Omri All the Way!

Great highlight of Omri Casspi scoring a layup and drawing the foul against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Almost as exciting as Omri's athletic play is the shot of his supporters in the crowd. The family with an Israeli flag brought tears to my eyes.

Awesome Omri Casspi NBA Video

The Sacramento Kings recently started following me on Twitter. So I decided to look over their tweets and came across an NBA video clip about Omri. His English is excellent and the clip is very well done. Even my wife (the anti-sport goddess incarnate) watched it with me and loved it.

Not only is Omri being hailed by the NBA press as the, "steal of the NBA draft". But he is also proving to be an excellent ambassador for Israel.

Thanks Omri and keep up the good work on and off the court!

Jewish Exponent Joins the Casspi Craze

The Jewish Exponent is the latest local Jewish paper to publish an article about Omri Casspi. This is going to be an ongoing phenomena as the Sacramento Kings travel across the United States. The local Jewish Press in cities like Miama, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Memphis (for example) probably don't follow basketball. If they know about Omri Casspi, they probably think that he is riding the pine. Then they are shocked when they find out, that he is making contributions and is already a big story in the NBA.

Hey Jewish America, wake up and follow the Casspi!

BTW - At the end of the article Omri has a nice quote, "Come and visit Israel. See what it is really like."

Ordinary Life in Sacramento

As I continue to scour all four corners of the cyberverse for interesting nuggets of information about Omri Casspi - I came across a pair of blog entries that discuss his non-sports side. It can be hard to remember that Omri is not just the apex of Jewish Israeli basketball obsession. He is not just a six foot, nine inch athletic freak of nature who is here to represent the hopes and dreams of the Jewish nation. He is also a 21 year old "nice Jewish boy."

The first blog entry is care of The Hummus Blog. Omri is pining for that good old Israeli hummus. Having sojourned in the good ole US of A for a number of years - I totally agree with Casspi the King. It is VERY difficult to find decent hummus in the States. I usually had to go to a good Israeli restaurant or go for homemade.

You can read the hummus blog post here.

The second entry is an interview with Omri and his older brother Eitan. I had no idea that his brother came to live with Omri to help his transition to life as a professional basketball player. I remember when 18 year-old Kevin Garnett was drafted by the Timberwolves, they hired someone to help him during his rookie year. Go Eitan - make sure Omri stays on the straight and narrow.

You can read the interview with the Casspi brothers here.

Photo Credits - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hummuswithpinenuts.jpg