NBA champions Golden State Warriors sign Israeli star

Israeli basketball star Omri Casspi early Wednesday morning agreed to sign for one season with the 2017 NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors.

In what was for Casspi a middle-of-the-night conference call with representatives of the San Francisco team, he closed a deal to play the coming season for $2.1 million, the minimum amount for a player of his experience, Channel 2 reported.

Casspi, 29, who in 2009 became the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association, is scheduled to fly out to the US in the coming days to meet his new team.

According to reports the Warriors contacted Casspi on July 1, the first day that teams were permitted to start negotiating new contracts with players.

Aviv Caspi, his sister, said that although she knew about the talks with her brother for a few days. she had been obliged to keep them secret.

“It is a dream come true,” she enthused in an interview with Army Radio.

Free agent forward Omri Casspi has agreed to a one-year deal with Golden State, league sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 4, 2017

Casspi had a nomadic 2017 season. In March he was signed as a free agent by the Minnesota Timberwolves, his third team in the space of a month and fifth since joining the NBA.

Casspi had been waived at the end of February by the New Orleans Pelicans — his second stint with the team — after breaking his thumb in his debut with the club. Days earlier he had been involved in a trade from the Sacramento Kings that sent All-Star DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans.

The 6-9 forward joined the Kings as a first-round draft pick and played there for two years. He has also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets.

Casspi was a member of the championship Maccabi Tel Aviv team in Israel before making himself available for the NBA draft.

JTA contributed to this report.