DENVER -- Forget about a Tar Heel against a Dukie or a Kentucky Wildcat against a Louisville Cardinal. This is a lot different.On Monday night in Sacramento, an Israeli player could face a player from a rival Middle East Muslim nation for the first time ever in the NBA.
Kings forward Omri Casspi is the first man from Israel ever to play in the NBA, and has three games under his belt. His team at Arco Arena next plays Memphis, which features center Hamed Haddadi, a second-year man from Iran.
Before his Grizzlies met Denver on Sunday night, Haddadi told FanHouse he never has faced an Israeli player on the court because teams from his Iran, which does not recognize the Jewish nation, are not allowed to play Israel. In 2005, Haddadi said his Iranian team was not allowed to go to Argentina for the 2005 FIBA World Championship for Young Men because of the possibility of Israel being an opponent.
But Haddadi has no problems with facing Casspi.
"It is just a sport,'' he said. "I don't know what happened with the two countries. I don't care. I just do my job. I don't think about politics ... I do not think what the two positions of Iran and Israel is.''
But Haddadi realizes the high-profile position he is in as an NBA player. In order to make a statement that this is indeed just sport, he was asked if he would shake Casspi's hand before the game.
"Why not? Which is his number? Haddadi said of Casspi, who wears No. 18. "I think it could be good (to make a positive statement).''
Casspi could not be reached Sunday. However, he was asked last July at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas about the possibility of facing Haddadi this season.
"It's not a problem for me,'' said Casspi, whose Kings and Haddadi's Grizzlies both were in the summer league but did not meet. "I don't know about him.''
There are players in the NBA from Turkey and Senegal, but both those nations have diplomatic relations with Israel. Iran is the world's only predominately Muslim country that has an NBA player and does not recognize Israel.
"As one of the biggest cliches regarding the Israel-Arab conflict would say, 'It's not the people of Israel and Iran who hate each other, it's the leaders,''' said Eran Soroka, basketball writer for the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv. "A lot of people emigrated from Iran to Israel during the last decades, and you can find Israeli and Iranian citizens dancing to the same music in clubs in, for example, Turkey. The NBA is also a frame which is completely different from the Middle East tension: Haddadi, for that matter, is an Americanized Iranian... He already accepted the challenge of playing for his country's nemesis (the United States).''
Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen in recent years due to Iran attempting to develop nuclear technology. Iran refers to Israel's government as the "Zionist regime'' and the land is referred to as "occupied territories.''
In 2006, Iranian president Mahmoud Admadinejad said he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map'' and was said to have called the Holocaust, Nazi German's extermination of 6 million Jews during World War II, a "myth.'' He later denied he made comments that the Holocaust did not happen.
Haddadi has tried to steer clear of all this.
"I don't want politics into sports,'' said Haddadi, 24. "I think it should be separated.''
In 2005, Haddadi learned the hard way that it isn't in Iran. He was ready to go to Argentina for international competition until the trip was abruptly canceled.
"We don't go to Argentina because (Israel was playing),'' Haddadi said. "I was young. I was (20). I didn't know about politics or anything. I can't say, 'I want to go to Argentina.''
But Haddadi opted to push politics aside at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Even though Iran insisted its representatives have no contact with Israelis, Haddadi was among Iranian players who shook hands with David Blatt, the Israeli coach of Russia's Olympic team. It happened after Russia easily beat Iran 71-49 in a first-round game.
"After the interview, I shake his hand,'' Haddadi said of the post-game media session. "I don't care. It is just sport.''
After the game, Blatt told Israel's Sports Channel, "That's the beauty of Olympic Games. They go beyond the issue of nationality. Only here can an Israeli coach shake hands with the players and coach of the Iranian team.''
But there hardly has always been harmony at the Olympics between Iranians and Israelis.
"The most famous cases happen in the Olympic games and big international tourneys,'' Soroka said. "In 2004, an Iranian, Arash Miresmaeili, was one of the surest bets for a gold medal (in judo), but then, the draw confronted him with Israeli Ehud Vaks. Arash withdrew (he officially was disqualified due to being overweight but it's generally believed that was intentional), and became a hero in the eyes of the Iranian leaders. Vaks won by forfeit.
"In Beijing 2008, swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei pulled out of a heat with Israeli Tom Be'eri because of (what Alirezaei claimed was) illness... This is the Iranian formal policy of athletes who represent that country. Haddadi is representing mainly the Memphis Grizzlies in (Monday's) game, I believe.''
There is plenty of international harmony in the NBA. The league announced last week that opening-day rosters feature a record-tying 83 international players from 36 countries.
It is no certainty Casspi and Haddadi, both reserves, will take the court at the same time Monday. Casspi is averaging 18.0 minutes in his three games while Haddadi is averaging 3.7 in Memphis' first three.
But the teams will meet again Nov. 23 in Memphis and March 22 in Sacramento.
"I don't know,'' Haddadi said when asked whether people in Iran will care if he plays against Casspi. "The government, they don't like to play (Israel in sports competitions).''
One thing is for sure. Like the Kings' previous three games, Monday's game will be watched closely on television in Israel even though it starts at 5 a.m. local time.
Hopefully, Casspi and Haddadi will shake hands before it begins. After all, it is just sport.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I think it is an interesting article, but the rest of the internet is BATTY!, commenting on the Halloween publicity stunt in San Antonnio. You seem (I said, patronizingly!) to be confused on a point or two, though. So being a know it all (except for the things I don`t know, of course), I`ll try to clarify. Modern "Israel" is occupied Philestinia. Occupied by the British, then turned over by them to the Zionist racists. The democratic majority in Philestinia are still the native Philiestinians, also called Palestinians. If there is ever a democratic election in the whole of occupied Philestinia, the majority will vote to deport the Zionists and ban them from the country, as the are banned from Jordan. Jews and Zionists are NOT the same. 3/4 of the world`s Jews still vote with their feet to reject Zionist racism, and Israel (which are not quite the same things, either). Jews can still apply to the Philestinian authorities to become naturalised citizens of Philestinia, if they reject Zionist racism. Zionism is the racism Nazism was based on, with a switch from being pro Jewish/Semite to being pro "Aryan". Not pro real Aryans. Real Aryans are Iranians, and look very much like Jews, but are Moslems currently. Real Aryans are not tall, thin, blond, pink skinned, blue eyed, and neither were Hitler and his cabinet. Hitler was short, dumpy, with black hair. Most Moslems are not Aryans, the are Arabs, who are the vast majority of Semites. So the only anti Semitic Arab is one who hates himself. It is colonialism, and its forcing of Zionist racists into Philestinia which Moslems oppose, not Jews. Moslems are historically, the sons of Jewish fathers, Jews the sons of Jewish mothers. This traces back apocraphically to AbraHam, having a son, Ishmael, by an Egyptian, and another son by his Jewish wife. If democracy came to Philestinia, the name would be changed by replacing the r with an hm in Israel, converting it to Ishmael, with the Jews allowed to live in peace if they obeyed law and order. It is a very popular idea that the Holocaust was a massive disownment, something Jews are notorious for on a small scale, lying in Jewish publications a Jew is dead, usually because he has married a non-Jewish woman, so his children will not be Jewish. The practice continues in Christianity as Ex Communication. The first historical Holocaust, according to the Jewish Old Testament of the Christian Bible, was committed by a Jewish Queen, who came out of the closet about being Jewish, who genocided people she claimed wanted to genocide Jews. Individual bigotry, of course, varies, but Mohammed recognized Christians and Jews as great prophets, and spoke well, not ill of them, basically. And to tie this into the Halloween theme, Count Dracula was NOT an anti Moslem, Christian monogamist, he had three wives. Vladimir the Impaler was an anti Islamic warrior, combatting the Islamic Ottoman Empire, which stretched as far north at one point as Hungary. Ergo, Count Dracula (Bram Stoker`s fictional character), was NOT the historical Vlad the Impaler. I hope both athletes enjoy the US, whether they chose to stay or not, and I hope both are welcomed by their homelands, if they chose to visit or return permanently. It will also be interesting when both athletes compete with Jordan Farmer, of the Los Angeles Lakers, and American Jew. I wish him well, too.
About 1% of what you wrote is actually true. But congratulations, I'm sure you've convinced at least 1 ignorant kid who doesn't bother to look up the truth. Keep pumping that propaganda.
Shouldn`t call Chris a propagandist. I`m sure he`s an honest reporter. A shame I`m the only one had had any well wishes for either athlete, but at least I wished both well.
No one with anything between the ears would mistake the replay as insinuating that Chris is propagating propaganda. The comment was obviously directed toward your drivel.
From my point of view, Chris, or Mr. Tomasson, I suppose I should call him, since I don`t know him, did a good, fair, job, delving at great length into a subject I obviously think should be delved into in even more detail, from pro and anti Iranian as well as pro and anti Israeli perspectives. Especially with the US encircling Iran and preparing for possible aggression against Iran. Point/counterpoint debate should not be limited to trivialities like whether Anthony will depose Bryant, or James, or Wade, for various Nba honors, though I enjoyed that article, too (a shame my post on it failed to print). This article deserves to be on various political and ethnic pages. It is a solid article. I don`t consider it or my response to be propoganda for either side, though I aired views, without agreeing with them, which are too rarely aired in America, whether they are wrong or not.
Giles, stop with your imbecility. Zionism is the belief that Jews have a right to a homeland. There is no such thing as "Palestinian"!!! They are Arabs that live in what was formerly known as "Palestine". Jordan now rests on 70% of what used to be called "Palestine". Even the "Palestinian" flag is just the Jordanian flag without that little star. "Palestinians" invented their own identity AFTER Israel captured Judea and Samaria (known as the "West Bank" because it sits on the West of the Jordan River). Before the Six Day War in 1967 these "Palestinians" called themselves "Jordanians". Palaestina is the word the Romans renamed Judea and Samaria and the land of Israel after they exiled the Jews (people from Judea) and wanted to add insult to injury by naming the land after the biblical foes of the Jews, the Philistines. IF the Palestinians are descendants of these Philistines (and not Arabs from Arabia, like they claim) then they should all go back to the Greek islands where the Philistines are originally from! G-D gave the Arabs a hell of a lot of land around the world, he only gave the Jews a tiny sandbox called the land of Israel, which the whole world seems to covet. Leave us alone, we don't care about Iran, why do you care so much about us?