Nebo believes Maccabi can win it all: 'Any other team would've fallen apart' / News - Basketnews.com

Josh Nebo thinks the experience of having to play home games in Belgrade and go through difficulties that the Israel-Hamas war caused made the team stronger.

Credit: Ion Alcoba Beitia/GettyImages Credit Ion Alcoba Beitia/GettyImages

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv have had a unique year, having to play almost every home game away from Israel. Josh Nebo thinks this was a bonding experience in a way.

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv / Schedule

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz113-85 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivTue17:30 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivThu17:30

"I'm very proud of what we've done and achieved so far this season. This is the most difficult and challenging season I've had in my career," Nebo said in an interview with Tomer Givati from Israel Hayom.

Maccabi finished the EuroLeague regular season in seventh place. Despite playing home games in Belgrade, the Israeli team won 12 out of 16 contests in the Serbian capital, a commendable 75% rate.

In addition, Maccabi won their play-in game against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and some are even projecting them to win against Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens in the quarterfinals.

"I'm very proud of the team that we managed to get this far. Reaching the EuroLeague playoffs is a huge achievement every year because this league is very competitive, but I feel that we still have bigger ambitions and expectations this season," the center claimed.

"Our unity led us to success because this business could have fallen apart very easily. In a year like this, it could have been very easy for the players to give up, get up and leave, to find excuses for why we fail, but this team is different," he said. "Any other team would have fallen apart."

Of course, the situation after the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7th couldn't continue without any conflicts within the team. At one time, the foreigners had refused to go play in Israel, but ultimately, the disagreements were solved, and the team went on to have a dominant end of the regular season.

"Despite everything that happened, I didn't even think for a moment about leaving Israel. I was only thinking about our situation and how we would survive this season," Nebo said.

The 26-year-old center has steadily improved throughout his three seasons in the EuroLeague, now averaging the best numbers in his career - 10.9 points, 7.3 rebounds (#1 in the EuroLeague), and 16.6 PIR.

As such, Nebo has been drawing vast interest from multiple high-profile EuroLeague clubs, with one of them being EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. But first, the series against Panathinaikos for a chance to play in the Final Four and, if the circumstances fall right, win it all.

"This is the goal, and this is our dream. I believe we can win the EuroLeague. If we win the Euroleague, it will be an incredible success story," Nebo concluded.

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