Eitan Lanziano rarely misses a chance to speak his mind, and on ONE's "Today's Conversation" show this week the Hapoel Holon chairman used the platform to send an unusually pointed message to Ofer Yanai, the owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv, in the middle of Israeli basketball's row over naturalized players.
The backdrop is a proposal pushed through by Maccabi Tel Aviv chairman Shimon Mizrahi and Bnei Herzliya owner Eldad Akunis, which would stop a player who naturalizes to represent Israel's national team from being registered as a domestic "Israeli" player in the league for two years afterward. When it came to a vote among the Premier League's clubs, 13 backed the measure - only Hapoel Tel Aviv voted against it.
Lanziano did not hide his irritation at Hapoel Tel Aviv's stance. "No matter what they propose, they're always against it," he said of the club, adding that he hoped the vote would prove to be "the right and just decision."
He went further, framing the lopsided count as a sign of dysfunction rather than principle. Thirteen clubs, he argued, rarely agree on anything - yet on this issue they lined up unanimously against a single dissenter, which he read as evidence of a wider lack of solidarity in the league rather than a considered objection from Hapoel Tel Aviv.
That set up the line that gave the interview its headline: a direct message to Yanai to "focus on his own team in basketball and less on what's around him." Lanziano added that he wished Hapoel Tel Aviv success in Europe this season, but said he was "too small" to be offering Yanai advice.
The conversation then turned to Holon's own finances, and Lanziano did not sugarcoat the picture. The club's budget for the coming season has slipped from roughly 17-18 million shekels a year ago to about 16 million now, even as some rivals in the capital and Tel Aviv continue to spend heavily on imported talent.
That gap didn't rattle him. "It doesn't matter how many foreigners they bring in - only five can play," he said, before adding that Holon would simply do "what we've done in previous years" - compete on a leaner roster against far richer clubs.
Asked what he would do with a much bigger budget, Lanziano kept his ambitions modest and specific: "I don't need 200 million. Give me 50," he said of a hypothetical domestic boost, and for a Eurocup campaign, "give me 100... I'll compete, not win. I won't exaggerate or make empty promises."
It was a characteristically blunt outing from one of Israeli basketball's more combative club chairmen - part defense of a rule change that squarely benefits the league's established powers, part running commentary on a Hapoel Tel Aviv ownership he clearly feels is punching above its seniority.
