By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Long-term Maccabi loyal Omri Casspi announced his retirement from professional basketball via a press conference held in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Casspi ends a long career at 33, after winning four Israeli League titles and two Israeli Cups. All of them came with Maccabi which has been the only club Caspi played for outside the NBA, with the exception of Hapoel Galil Elyon where he spent a season on loan early in his career.
“The game of basketball has given me a lot over the years,” Caspi said in his opening remarks. “As a young boy from Yavneh who started playing with friends and my big brother, who did not really know what he was saying and went out with number 18 on his shirt, today on July 18 I retire. For the [Maccabi] family, this is a group that taught me a lot about professionalism, hard work, victory at all costs. It fell on very modest ears and I appreciate those values I learned”.
In the NBA, Caspi played for ten years changing seven teams – Sacramento Kings (23rd overall draft pick in 2009), Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies.
With Casspi’s announcement, this summer marks the end of a basketball generation in Europe, as legends Felipe Reyes, Vasilis Spanoulis, Nikos Zisis, Fernando San Emeterio, Giannis Bourousis, Milenko Tepic and Stratos Perperoglou have all decided to call it a day.
Photo: Maccabi