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The Draft Combine media sessions can be a bit tedious. After the tenth player tells you he wants to “work hard” and his “defense needs improvement,” you can start to lose interest. So when the opportunity to entice a bit of intrigue out of a player arises, you take it. For me, that moment came while speaking with Omri Casspi.

The media session was coming to a close and Casspi sat alone at a table near the back of the room. Tim had already done the heavy lifting so I felt free to be slightly experimental. Given that Omri may be the first Israeli to play in the NBA, I asked him about the Israeli-Palestinian situation and, as his popularity back home grew, whether he would take the chance to comment on the matter publicly.

“I’m playing basketball. I don’t want to involve sports and politics.” Thinking he had nipped the question in the bud, I prepared to return to the day’s standard subject matter. But before I could revert back to banalities, he took a slightly different tact.

“Israel is beautiful. People don’t understand it. Many Jews and Arabs live together in peace. I want to be an ambassador for Israel.”

As he spoke, he began to glance downward and his tone became more severe. I grew worried that I had hit a nerve. But as he neared the end of his comments, he seemed relaxed. I think I may have been imposing my own anxiety about the question itself onto him. If anything, he was merely betraying the passion that Tim uncovered during his interview (which will be published later this evening).

I stood and he firmly shook my hand. I said I hoped to see him in San Antonio next season, the mere mention of which elicited a booming smile. Given our conversation, I was caught off guard by his parting warmth and was, admittedly, quite charmed.