Omri Casspi Responds to Swastika Graffiti on Kings Mural

Filed under: Kings, FIBA, NBA Police Blotter, FIBA World Championship

The historic rookie season of Omri Casspi wasn't without its challenges.



Israel's first NBA player earned a starting role with the Sacramento Kings, then lost it. He hit the proverbial "rookie wall," then never truly found his way over it.



But all in all, it was something close to storybook.



Picked 23rd overall in the June 2009 draft, the 6-foot-9 small forward cried tears of joy inside his Yavne, Israel home when commissioner David Stern spoke his name and enjoyed the season-long love fest that followed. He was a relative rock star in every city in which the Kings played, a point of pride for the respective Jewish communities that almost always showed up in force to wave their country's flag and chant "Casspi!"



Yet as Casspi spoke to FanHouse by phone from his home on Thursday -- on the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, no less -- there was no such joy in his voice as he discussed the first painful part of his experience. A swastika that had been painted on a mural of his face in midtown Sacramento was discovered on Wednesday, the act being deemed a hate crime by local authorities who are investigating the matter and looking for the moronic culprit.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/09/09/omri-casspi-responds-to-swastika-graffiti-on-kings-mural/