Omri at the Garden

Author's Note: I generally don't write straight journalism (or gay journalism for that matter), but I initially did this piece for the Israeli paper Haaretz. The subject was double booked, so what you're about to read is what no one in the industry but me calls "journalistic afterbirth." Enjoy!

When Omri Casspi was introduced at Madison Square Garden on a snowy Tuesday evening, a large section of the New York crowd did something unthinkable by local standards: it rose to its feet and cheered for an opposing player. With Israeli flags unfurled and waving, hundreds of New York Knicks faithful chanted “Omri” across the arena, surprising even themselves with their volume.

Omri Casspi, the rookie small forward for the Sacramento Kings, threw out a gesture of recognition from the floor. As the first Israeli player in the NBA, he would now compete in its most hallowed venue, Madison Square Garden, the veritable Kotel of basketball arenas. “To play in front of 20,000 people...and in front of so many Jewish people, more than any city in Israel, it’s a great feeling,” Casspi said before the game.

Casspi’s presence at the Garden, however, was not just a symbolic gesture for Jewish fans. Picking up the slack for fellow teammates, Casspi impressed early, hitting four of his first five shots, which included a slashing dunk over fellow European Danilo Gallinari and the conversion of a three-point play after being fouled on a eight-foot jumper. By halftime, Casspi led all players on either team with 16 points.

In preparation for Casspi’s arrival, the evening was billed as Jewish Heritage Night. To the confusion and delight of many, a Jewish a capella group sang Hatikvah before performing The Star-Spangled Banner. Madison Square Garden even offered a ticket package that allowed fans to meet Casspi before the game. While the teams warmed up on the court behind him, Casspi took questions from fans on topics ranging from his three-point shooting to his adjustment to life in America. Boys clad in yarmulkes and basketball shoes begged Casspi repeatedly to dunk the ball for them. Handwritten signs, posters, and Israeli flags all awaited his autograph. A young girl presented him with a tub of Israeli hummus and a bag of pita while her father related a recent news story about how Casspi had not been able to find good hummus in the United States.

Despite the affection for Casspi among Jewish Knicks fans, there were still many who did not want to see Casspi’s team to pull out a victory. “I hope Omri has a huge game, but I still want the Knicks to win.” said Marc Stern, a Knicks fan who traveled from New Jersey for the game. Stern almost got his wish.

With Casspi’s team trailing throughout the game, the Knicks seemed assured of a victory when they took a 98-83 lead with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. But the Kings took advantage of sloppy play by the Knicks and came back to tie the game late. Eventually forcing overtime, the Kings pulled away in the extra period for an unlikely win. As Knicks fans filed out of the Garden, Casspi fans stayed, twirling yellow Maccabi Tel Aviv scarves above their heads and screaming his name while a reporter interviewed him on the court. Not only had Casspi made a rare start for the Kings, he also played 45 minutes, the most in his NBA career.

That hundreds of fans were willing to buy tickets for a basketball game between two struggling teams—despite a February storm and an economic recession— just to see an Israeli play, doesn’t fully justify the Omri phenomenon. That Casspi is a Jew, an Israeli, and a viable NBA player all at once isn’t really astonishing enough to warrant such attention. But as fans watched Casspi collect the game’s final rebound and clutch the ball until the buzzer sounded, he reminded some of a more elusive joy: the joy of belonging.