Omri Casspi a professional basketball player and was born on June 22, 1988 in Holon, Israel.
After a long bureaucratic delays between Europe’s basketball governing body FIBA and the NBA Casspi was given the green bureaucratic delays between Europe’s basketball governing body FIBA and the NBA. Omri Casspi was drafted 23rd overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings and he became the first Israeli to be selected in the first round of the draft.
Casspi became the first Israeli to play in an NBA game with his debut with the Kings in 2009. He is 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) tall and his weight is 225 lb (102 kg). Casspi plays at the small forward position.
Casspi started his carrier on the Maccabi Tel Aviv cadet team and at age 17 made his professional debut during the 2005–06 season with Maccabi Tel Aviv. While joining Hapoel Galil Elyon on-loan during the 2006–07 seasons won “Discovery of the Year” award. He also received the 2008 Israeli League Sixth Man of the Year Award. In 2008–09 season for the FIBA Europe Young Men’s Player of the Year Award, Casspi finished in fourth place in voting.
According to Casspi’s Career history he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2005 to 2006, Hapoel Galil Elyon (2006–07), Maccabi Tel Aviv (2007–09) and Sacramento Kings (2009-present). Important awards and achievements during his carrier are, Euroleague Champion: 2005, BSL Champion: 2005, 2006 and 2009, BSL State Cup: 2005, BSL Sixth Man of the Year: 2008, All BSL Team: 2009 and NBA All-Star Rookie Team 2010.
In the year 2010 on January 1, Casspi scored a career-high 23 points against the Los Angeles Lakers and on January 2 same year he grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks. Another major achievement made by him was that he set a new career high with 24 points against the Phoenix Suns. He was also choosen for NBA All-Star Weekend H–O–R–S–E Competition.
Casspi is an aggressive and competitive player. But still there are few drawbacks in him like he is not very elegant or polished ball-handler, also he has a limited jump-shot and poor mechanics too. However, he has remarkable athletic ability. He is very successful when playing at the rim.
Casspi said when he was young, he dreamed to play with Maccabi, the biggest club in Israel, but now the kids in Israel can dream about playing in the NBA, because we’ve got somebody over there.