The Golden State Warriors and the front office put forward a free agency extravaganza this summer, bringing back a total of seven players and signing five additional ones to contracts this offseason, keeping president Bob Myers as busy as possible during this free agency craze.
Omri Casspi was a bold signing that has flown under the radar, giving the defending champions yet another weapon to keep what's proven to be a well-oiled machine during the past three seasons.
The 29-year-old signed a one-year, $2.1 million deal with the team early in July, bringing one of the league's most underrated commodities into the fold, providing that three-and-D mold that has proved a gold mine in this modern era of the league.
Casspi was the first Israeli player to be signed to an NBA roster and went back to his native land this summer to host the 16th annual Basketball Without Borders and the first in Tel Aviv, which brought together 62 different campers of 22 different nations to learn from him and San Antonio Spurs legend David Robinson.
“I've been working on that trip ever since I got into the league,” said Casspi. “To make it possible to do it in Israel, I know how big that can be from a basketball perspective, for the people, for the globalization of the game.
“Ever since we made it possible, it's like a dream come true because we have an opportunity to bring basketball players from all over the world to compete and play basketball and do a lot of work like what we did with NBA Cares, that really was amazing.”
A 6-foot-9 forward, Casspi was tasked with leading Israel in this year's EuroBasket tournament, which the country co-hosted for the first time along with Finland, Romania, and Turkey.
“We started off slow,” said Casspi of his run with the national team. “The first two losses kind of threw us off our game, of our system, threw us off of what we're trying to do.
“You play so good in preseason and I know the cliche of ‘preseason doesn't mean much' — the first blow that we got with Italy [a 69-48 loss] kind of threw us off.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaFXTbTU2P8
He was also able to face off against his soon-to-be teammate Zaza Pachulia twice this offseason when Israel faced Georgia, the first of the meetings during a friendly game in preparation and the next during tournament competition.
“We all going back to our national teams have different roles from what we have here,” said Casspi. “I haven't really had a chance to get to know Zaza before, I've been playing against him for many years now. I know he plays hard, sets screens, rolls; he's a smart player that makes good decisions. Now playing with him, seeing how good of a guy he is, it's really a privilege.”
Casspi averaged 14.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game during his five-game run at EuroBasket, getting to the line 7.2 times per game — the best mark for anyone not in the top five in scoring.
Stay tuned for Part Two of this exclusive interview
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