Gur Shelef

Gur Shelef
Player information
birthday	January 10, 1974
place of birth	Tel Aviv, Israel
size	201 cm
position	Power Forward / Small Forward
Clubs as active
1992–1993 Hapoel Gvat 1993–1995 Maccabi Ramat Gan 1995–1998 Hapoel Galil Elyon 1998–2005 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2005–2007 Antwerp Giants
National team
1996-2006	Israel

Gur Shelef ( Hebrew גור שלף; Born January 10, 1974 in Tel Aviv ) is a retired Israeli basketball player and official. The long-time national player took part in four European basketball championship finals and also won the highest-ranking European club competition three times in conjunction with the national double as a Triple Crown with the series champion Maccabi Tel Aviv, who dominates in Israel . After playing for the Antwerp Giants in Belgium for two years at the end of his career , he returned to Maccabi and was the successful team's sports director from 2008 to 2013 . His father Ami Shelef was also a national basketball player and his brother Uri Shelef was one of the driving forces behind the rebirth of Maccabi's local rival Hapoel Tel Aviv after his career as a basketball player .

Career

Gur Shelef began his senior career at Hapoel / Yagur from Gvat near Migdal HaEmek in the Northern District , whose team had their most successful period in the 1970s. From 1993 he played for Maccabi from Ramat Gan for two years before going back to the Northern District to join Hapoel Galil Elyon. There he became a national player and qualified with the Israeli national team for the 1997 European Championship finals . After two victories over Slovenia and France you reached the intermediate round, in which you won no more game. After two wins in the placement round against Germany , among others , they finished ninth. In 1998 he came with trainer Pini Gershon , who with Hapoel Galil had dethroned Maccabi Tel Aviv as master in 1993, to the series champion Maccabi in his hometown. Here they defended the national double by winning titles in the championship and cup competition and reached the knockout games in the European Cup in the round of 16, where they lost twice to the eventual finalists Kinder Bologna . At the European Championship finals tournament in 1999 , the national team lost this time in the preliminary round against hosts France, but narrowly won the game against Macedonia . In the second round, after a defeat in extra time against Russia, it was only enough to win again over Slovenia. In the decisive match against Spain for a qualification for the quarter-finals, Shelef scored the most points for his team with 16 points behind Doron Sheffer , although he had previously suspended the victory over Slovenia. Nevertheless, they lost the game by 14 points and lost all chances of qualifying for the 2000 Olympic Games .

In the 1999/2000 season Maccabi again defended the double in Israel and beat Fortitudo Winnington Bologna , the local rivals of Children's Bologna in the European Cup quarter-finals . At the Final Four tournament, in which Shelef hardly got any time, they lost after beating FC Barcelona in the final against Panathinaikos Athens . Here just had Oded Kattash , longtime Maccabi and international team-mate of Shelef, with 17 points for Panathinaikos significant role in the success of the Greeks. For the following 2000/01 season, the European Cup competition split, as leading teams, especially from Spain and Italy, joined forces in the ULEB through their league organizations and started their own competition with the ULEB Euroleague . In addition to defending champion Panathinaikos, Maccabi initially remained loyal to the FIBA Europa competition , which however had to be renamed the Suproleague . In a new edition of the final from the previous year, Panathinaikos could be defeated this time with 81:67 and for the first time in 20 years they won the European Cup at its last edition under the direction of FIBA. The two competitions were then reunited under the umbrella of the ULEB and coach Gershon initially handed responsibility to his previous assistant David Blatt . In the semifinals of the ULEB Euroleague 2001/02 Maccabi and Panathinaikos faced each other again, the latter again having the better end this time and winning the competition in the final against the ULEB defending champion Kinder Bologna . In the following season Maccabi failed in the group stage of the round of 16 at Benetton Treviso to return to the Final Four. Coach Blatt had to move back into the second row and Gershon returned to the sidelines.

At the European Championship finals in Sweden in 2003 Shelef, who had not participated in the finals two years earlier, returned to the squad of the national team. After only one win in the preliminary round and two defeats, including against Germany, Israel had to go to the elimination game that they won against Slovenia. In the quarter-finals, however, they again lost to the later European runner-up, Spain, and again missed qualifying for the Olympic Games, as only the medal winners could participate. Israel ended up in seventh place, the best place in Shelef's career on the national team. In the round of 16 group stage of the ULEB Euroleague 2003/04 Maccabi Tel Aviv faced Žalgiris Kaunas two seconds before the end of regular time before a home defeat and elimination from the competition, as the Lithuanian Giedrius Gustas in a three-point lead for Kaunas two Couldn't convert free throws. Because a Kaunas player moved too early, play resumed with a throw-in under Maccabi's basket. Shelef threw the ball with a long throw into the front field to Derrick Sharp , who forced overtime with a buzzer beater from behind the three-point line . Maccabi still won the game and moved into the Final Four tournament in front of a home crowd, in which Fortitudo Skipper Bologna was broken up in the final with the highest point difference in a ULEB Euroleague final game 118-74. In the following season 2004/05 Maccabi beat Panathinaikos again in the semifinals and was able to defend the title in the final against TAU Cerámica , who had defeated the hosts PBK CSKA Moscow in the semifinals . Maccabi was the first and, until 2013, only defending champion in the ULEB Euroleague to succeed.

At the 2005 European Championship finals , Israel only lost in the preliminary round to the world champions and hosts Serbia and Montenegro and also beat Spain, which, however, had previously defeated the hosts. Because of the worse direct comparison you had to go back to the elimination game, which this time was lost to Greece and meant elimination from the competition. Shelef, who was one of the national team's best scoopers in the victories against Latvia and Spain, was unsuccessful in his last tournament game with the national team. Then Shelef, who had less than an average of ten minutes per game in European Cup matches at Maccabi after Gershon's return as a coach, played for two years in Belgium for the Giants from Antwerp . In 2007, the team won their first title in the Belgian Cup since they were renamed Giants. However, Shelef ended his active career and returned to his Israeli homeland.

One year after the end of his active career, Shelef succeeded Moni Fanan at Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2008 , who had previously been the club's sports director for 16 years . After Maccabi had remained without a title in the 2007/08 season, Pini Gershon was finally brought back as a coach in November 2008. After Maccabi was eliminated in the ULEB Euroleague for the first time in six years in the round of 16 group stage and also missed the title in the national cup competition, the title in the national championship could be taken back at the end of the season. In the ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 the team surprisingly lost to KK Partizan Belgrade in the quarter-finals , but after losing the championship again, coach Gershon could not save the interim title in the cup competition. David Blatt succeeded Gershon again and won all national titles in the following two years. In the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 it was even enough to make it into the final, which was lost to Panathinaikos, who were also eliminated in the quarter-finals a year later. In the 2012/13 season they won the cup competition for the fourth time in a row, but in the national championship the final game against Maccabi Haifa was lost. After Maccabi Tel Aviv failed to win just one championship in 38 championships between 1970 and 2007, this was the third time since then that the most important national title did not go to the previous series champion. Coach Blatt was allowed to stay this time and won a triple crown a year later , but Shelef as sports director was replaced by his former teammate Nikola Vujčić .

Web links

Commons : Gur Shelef  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Shelef, GUR - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Gur SHELEF (ISR) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ האחים שלף בקרב על הבית. Israel HaYom , November 16, 2012, accessed June 15, 2014 (Hebrew). 
2. ↑ Gur Shelef's profile / 1999 European Championship for Men. FIBA , accessed on June 15, 2014 (English, tournament statistics). 
3. ↑ The Euroleague History Archive - Thessaloniki 2000: Panathinaikos is back. (No longer available online.) ULEB , archived from the original on October 8, 2014 ; accessed on June 15, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ One shot that changed Euroleague history. YouTube , accessed on June 15, 2014 ( ULEB uploaded April 8, 2014). 
5. ↑ The Euroleague History Archive - Tel Aviv 2004: Maccabi breaks all records! ULEB , accessed June 15, 2014 . 
6. ^ The Euroleague History Archive - Moscow 2005: Maccabi wins back-to-back crowns. ULEB , accessed May 27, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Gur Shelef's profile / 2005 EuroBasket. FIBA , accessed on June 15, 2014 (English, tournament statistics). 
8. ^ Allon Sinai: Mac TA rebuilds in wake of loss to Haifa in Final. The Jerusalem Post , June 16, 2013, accessed June 15, 2014 .