Israel's Omri Casspi is King, NBA pioneer for his country

¹²³ · Jul 13, 2009

By Chris Tomasson, Special for USA TODAY
LAS VEGAS — Omri Casspi single-handedly might be changing the goals of young basketball players in Israel.
"When I was young, I dreamed to play with Maccabi, the biggest club in Israel," Casspi said. "Now the kids can dream about playing in the NBA, because we've got somebody over there."

That man is Casspi, who last month, after playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, became the first player from Israel taken in the first round of the NBA draft, at No. 23. The 6-9 Sacramento Kings forward could become the first Israeli to play in the NBA this fall.

Just about everything is a first these days for Casspi. Until he made his debut for the Kings on Friday in the NBA Summer League, no Israeli had gotten even that close to the league.

"It's not pressure on me, but there's a lot of expectations going on," Casspi said. "My country is on my back. I was the first one to play in the summer. I was the first one to wear the NBA jersey. I'm the first one to play in the NBA," if he makes the 2009-10 roster.

He isn't the first player an NBA club has drafted from Israel, where he said basketball is huge. Doron Sheffer, a former Connecticut star, was picked in the second round of the 1996 draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Sheffer elected to sign with Maccabi.

Casspi, 21, just completed his Israeli-required three-year service in the army. He said basketball players generally are not sent into combat, but friends of his did go.

Americans are trying to make Casspi comfortable. He said Sacramento has a small Jewish community but its members have been a big help.

"They called me, and they took me out to see the city and they arranged a house (for me) to rent," said Casspi, who will live in Sacramento with his brother, Eitan. "They want to rent me a car."

Casspi expects to see friendly faces even on the road. When he travels to cities with large Jewish populations, he figures plenty of fans will be waiving Israeli flags.

The Kings are hopeful Casspi, who has drawn comparisons to gritty New Jersey Nets forward Eduardo Najera, will be a heady and active player willing to do the little things to help the team win. Casspi still needs to work on his jumper before he's a potent inside-outside threat.

He has shot 7-for-19 in two games, averaging 8.5 points, with five turnovers in each game.

"He's struggled so far," said new Sacramento coach Paul Westphal, attributing some of that to Casspi's missing most of the Kings' pre-league practices while finalizing his contract. "But he's talented and he's got an intensity I think will translate very well once he gets comfortable."
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¹²³ · Jul 21, 2009

Great expectations accompany Casspi

The time to relax will come, when Omri Casspi is sitting on the deck behind his five-bedroom house on the Sacramento River and unwinding from another day of work as the first Israeli to play in the NBA.
But not now. Now, the Kings rookie small forward admitted during his first exposure to the NBA at Las Vegas summer league, is a nerve-wracking time.

"Hell yeah," he exclaimed when asked if he was nervous playing in his first game July 10. "I just signed my first contract. It's the first time in the NBA, the first game, everything's a first.

"It's not that there's pressure on me, but there's a lot of expectations going on. My country's on my back, and it's just the beginning."

Finding a house was a good start, though. Before the latest stop on Casspi's journey landed him in the Nevada desert recently,a group of generous Israelis in San Francisco was eager to help Casspi relocate from Tel Aviv.
They insisted he rent their Sacramento home at half the market-value rate, even offered him free use of their boats and Jet Skis to sneak in some play time on the water during those scorching summer days. He gladly agreed to the house and respectfully declined on the toys, ever appreciative of the latest sign of support.

It's been that way since June 25, when NBA Commissioner David Stern announced in New York the Kings were taking Casspi with the No. 23 pick. It was instant bedlam inside his home some 5,600 miles away.

Casspi cried at the magnitude of the moment, while dozens of family, friends and media surrounding him leapt to lift him. They haven't stopped carrying him since.

"It's a lot of people," Casspi said. "It's everybody, everybody, and not just in Israel. It's here (in Las Vegas), San Francisco, Los Angeles, everybody is just saying, 'If you need something, call me.' I've got so many business cards and people saying they can do this or that. It's incredible.

"Everybody is really, really, really excited. It makes you feel good that the people want to help you be successful and see you be successful."

Casspi wishes there had been more success at summer league, where he showed flashes of potential but mostly struggled. The experience began with an obstacle, as Casspi couldn't practice at first because of a paperwork holdup related to his release from his former team, Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Once Casspi did take part, he had to play his way into shape, as he hardly had picked up a ball since his European League season ended in mid- March. But support was never far; a boisterous contingent of Israelis sustained the celebration of Casspi during games at UNLV while the man himself had his first dose of hoops culture shock.

The 6-foot-9 playmaking forward is the latest European player to question the NBA's individual- focused ways. The Kings have failed to share the ball more than most teams in recent years, and Casspi looks to help change that.

"It's so much different," said Casspi, who averaged eight points (on 29.5 percent shooting), 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 3.4 turnovers and 22.4 minutes in five games. "The European game is a team game. You're not going to see guys shooting the ball until there's five or six passes on offense. The athleticism, the quickness of the players here, the individual skill, is different.

"(But) the talent is not it. It's just about quickness and about me understanding the game, because in Europe I would move without the ball all the time, and I'm trying to understand where to go and stuff like that. When that comes to me,I'll be a lot more comfortable."

Despite Casspi's shooting struggles in the summer league finale Friday (he was 2 of 11 overall), Kings coach Paul Westphal said it was clear Casspi's comfort level was rising.

"I thought it was Omri's best game by far," Westphal said. "I just think he's more comfortable. He wasn't making shots, but he was real active. He's around the ball a lot. He has to cut down on the turnover issue, (but) he just looked like he belonged out there."

He isn't settled in Sacramento just yet, though. Casspi - who said the Kings gave him the maximum amount allowed by the NBA's rookie salary scale, $1,167,000, in his two-year guaranteed contract - will spend muchof his summer in Israel.
He hasn't yet decided whether to play for his national team in August, and is in the process of choosing a personal coach in America to help with the transition upon returning. He recently bought his new cell phone with his first American number, and is zeroing in on a new car as well.

"It's a process, step by step,"Casspi said."I'm enjoying it. I'm not here for as print. It's like I was telling the coaches and the staff, I'm here for a journey."
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¹²³ · Aug 27, 2009

A nation holds its breath as 21-year-old Israeli forward Omri Casspi approaches his debut with the Kings

Omri Casspi knew better than everyone else, or certainly, before everyone else. At age 15 – before he went on a date or finished high school – he decided that he was the chosen one.

He would be the first. The first Israeli selected in the opening round of the NBA draft. The first to live among Kings and Lakers. The first to successfully represent this basketball-crazed country of approximately 7.5 million people, few of whom measure up to NBA standards.

Former Israeli stars Mickey Berkowitz, Doron Sheffer, Oded Kattash, Yotam Halperin and Lior Eliyahu all flirted with the notion of careers in the National Basketball Association, but for various reasons – timing, injury, attitude, aptitude – never made it to training camp.

Casspi will make it to camp. As a first-round selection of the Sacramento Kings and the 23rd pick overall, the 6-foot-9 small forward – all grown up now at 21 – has a guaranteed contract and a date for opening night.

"We have had other good players try for NBA, and all were nice guys," said Zvika Sherf, Casspi's former coach with the Israeli national team and Maccabi Tel Aviv. "Maybe too much. They didn't have the elbows. Omri, he has the elbows."

Frankly, in terms of basketball, Israelis are tired of being shoved aside. While soccer is the most popular sport, Israeli Premier League power Maccabi Tel Aviv is the nation's treasure, often mistaken for the national team. The fact that 60 nations have been represented in the NBA before Casspi even attempts his first dunk remains a chronic source of irritation.

"Think about it," said Eran Soroka, basketball writer for the newspaper Ma'ariv. "Iran, one of the countries that wants to eliminate us, has a player in the NBA (Hamed Haddadi, Memphis Grizzlies). Iceland has had a player in the NBA. Latvia, Italy, France, Russia, but no Israel? This is like an insult to us."

It's not as if NBA officials have failed to extend a hand, either. In an attempt to expand its global tentacles into the conflict-weary Middle East, the NBA for years has conducted clinics in Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq and Israel, frequently in conjunction with the U.S. State Department. Yet even a small exodus of Middle Easterners toward the NBA has failed to materialize; the game that has gone global continues to skip over the region.

Casspi's first-round selection is such an anomaly – such a national sensation – that champagne flowed throughout Tel Aviv long after the draft. On a video taped by an Israeli TV crew at his parents' home during the June 25 draft, Casspi's mother, Ilana, is seen pacing and cleaning while peeking at the screen. His father, Shimon, frowns and frets while standing a few feet away. Omri agonizes on the couch, thrusting his face into his hands, moaning in disappointment as other players are selected, their names and remarks scripted in Hebrew near the bottom of the screen.

Finally the Kings are on the clock. "Watch (NBA Commissioner) David Stern now," Casspi instructed, remote in hand, while replaying the video for the zillionth time. "When he calls my name he is smiling. He is Jewish, you know. See!"

Jubilant friends and relatives dive onto the couch, onto Casspi, who disappears inside the scrum. Drenched in champagne, he strips down to an undershirt and is showered again. Throughout the day, his image flashed across TV screens. His cell phone never stopped ringing; he heard from teammates and politicians and the individual that every young Israeli basketball player idolizes.

"When I heard David Stern say, 'At No. 23, Omri Casspi,' my body was shaking," related Berkowitz, the former Maccabi star and most beloved of all Israeli sports icons. "Just shaking."
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