I will attend the US Open as a reporter for the Jerusalem Post
from August 19-September 8th
US Open
Liron Fanan Latest Israeli to Make Impact With NBA’S Cavaliers
Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post
The Cleveland Cavaliers, the former NBA team of such basketball greats as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, as well as beloved Israelis Omri Casspi and David Blatt, ended their abysmal 2018/19 season with a 19-63 record, in 14th place out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference.
Their .232 winning percentage tied for next-to-last among the 30 teams in the entire NBA. But there is a glimmer of hope for the Cavaliers, thanks to the signing of Liron Fanan.
Fanan is not the latest up-and-coming hoops phenom. In September, the Israeli was named director of G League player development for the Cavaliers. The G League, short for sponsor, Gatorade, was formerly known as the D League and serves as the official minor league for all NBA teams. Fanan is also an important part of the Cavs scouting department
Fanan has basketball in her blood.
As Cavs GM Koby Altman said: “She’s a basketball lifer with incredible experience internationally and has great basketball acumen. We are fortunate to have her.”
Fanan is more than a lifer; she is a member of one of Israel’s most well-known basketball family. The Fanans are like Israeli basketball royalty. Liron’s father, Moni, was manager and vice chairman of Maccabi Tel Aviv for nearly 30 years. He was mostly beloved, known for his generosity and hands-on approach with his players – from meeting foreign players at the airport upon their arrival in Israel to helping them with routine household chores. Fanan was known to function as a surrogate parent for his players.
Liron’s brother, Regev, is also deeply connected to Israel basketball. He played for Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2000-2002, and again from 2004-2008 with additional playing stints with Hapoel Galil Elyon (2002-2003) and Ironi Ramat Gan (2003-2004). He has served as head strength and conditioning coach for Maccabi Tel Aviv since 2013.
“My whole life revolved around Maccabi Tel Aviv,” said Fanan to The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview from the Cavaliers’ head offices, in which she recounted her unique, enviable career path. She happily reported that she has been around basketball since she was three years old.
Fanan served in the IDF from 1997-1999 as an intelligence liaison, focusing on counterterrorism initiatives against global terrorist groups. She came to America to attend New York University in Manhattan where she received a bachelor of arts in sports marketing and sports management. Fanan could not get sports, especially basketball, out of her system.
After graduating college in 2005, she served as assistant to the Maccabi Games organizing committee chairman. From 2005-2009, Fanan was assistant general manager for Maccabi Tel Aviv, where she had a fully immersive hoops experience – she was responsible for basketball operations, marketing strategies, and ticket sales; she organized team travel and made all arrangements for tournaments, and was in charge of community relations. She also got to know then-Maccabi player Casspi personally.
Toward the end of Liron’s stint with Maccabi Tel Aviv, father Moni’s long relationship with the club came to an end. He retired in 2008 after a reported long-standing dispute with members of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s management and began working as a player agent.
One year later, his life came to a shocking and tragic end at the age of 63. Fanan reportedly took his life by hanging. He reportedly had debts amounting to millions of shekels after players invested with him on the promise of high returns.
Many from the Maccabi Tel Aviv organization including players, coaches and members of management attended his funeral and reflected on his generosity, kindness and his legacy.
The Fanan family’s impact on the world of professional basketball continues through Liron’s evolving, impressive course.
From 2009 until signing with the Cavs, Liron got to explore a different side of basketball.
“I left Maccabi Tel Aviv because I felt like I did everything I could,” she said. “I didn’t’ know if I wanted to go straight to the NBA or be an agent before. I was lucky enough to be close to Omri [Casspi] and started working with him and managing him. I connected him with his American agency and managed everything he did off court on the marketing side, and in his personal life. I did that for 10 years.”
Through her work with Casspi, Fanan decided to start her own agency, 2Talent Sports Management, where she served as an agent and player services professional. In that capacity, Fanan placed 48 players in Europe each year, signing them to teams and handling all of their needs. Clients of note have included Amar’e Stoudemire, Kostas Papanikolau, Donta Smith and Shawn James.
Fanan found that work rewarding but noted that “after 10 years of doing that, I kind of got tired. I had a lot of connections through my work in the NBA summer league doing international relations. I began telling people I was thinking of making a transition and was lucky enough to get a few offers from teams. What the Cavs offered me helped make the decision easy to come here.”
Fanan knows her job is unique and coveted by so many and doesn’t take it for granted.
“An Israeli coming to the NBA is not something you see every day,” she said. “I definitely know I should be proud of an achievement like that. I worked really, really hard in the last 15 years to get where I am today and achieve my dreams.”
Fanan’s daily life during the regular season with the Cavaliers organization consists of upwards of 90% of the time traveling. As director of G League player development for the Canton Charge, she is responsible for running day-to-day operations for the team, yet often manages to drive the 60 miles (100 km) to Cleveland for Cavaliers’ games. She is also assisting the Cavs scouting department and Altman.
Toward the end of the Cavs season, she managed to spend two weeks traveling with the team for their West Coast games.
But Fanan currently spends most of her time and energy working with her mainly 19-to-26-year-old Canton development league players. Her lifetime of acquiring technical skills and basketball know-how around the game are only part of what she taps in to in her work in player development.
“The main thing in G League is to develop guys – to give them the tools to handle all kinds of situations. I help them with all aspects of being an athlete – culture, media, finances. You can be a great talent on the court, but you need to develop as a whole person.”
This training in being part life skills coach, part big sister, and part parent comes largely from her own family.
“My dad was an owner and GM, but he was not the technical definition of a GM – players were around our house and he took care of them, like his own kids,” she recalled. “I was quite close to him and helped take care of the players’ day-to-day needs.”
Fanan acknowledged that the players relate to her “in a certain way at first,” given that she is a woman, but, “by the end of the season, they can relate to me, respect me for what I am and see that I am here to help them achieve goals on and off the court.”
Fanan has seen first-hand the impact basketball players, and all pro athletes, can have on the game and in the world, most notably from her work with Casspi, as a friend and as the mission director of the Omri Casspi Foundation from 2015-16.
“I am so proud of Omri and his ability to take his role as an NBA player and put his dream to work,” said Fanan. “He wanted to do his part to bring his NBA friends to this great country so they could see real life in Israel. I was fortune to produce it and be part of it.”
Casspi helped organize two trips to Israel as a joint initiative between NBA Cares and the Omri Casspi Foundation for 20 players, family members and friends. NBA players on the trips included DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay, Caron Butler, Iman Shumpert, Alan Anderson, and Chandler Parsons.
The trips included visits to historic sites in Israel, beaches, night life, restaurants, a visit to the Friends of Zion Museum to learn about the history of friendship and cooperation from non-Jews during the Holocaust and basketball clinics with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth clubs.
“All the players will tell you that the trip was one of the best experiences of their lives,” said Fanan.
Fanan was especially pleased that the NBA took notice of the impact and success of the trip.
“As a result, the NBA decided to run Basketball Without Borders every summer in a different country.”
Fanan is proud of her friend.
“The idea came completely from Omri. He is very creative. He felt his calling as an ambassador for Israel.”
Fanan, while not currently involved professionally with Casspi, is hopeful that Casspi will return to playing professional basketball once fully rehabbed from his recent knee surgery.
While the 2018/2019 NBA season is over for all but the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors, Fanan is still going strong.
She just returned to Cleveland after several weeks on the road scouting in both Europe and Israel. And she will be the road again until various summer leagues and camps wind down in August. Fanan hopes she will have a little time in Israel to catch up with friends and family – before a hopefully more successful 2019/20 Cavs’ season gets under way.
“My life is tiring,” Fanan admits. “But it is super exciting and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
‘Match’ this ‘love’: Israel’s top tennis players launch new sports project
The Jewish Tennis Project is a nonprofit foundation that seeks to provide participants with the opportunity to train and reach a world-class, competitive level of play, combining tennis instruction with education to instill a connection to Jewish culture and Israel.
Israeli tennis legends Shlomo Glickstein and Shahar Peer continue to represent Israel and the Jewish people on and off the court. The two top players were honored at a series of events in mid-March in South Florida marking the launch of the Jewish Tennis Project (JTP).
The JTP is a nonprofit foundation that seeks to provide Jewish tennis players an opportunity to train and reach a world-class, competitive level of play. The program combines tennis instruction with high-quality education geared to instill a deep connection to Jewish culture and Israel.
The idea grew out of a four-week visit to Hungary by Assaf Ingber, Israeli high-performance coach and former coach of Israeli tennis player Julia Glushko. Ingber spent a summer teaching tennis at Szarvas, a summer-camp program in Hungary that serves 1,600 children from 30 countries in a series of 12-day sessions.
“I heard the kids say what it means to them and how it changed their lives,” reports Ingber, referring to the sense of Jewish identity the participants gained at the camp, immersed in Jewish living and learning. Ingber reflected on his own experience as a child athlete: “When I was a player, all I did was play tennis, only hitting the ball.” He had little time to focus on Jewish culture and identity.
Ingber notes that “the JTP program combines top-level tennis, including the best facilities, atmosphere and tournaments, with a secular and Jewish education.” He is realistic in also noting the need to provide an education for the aspiring tennis players. “Just in case their children don’t become [Roger] Federer or Serena [Williams], they will have a tennis education, and a general and Jewish education.”
The program is part of the David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, Fla. “It is such a good educational environment with great courts and gyms—and their Jewish identity won’t suffer,” says Ingber. “They won’t have to feel shy, scared or insecure to say they are Jewish.”
The program will initially support five or six students, including two Israelis, which Ingber feels will “help integration and make the program great.” The American students will also hear Hebrew and develop a connection with Israel. The goal of the program is to train 20 to 30 students into high-performance players in the first two years at bases in both Davie and Aventura, Fla. Programs will also take place in Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Brazil, serving a total of 500 young players at all levels. Participants will share Jewish experiences and travel to Israel.
‘Very positive, professional, educational project’
Shlomo Glickstein, who retired from professional tennis in 1988, reached a career-high singles’ ranking of World No. 22, played in all four tennis Grand Slams and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1981, was on hand in Florida to play in a number of exhibition matches, as well as coach local children and greet supporters.
Glickstein served until recently as CEO of the Israel Tennis Association. He was approached by Ingber about potentially getting involved in a number of tennis-related projects. “I thought the JTP program was a very positive, professional, educational project, so I got involved,” he reports. He reiterates the goals of the program: “to give mainly Jewish American kids a chance to get to the top of the tennis world, to get a Jewish education and to connect to Israel. It will also give them an opportunity to connect to all of the Jewish people in Florida and elsewhere.”
Shahar Peer, 31 and five months pregnant, enjoyed participating in the JTP kickoff. “It was an honor to join the JTP at their event last weekend in Florida. I enjoyed sharing the court with Shlomo and coming out to support this important new program to develop Jewish tennis players. It is exciting that there is a program to focus on tennis skills, Jewish identity and connection to Israel.”
Peer reached the highest ranking of any Israeli tennis player in history: Her best singles’ ranking was No. 11; she reached No. 14 in doubles. She won five career singles and three doubles titles on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour. Peer retired from professional tennis in February 2017
Fans were impressed with Glickstein and Peer’s commitment to the new organization—and, of course, with their skills on the court. In a phone interview with JNS in Israel, Glickstein says he “plays sometimes,” noting that “you never forget how to play; it is still in your blood.”
He adds, “I can still hit the ball,” though concedes that it’s “a little harder on the legs. I don’t move as well as I used to!”
Canadian documentary filmmaker, writer and investigative journalist Ian Halperin was one of the honored guests at the March 16 weekend tennis event. He is the author and/or co-author of nine books about such celebrities as Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, James Taylor and Kurt Cobain. He recently served as executive producer of the movie, “Wish You Weren’t Here: The Dark Side of Roger Waters.”
Halperin shares that his father, a Holocaust survivor, had to hide in a hole when he was 6 years old to survive. “When Roger Waters said that Israel is worse than Nazi Germany, I couldn’t stand it.” He made the film about Waters, following him all over North America in the attempt to get “under his skin.”
But the weekend in South Florida was not at controversial. An elated Halperin tweeted a picture with himself, Peer and Glickstein and wrote, “Honored to have played this weekend with top two Israeli players ever, Shahar Peer and Shlomo Glickstein. Jewish Tennis Project #saynotobds.”
Halperin states that “Glickstein is to Israeli and Jewish athletes what Jackie Robinson was to the African-American community!” He was impressed that both sports stars played three hours a day “and didn’t miss a ball.” Halpern describes Peer as “the best volleyer in the game, even at five months pregnant.”
He says the “weekend was monumental and historic,” as it not only brought the top two Israeli tennis legends on the same court, but more importantly, put smiles on the kids’ faces.
Universal Grizzly Love For Casspi, But Can He Rebound From Latest Injury?
Original Article in The Jerusalem Post:
Omri Casspi’s Memphis Grizzlies came to town to square off against the struggling New York Knicks team in a Sunday matinée game at Madison Square Garden. Casspi did not travel to New York with the team.
After missing four games with right knee soreness, the Grizzlies announced over the weekend that an MRI revealed a meniscus tear for the 30-year-old Israeli forward. In a pre-game interview Sunday with The Jerusalem Post, Grizzlies head coach J.B. Bickerstaff confirmed that Casspi will undergo surgery but reports, “I don’t know yet when the surgery will be.”
Bickerstaff and several team members spoke glowingly of Casspi as both a reliable player and important role model and remain optimistic about his return.
While Casspi has only averaged 6.3 points and 3.2 rebounds in his 36 games this season, the 30-year-old, drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft, has played an important role on eight NBA teams over 10 seasons.
Coach Bickerstaff described Casspi as “the ultimate professional.” He noted that “Casspi is a guy you can count on whether you play him 10 minutes or 25 – you know he will play extremely hard. He will give you energy. Being dependable in this league is huge.”
Teammates Garrett Temple, JaMychal Green, Yuta Watanabe and Justin Holiday shared their coach’s affection for Casspi. They spoke with the Post in the Grizzlies locker room prior to tip-off. Temple, an eight year guard who was involved in a reported recent altercation with Casspi, had only positive things to say about his teammate.
“Omri was always ready, always a professional. He is a guy that, when he plays, he plays really hard and was able to get some easy baskets in the open court. He is a great rebounder. We will miss his ability to come in and impact the game right away, off the bench.”
Green, a fourth year player, commented that Casspi brings “a lot of things other players don’t have right now,” including his slashing ability and the energy he brings to the team. “We are definitely going to miss him.”
Casspi has been a good friend and source of support to several foreign players on the team including Watanabe, of Japan.
“He is a great guy, a great player and he helps us with a lot of energy,” said Watanabe.
He notes that Casspi’s years of experience in the league made him a calming presence, and Casspi regularly speaks with him after games.
“He’s a cool guy, nothing too crazy,” offered guard Justin Holiday. “He’s a veteran guy, he has been around and played the game for a while. He knows how to win and when he is on the floor, there is an energy. He brings aggressiveness to the game, He is obviously very important to this team. At times, he has been a very good spark for us, coming off the bench – so not having him is a big blow for us. We are praying that everything goes well for him.”
Despite the Grizzlies’ 96-84 victory over the Knicks, they are likely to miss Casspi’s energy and court smarts as the season progresses. Bickerstaff added: “We’re going to miss him, obviously. It is disappointing anytime you have in injury like that when you expect to miss that amount of time. But knowing Omri, he will work his tail off and be ready to go.”
Casspi is no stranger to missed games due to injuries and illness. This season alone, Casspi has missed games due to right knee soreness (four games in January), illness (one game in December and one in January), knee soreness (one game in November) and right thigh soreness. Last season, Casspi missed games in the months of October, December, January and March due to sprained ankles, strained back, and back soreness. His injuries ultimately led to his being waived last April and not playing in the championship games for the Golden State Warriors.
In February, 2017, Casspi, who was on his second stint with the Sacramento Kings, and DeMarcus Cousins, were traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. In his only game for the Pelicans three days later, he broke his right thumb after scoring 12 points in a 129-99 loss to the Houston Rockets. Casspi was waived by the Pelicans a few days later after being ruled out for four to six weeks.
Casspi’s torn meniscus is a disappointing setback as he has been a recent asset to the Grizzlies. He averaged 11.8 points per game with 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 24.7 minutes per game over his six appearances prior to getting hurt.
With the Grizzlies far from playoff contention, is unclear whether Casspi will see action again this season and whether this recent injury will impact on his NBA career. Recovery time for an uncomplicated meniscectomy is often six weeks; return to sports after a meniscus repair surgery can take three to six months.
The questions now is whether Casspi be able to return to his pre-injury form?
“It really depends,” says Manhattan physical therapist, Dr. Jennifer Schlinger. “Ten years in the NBA already is a lot of wear and tear on the knees, so I wonder how much damage there is and the extent of the surgery he needs.”
Schlinger is both cautiously optimistic and a bit uncertain.
“Meniscus surgery can range, but is usually relatively minor with definite return to sport after –but of course the NBA is an entirely different level. I would say he will probably get back to playing after following intense rehabilitation and physiotherapy, but the longevity of his career may be limited.”