prefer me -Hops of the tall players compared to threes. But for me it’s good, because it allows us to win more games … This style also gives more freedom to guards who can penetrate and produce points from the outside. There are simple solutions in this method. You can not win all the games, But I feel comfortable, I control the game the way I want to. “
“Sometimes I exaggerate in my reactions”
Dadas’ behavior on the lines – before, after, and during games – is also not exactly conventional. Dadas often reacts angrily, cursing and angry: he once blew up a press conference after a game in Europe, this season he was sent off after a noisy confrontation with referee Suns, and in general he is the kind of coach who just does not produce a single second of silence on the bench. “I watch our games, whether wins or losses, and I admit that sometimes I exaggerate in my reactions,” he says. “I have to be better, I know. Not for me or my image, but because there’s a way to behave. It’s clear to me that there are managements who would prefer coaches who seem to be under control, who think while playing, quiet like that. I do not look like that, “Inside, I feel like I’m more in control of what’s going on. I’m not a coach sitting idly by because it’s not in my character.”
How do players get it?
“I’ll tell you a story. Last season they sent me an interview with Guy Pnini. I read it at a hotel in Sassari, they told me he called me ‘ars’. They tried to explain to me what ‘ars’ is because it is not a word that exists in Greek. I asked him jokingly ‘why he said’ That? “, He replied that it is not a bad thing. I also train in this style, I am aggressive, sometimes shouting at the players, sometimes shouting unkind things, but I also allow them to answer me. I believe that is how I make them motivated, Annoy them. Make them realize that while they are with the group, for a total of two hours a day, they have to “die” for her.
After understanding what it is, do you agree with Pnini? Are you a bastard?
“Yeah, because if I try to be something else, I’ll lose every game by 40 points. I do not know, I might have won more if I was calmer, but it’s me. If the players understand I’m not behaving like that because I want to prove something to them, That it does not come from ego, so good things happen in the end. Some of the players are my good friends, we talk a lot outside of basketball. My character helps me make good connections with my players in the future. In general I agree that sometimes these incidents do not look good, but they give I have a lot, more than they take. “
“Understand why Israeli coaches reacted like this”
Dadas came here last season as part of a wave of foreign coaches, mostly Greeks, who swept Israeli basketball, and found himself – albeit reluctantly – at the center of a storm that dealt with the status of Israeli coach, with one of the main arguments being that Holon preferred not to take him because of resume, talent or The ability, that if due to the fact that it is cheaper. “I was not offended by this or the new criteria that have been made here now,” Dadas says. “But in the end the teams are mostly private teams, or strengthened by the municipality – and they have the right to decide who will be the coach. In the end everyone wants to succeed and win.”
But do you understand the frustration of the Israeli coaches, who feel that “jobs” are being taken from them?
“Obviously, it was natural for Israeli coaches to react like that. It was also in Greece when there was a lot of money, Yugoslav and American coaches came, it’s part of basketball. Every country has good coaches and they want to fight for themselves. But why, for example, why are there so many Americans on teams? Because there are a lot of good players, there is a great selection, and in the end they are brought in to make the team better. It’s the same with coaches in my eyes – there are more options of foreign coaches that can suit a specific team. This does not necessarily mean that foreign coaches are better than Israelis. There are simply more options. ”
Do you need more pressure because you are a stranger and need to prove you deserve it?
“I do not feel this pressure because I am a foreigner because I feel very comfortable in Holon. It does not matter if I am Israeli or Greek, as long as there is a good connection with the club. It might have been easier for me if I was a calm person, who does not respond at all “But then what would they say about me? That I was indifferent, that I was not doing anything, they would ask why they brought a Greek coach … you must be yourself, no matter where you are, because in the end there is no big difference between Israel and Turkey or Greece.”
How is your Hebrew?
“Still so-and-so, but I understand concepts of basketball. When I watch the broadcasts, then when a player does a bad action it is ‘why’? A shot that does not reach the ring – ‘short’. ‘Workman – mess’. I understand the language of basketball “.
“Some coaches will say they do not care, but everyone reads everything”
Dads are the kind of coaches who are also accessible to the media and fans. He answers at length at press conferences and is very active on social media. “I’m very active on Twitter, it’s a way of conveying messages, of being a bit of a politician,” he says with a smile. “If we lost I can write that there were injuries. If we won, it’s because there’s an amazing coach … if you use this platform the right way, it can show your good sides. I love it.”
Do you know what is written about you and what is said about you?
“I’m a new generation coach, straight away getting notifications of who talked about me and what was said. I like to know who said what and who wrote what. Some coaches will say they don’t care, but everyone reads everything, and if not – then someone sends them what’s written.”
How do you live with criticism?
“I take it as a challenge. If someone says that Dadas is a ridiculous coach, that he does not know how to coach a basketball – I see it as a motivation to win the next game. In the end I can come and tell him that I did not forget what he said about me.”
“My motivation is to win titles, not to beat Yannis”
Now Dadas is waiting for a task with a particularly high profile: the semi-final of the State Cup against Maccabi Tel Aviv, to which Holon will appear with five foreigners after the mass mobilization campaign to finance the matter. For Dadas it’s a kind of derby against Yannis Sapropoulos, with whom he worked in his early days, somewhere in the early 2000s at PAOK Thessaloniki.
Is there a special motivation to beat Yannis?
“Not really, this is not the attitude. I come with her to this game. When I enter the office at the Holon Hall, I see on the walls pictures of teams that have won titles. I understand that it is possible, and that is my motivation, it makes me hungry for titles. It happened and it can happen again. I’m not coming to the game just to beat Yannis, who was my mentor.
How do you see the balance of power?
“I think Maccabi Tel Aviv is a better, better quality and deeper team than us, but we also have advantages. It’s a trophy, one game, a factory of underdogs. They beat us in a previous game, but did not play better than us. Therefore, I feel that we also have some relative advantage, with all due respect to Maccabi, which has an excellent coach and excellent players. We come to this game in very good shape. “
A trophy with Holon will make you a good name too
“Holon is a team that gives you the opportunity to succeed on the way up. Good players have moved here, maybe even for coaches. I have been working in this profession for almost 20 years, from the age of 19. If as a coach I did not have this ambition to advance, then why am I here? “The Euroleague is a goal for me. Not a dream, a goal, but I know that even if it happens, it will take time. You need patience and a little luck to reach the highest levels.”
Will Holon win the title of the season?
“Yes, yes, we will win the title. The Balkan League is also considered”?