Howard Blas interviews Omri Casspi, the only Israeli playing in the NBA!
Tikvah Director Howard Blas has written up a terrific interview with Jewish and Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi for the Times of Israel. Click here to read the article. Howard covers a wide range of topics with Omri, including the full story behind the photo of Omri and Gilad Shalit that has been spreading all over the internet in the last few days.
Here's an excerpt:
There is a picture of you and Gilad Shalit which appeared all over the Internet and Facebook yesterday. What is the story behind the picture and meeting?
Gilad Shalit came to Orlando for the NBA All Star Weekend last weekend. He wanted to keep it off the media. Nobody really knew he was there. He wanted to have quality time with his family and a few really good friends. We had dinner. It was very emotional for me.
How did he seem?
He seems fine. First of all, he is a big fan of basketball. I was honored to be around him and have dinner with him and talk.
How did you choose number 36?
[Smiling] Double Chai! I wore 18 in Sacramento. I come to Cleveland and Anthony Parker wore that number. I was going to either cut it in half and take 9 or double it — double chai — so I took 36.