Omri Casspi

Omri Casspi
Player information
Full name	Omri Moshe Casspi
birthday	22nd June 1988 (age 32)
place of birth	Cholon , Israel
size	206 cm
position	Small forward / power forward
NBA draft	2009 , 23rd Pick , Sacramento Kings
Club information
society	Maccabi Tel Aviv
league	Ligat ha'Al
Clubs as active
2005–2006 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2006–2007 Hapoel Galil Elyon 2007–2009 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2009–2011 Sacramento Kings 2011–2013 Cleveland Cavaliers 2013–2014 Houston Rockets 2014–2017 Sacramento Kings 2017 New Orleans Pelicans 2017 Minnesota Timberwolves 2017–2018 Golden State Warriors Since 2018 Memphis Grizzlies 00000 00000 0
National team 1
Since 02008	Israel
1 As of October 30, 2009

Omri Moshe Casspi ( Hebrew : עומרי משה כספי 0in; 0born June 22, 1988 in Cholon , Israel ) is an Israeli basketball player who is currently active at Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Ligat ha'Al .

The 2.06 meter tall Casspi was both the first Israeli to play in the North American professional NBA and the first Israeli to ever be signed in the first round of an NBA draft .

Career

Born in Cholon but raised in Javne , Casspi made his debut for the Maccabi Tel Aviv team in 2005 at the age of 17 . As a reserve player (4.7 points per game in 10.3 minutes per game) he was part of the team that won the national title and the Euroleague in 2005. To get more match practice, he was loaned to Hapoel Galil Elyon , where he played for two years. There his point yield rose to 11.2 points per game. When he was brought back from Tel Aviv in 2007, Casspi established himself as a regular player and improved to 11.5 points (2007/08) and finally 12.8 points per game (2008/09). For his consistently strong performance, he came fourth behind Ricky Rubio , Danilo Gallinari and Kosta Koufos in the “ FIBA European Young Men's Player of the Year Award” (best FIBA ​​youth player) . Surprisingly, Casspi terminated his contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv and invoked an alleged clause that would apply if a certain playing time per game was not reached, which was doubted in the Israeli press.

NBA

Casspi made himself available for the 2009 NBA draft and was signed by the Sacramento Kings with the 23rd pick . This made Casspi the first Israeli to ever be drawn in a first NBA draft round. Casspi was featured in the draft as a robust, versatile winger. In the NBA draft, he was compared with his Argentine teammate Andrés Nocioni . Casspi named Michael Jordan and Hedo Türkoğlu as role models . After he was drafted, there were impromptu celebrations in Tel Aviv and he received a congratulatory phone call from President Shimon Peres .

Casspi was initially not in the starting five, but came off the bench as the sixth man . His debut for the Kings was promising for Casspi: in 19 minutes he made 15 points and got three rebounds . With his debut, he also became the first Israeli in an NBA game. In his fifth NBA game, he made 22 points against the Phoenix Suns , and by halfway through the season he was in the starting lineup. With a season average of 10.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, he met expectations and was nominated for the NBA rookie-against-sophomores on the part of the rookies. In a positive sense, Casspi's robustness and toughness were noticed, with which he invalidated the cliché of the “pampered Jew”.

Casspi's debut led to a surge in interest among Jewish Americans. On trips away from home, the host team often set up a “Jewish Family Night”, where Israeli flags and kosher food were offered. At many games he used the opportunity to get in touch with the local Jewish community. In November 2009, Casspi caused a stir when he posed for photos together with the Iranian center Hamed Haddadi of the Memphis Grizzlies , even though Israel and Iran do not have diplomatic relations due to the Middle East conflict .

The second year was rather disappointing for Casspi. He lost his place as the starting small forward to Francisco García and Donté Greene , his points average dropped from 10.3 ( rookie season) to under nine, and his accuracy in the field also dropped from 45% to 41%. Casspi complained about a lack of playing time, which earned him the renewed charge of immaturity. After the 2010/11 season he was exchanged for JJ Hickson and a first-round pick to Cleveland.

After three years with the Houston Rockets between 2011 and 2014, he came to the New Orleans Pelicans in the summer of 2014 after a player swap , but they had no use for him and released him. Then he was taken back by the Sacramento Kings, with whom he had started his NBA career.

In February 2017, Casspi was transferred from Sacramento to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the DeMarcus Cousins trade. After his contract expired in the summer of 2017, Casspi joined the Golden State Warriors as a free agent . With Golden State he won his first NBA title in the same year after the Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0 in the NBA Finals. The following summer, Casspi became a free agent again, and signed a one-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies.

National team

Casspi is a member of the Israeli national basketball team and has been through all youth teams since U-18. He made his debut for Israel in 2005 at the European Under-18 Championship, where he made 14 points per game. A year later he was the team's top scorer at the U-18 European Championship with 21.4 points per game, and managed 17.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game at the U-20 European Championship 2007 in Slovenia . In 2008 he made his debut for the men's selection.

Private life

Casspi is one of three children of Shimon and Eilana Casspi. He has a brother named Eitan and a sister named Aviv. He mentions tennis and going out with friends as hobbies .

Like most Israeli men, Casspi was drafted into the Israeli army at 18 and did three years of military service . He organizes basketball camps in Israel that are open to both Jewish and Arab youth and serve to promote international understanding.

Web links

Commons : Omri Casspi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Omri Casspi - player profile on basketball-reference.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} As past traits rise to the surface, can Casspi get his way? , The Jerusalem Post.
2. ^ ^{A b} From Israel to the NBA, Missing the Hummus , New York Times , July 19, 2009.
3. ↑ Live commentary from NBA.tv at the 2009 NBA Draft, June 25, 2009.
4. ↑ Kings' Omri Casspi has become a 'cultural hero' in the NBA (page 1) , The Los Angeles Times.
5. ↑ Sinai Says: Can Caspi end the wait for an Israeli in the NBA?  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jerusalem Post , June 17, 2009: List of all Israeli players who were drafted by the NBA but did not play a game there for various reasons.  
6. ↑ Welcome, The King Of Israel ( September 11, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ), SI.com.
7. ↑ Israeli 'hero' graces NJ hardwood  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Omri Casspi, Hamed Haddadi Pose For Photo: First Israeli, Iranian NBA Players , Huffington Post .
9. ↑ To Interview with Omri Casspi: From Cholon to Sacramento ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Kings send Casspi, future draft pick to Cavs for Hickson ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
11. ↑ Memphis Grizzlies: Omri Casspi could be solid contributor at value price (English) , commercialappeal.com. July 2, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018. 
12. ↑ Kings' Omri Casspi has become a 'cultural hero' in the NBA , Los Angeles Times.