Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Israeli NBA Star Set To Become A Pelican

(JTA) — Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association, reportedly is being traded from the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans.

The trade, which is set to be announced later on Monday, is part of a five-player  trade which will see All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins heading with Casspi to New Orleans, ESPN reported on Sunday.

Sacramento will receive Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a 2017 first-round pick and a 2017 second-round pick, according to the report.

Casspi joined the Kings in 2009 as the first Israeli to play in the NBA and played there for two years, when he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he played for two years, spending much of his time on the bench.  He spent a year with the Houston Rockets and then was traded to the Pelicans, who put him on waivers, where he was again picked up by the Kings.

Casspi played with the championship Maccabi Tel Aviv team in Israel before making himself available for the 2008 NBA draft.

The 6-foot-9 Casspi has been playing about 19 minutes per game this season, averaging 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds, ESPN reported. New Orleans hosted the All-Star Game over the weekend.

 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.