To the extent that Omri Casspi's NBA career has been at all noteworthy, it's been due much more to his nationality than his on-court production. While he hasn't been much to write home about through three years with the Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers, the 24-year-old forward still possesses a certain level of significance in the NBA's global narrative as the first native of Israel ever to play in the league. Early in Casspi's tenure in Sacramento, that stature often evoked a unique sort of pride and fan energy in NBA arenas; at times, it also resulted in some truly ugly and ignorant responses . As his career has worn on, Casspi has continued to be a point of pride in Israel, serving as the inspiration for ( and namesake of ) a bill designed to allow Israeli citizens living abroad to vote in local elections. But after three seasons of declining play, the bloom's come off his rose a bit stateside; these days, NBA fans tend to think of Casspi less as a trailblazer than as another middling bench player, when they think of him at all. Irrespective of whether Casspi's heritage remains at the forefront of our minds, though, it's likely never far from the forefront of his, especially at a time when airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have rocked the Gaza Strip and led to heightened tensions in areas like Casspi's hometown of Yavne, which is about 40 miles north of Gaza and 15 miles south of Tel Aviv. And especially when Casspi's entire family still lives there, as he told Cavs beat writer Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal :
More...
More...
