Motley holds meetings with Hapoel, possibility of return remains

Johnathan Motley held a series of meetings in Tel Aviv before flying out of Israel on Saturday. Hapoel’s owner, Ofer Yannay, has flown back to Israel to deal with the matter in person while contacting both Motley and his agent. There reportedly is a growing sense in the organization that Motley might stay.
The Johnathan Motley saga has captured the attention of European basketball fans in recent days. There has been another development in the story
Earlier in the week, Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv announced that Motley had packed his things and decided to leave the club. Hapoel’s owner, Ofer Yannay, later revealed it might have been because of an offer from Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

While Crvena Zvezda themselves denied ever approaching Motley, as the club’s sports director Milan Dozet claimed the team had no connection with the center, Yannay later revealed that the red-and-whites offered more than €2 million to the star center.

Interestingly, Motley has since returned to Israel and held a meeting with representatives of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Or Shkedy from Walla Sport reports. The relationship between the two parties has been renewed, at least for now.
Yannay, who was recently outside of the country, has since returned to Israel to deal with the matter in person. Meanwhile, Motley left Israel on Saturday, but he did not fly back home to the USA.

Yannay has contacted both Motley and his agent and portrayed his view that the most beneficial move for both sides would be to continue the relationship. While initially it seemed like a done deal for the big man to leave the club, there is a growing sense within the organization, although still not concrete at this point, that Motley might actually remain on the roster, Shkedy notes.

“No one knows exactly how it will end, but if he comes back, we need him to explain to us what exactly happened here. In the end, he left and was not with us today,” an unnamed Hapoel player said after the Israeli Winner League game against Hapoel Afula on Saturday.

Hapoel have meanwhile traveled to Belgrade to prepare for the upcoming EuroCup matchup against Bahcesehir College Istanbul in the Serbian capital on Tuesday.