Yiftach Ziv accuses Granada of antisemitism, the club responds / News - Basketnews.com

Ziv said the club didn't care about him and ostracized him for being Jewish. He said he was afraid to speak Hebrew, and the club didn't care about his security. Granada issued a statement, saying the player's statements are a falsehood and everything was done to support him.

Credit: Seffi Magriso/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Seffi Magriso/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Former Coviran Granada guard Yiftach Ziv made some startling statements following his departure from the club. The Spanish team responded.

Free throws this season

77%14,5Points made:14,5Accuracy:76,7%Place in standings:13Record max:27Record min:4Most made FTs:Cristiano FelicioTeamACBStatisticsSchedule

Ziv played just 7 games for Granada and left the organization in December to join Saint-Quentin in the French League (LNB). Two months after the move, Ziv says he was subjected to antisemitism following the October 7th events when Hamas launched a series of attacks against Israel, starting a full-on war between the two sides.

"They weren't interested in me at all. I came to Granada to be a leading player, and at the beginning of the season, it was really like that. I had good games. We weren't the best in the Spanish league, but we competed well against top teams. I was very happy at first, but from October 7, I went through a very unpleasant period, both professionally and personally," Ziv said in an interview with Efrat Amoraban from YNet News.

"You're afraid to speak Hebrew on the street. You keep looking right and left. The biggest problem was that the team simply did not support me. They abandoned me," Ziv proclaimed.

Indeed, Ziv averaged 9.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 6 assists for 13.6 PIR in the Spanish Liga Endesa (ACB) before October 7th. In the four games that followed, Ziv only registered averages of 2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1 assist for -1.5 PIR.

Asked to explain why it happened, the player said the club wasn't interested in reaching out to the player at any point after the fateful Saturday morning.

"The most basic thing: war broke out, and no one ever asked me 'How are you?' or 'How is your family?' They weren't interested in me at all," Ziv said. "We weren't winning at that time, and I thought to myself how I do things differently, but in hindsight, I realized it wasn't related to basketball. They came to the decision that they simply didn't want me."

Yiftach Ziv

MIN:17.76PTS:5.29 (46.15%)REB:2.29As:3.14ST:1BL:0.29TO:2.43GM:7ProfileACB2023/2024

"No one directly told me that, but that was my feeling," he said after being asked whether it had to do with him being from Israel. "It's unreasonable that from October 7, no one talked to me. I'm a foreign player. Whether I was good or bad, someone should have said something. The coach could have taken me for a talk and said 'Pull yourself together.' Even that didn't happen. I felt like air. It's very hard to come like this to practice, especially in basketball. I thought about the family and the captives. I'm sitting in Spain, and my thoughts are with a 12-year-old girl sitting in a bomb shelter or a tunnel in Gaza."

Ziv's girlfriend, Israeli actress Kim Or Azulay, helped him during the first weeks after the war. Then, the player had to deal with everything by himself after she flew back to Israel to support the locals.

"She felt that I wasn't doing well mentally. After she returned to Israel, I stayed there alone for a month and a half. I was at a workplace that didn't care about me, they didn't let me play, they separated me from the team's practices. They made me feel like they wanted to cut me out, but they didn't have a reason to do it," Ziv said.

"They tried to say it was professional, but it's funny. Two days before October 7, the coach sat with me and said, 'You have an average of 10 points and 6 assists, you look good.' Then he showed me how I could improve and said they're patient. Does it make sense that two days later, he doesn't ask how I am and doesn't talk to me at all? There is no doubt that it's because I'm Israeli and Jewish. They simply ostracized me," the player said. "It left a scar on me because it was the first time I went to Europe, and I was looking forward to it."

Even when additional security had to be issued because of the war, the player felt it wasn't being done to assist him. Instead, he felt the club did it for the sake of themselves.

"A week after October 7, we had a game in Bilbao. Everyone remembers what happened to Hapoel Holon there. I spoke with the team manager and told him that we were going to a place where I didn't feel comfortable and that they should check if security was needed. They arranged a police escort. I said to myself, 'Wow, the team cares.' Later, I found out that the club president said in an interview that, unfortunately, because there was an Israeli player on the team, they did not feel secure. Then I realized that they brought the police escort for themselves and their security, not for me," Ziv proclaimed.

Following Ziv's shocking statement, Granada issued a response to the player's claims. The club provided a written explanation to Ideal, a news site from Granada.

Granada's explanation in response to Ziv's claims:

The player, on a purely sporting level, was declining in playing numbers and importance within the team before October 7, as can be demonstrated and recorded in his statistics accumulated during the games played before the conflict broke out.

Both the player and his representation agency were informed that the club was looking for a substitute and that, therefore, he would not play and would not be called up with the team. We understood that he was a young player and that he could find a place in another team, since the ACB League had become too big for his game.

He continued practicing with his teammates until the very moment in which the little involvement shown in the practices caused a drop in their rhythm, so there was no other solution but [for him] to practice with the assistant coach, Andrea Pecile, while he was looking for a way out.

When Yiftach Ziv talks about how we were not interested at any time in his personal life, it is totally inaccurate. This is demonstrated in several [head coach] Pablo Pin's press conferences, in interviews with Óscar Fernández-Arenas, and on the countless occasions in which he was asked directly about his personal and family situation.

At all times, the club showed interest in his situation. In fact, on the team's trip to Bilbao, we already knew that his father and brother had been called to participate in the conflict, and that same morning we learned that part of his family was traveling to Gaza.

What's more, we were so interested in his safety that it is uncertain that we would [otherwise] have a police car in Bilbao, since we have the security provided by up to 3 police cars. The police were even witnessing the practice carried out in the pavilion after the club officially requested it from the National Police in Granada.

The nationality of the player has never been a problem for us, as can be seen with the invitation received by the former Granada CF player, Shon Weissman, who was in the authorities' box at the Palacio de Deportes watching a Coviran Granada match after with the conflict had already started.

When the player explains that the president was looking out for his own safety and not that of Yiftach Ziv, it is also totally untrue. The club has always worked for the safety of both the Israeli player and the rest of the first team.

The club was interested in the security that Shon Weissman had and Granada CF recognized that the entire procedure was carried out through the embassy. CB Granada put Yiftach Ziv in contact with the embassy, ​​but the player showed no interest.

When the player talks about antisemitism and the fear of speaking Hebrew, it draws our attention since we know that on numerous occasions, he went to a casino in Granada and socialized in the city.

From the moment we became aware of the player's statements to the Hebrew media, we recognized that they were totally untrue and that we would not make any reaction to them since it is not our way of acting with players who have been part of the club. Despite this, we have had no choice but to briefly and truthfully explain some of the comments that appear in said statement.

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