Basketball / Udrich could be back for Mac. TA soon

By Vered Cohen

Maccabi Tel Aviv wants its former point guard, Beno Udrich, back at Yad Eliahu, despite having already signed Will Bynum to fill the position. Maccabi has reportedly held talks with the player and his team, the San Antonio Spurs.

Udrich, 24, 1.91 meters, played for Maccabi in the 2002/03 season under then coach David Blatt. After a disappointing year with the Tel Aviv side, however, he left for Italy, before being picked at 28 by San Antonio in the NBA Draft a year later.

After two seasons with the Spurs, the Slovenian's relations with San Antonio coach Greg Popovich have run aground and Udrich could be on the way out. The teams meet in an exhibition game in Paris on Sunday and Maccabi will take advantage of the opportunity to discuss a possible transaction with the Spurs.

Udrih is suffering from a hamstring strain and is not expected to play.

The Slovenian's frequent injuries and his absence from a large number of games have exhausted the patience of his coach. "He's the fourth point guard on our team now," Popovich said after Udrih sat out another practice session on the sidelines this week. "Give me a break."

Popovich said he's now counting on Brent Barry and newcomer Jacque Vaughn to back up Tony Parker. "I'm not going to sit them out just to play Beno because he's healthy again," Popovich said. "The longer he's out, the longer he's going to wait for his shot to show us something... It's very unfortunate for him and for our team, but we have to move on and look at other people because we can't count on him as he's so injury prone."

Meanwhile Maccabi hammered Climamio Bologna 93-67 in its opening game at the Paris tournament last night thanks to a devastating second-half performance.

The teams were locked at 39-39 at the interval, but led by Simas Jasaitis, Maccabi began to run away with the game in the third quarter, and stretched its lead to over 20 points in the final period.

Jasaitis led Maccabi with 22 points and 5 rebounds. Rodney Buford followed with 18 points, Lior Eliyahu added 16 points and 7 rebounds, and Will Bynum scored 5 points, handed out 8 assists and brought down 5 rebounds.

In other games yesterday the Spurs won 115-90 against Belgium's Asvel, while Barcelona downed the Philadelphia 76ers 104-99.

Wow.I have two things to say.
First I don't think Maccabi would like to sign another PG especially after they have been searching for a PF ever since Baston left to the Pacers.
One name who was mentioned is Noel Felix.

And I don't think Udrih will want to return to Europe.He is a solid backup PG in the NBA and he showed in the World Cup that he has the potential.
I think that both the Spurs and Udrih should wait until next year when his contract ends.

Looks like Pop is doing anything he can to try and get Beno motivated. If this doesn't work maybe he is better off somewhere else.

ryno wrote:Looks like Pop is doing anything he can to try and get Beno motivated. If this doesn't work maybe he is better off somewhere else.

See I don't really think it's a matter of motivating Beno. Pop isn't one to use reverse psychology to motivate players. If Pop says that he has zero confidence in Beno and that he would be lucky to find a place at the end of the bench, he usually means it, and the player is beyond redemption. I have yet to see a Spurs player turn a corner after that kind of rhetoric.

Pop's attitude might seem cruel, but the only time we really get to see these players is during games and in press interviews. I always feel like 3/4 of the information Pop bases his decisions on is coming from practice, the training room, and the locker room.

For a fan this can be kind of frustrating, especially since the Spurs orginization is pretty guarded when it comes to leaking that kind information. One second everybody knows and loves Antonio Daniels, the next second he's on a plane to Portland. One second Rasho is the Spurs starting center, the next second he and Nazr are being benched for the entire Dallas series while Oberto is getting valuable playing time.

I really believe that Popovich publicly berating one of his players like that is the kiss of death.

The news from camp just seems to get weirder every day for Beno.
If the Spurs want to get rid of him, I'm sure there are numerous NBA teams that are in need of a backup PG.
I just can't imagine him leaving the NBA and going back to the Euro League.