Received at the airport by fans singing and playing drums, the New Jersey Nets guard Jordan Farmar said Thursday he is excited to play during the lockout in the NBA with the Israeli champion Maccabi Tel Aviv, a club that is still young.
Apart from the very Casspi Omri of Israel, who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Farmar is the only Jewish player in the NBA.
He is one of the highest profile players to play for Maccabi in the Euroleague runner-up last season and an organization he said he is “committed to winning.”
Farmar has won two NBA titles with the Lakers in Los Angeles before joining the Nets in 2010. The guard 6-foot-2 will play Tel Aviv as the blockade continues.
“I am committed to this team, coaching staff and the organization by the time I’m here and I want to do my part to help the team grow,” Farmar said in a press conference at the Nokia Arena Maccabi. “Let the end is not something I’m waiting … but there is a business aspect to it. Part of my contract says that when you restart the NBA I have to go back.”
Farmar has been interested in since he visited Israel Maccabi as a young and saw the team play. Farmar parents divorced when he was a child. His mother is Jewish, and his stepfather is Israeli. His father, former baseball player Damon Farmar, is black.
After playing for UCLA, Farmar became the first Jewish player in the NBA since Danny Schayes, son of Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes, retired in 1999.
“Jordan is one of the best and most exciting, and I think most of the special guards who have come to Israel for a long time. We are delighted to have him,” Maccabi coach David Blatt. “Much of the story is Jordan wanted to come and love him. It was really a decision of the heart rather than a professional issue.”
Farmar expected to easily adjust the European game and fits well with a deep team Maccabi.
“I’m here to be a positive influence,” he said. “I am a natural leader, if I’m on the floor or not. I’m not here to show anyone. I’m just trying to be a team member, a positive influence and you ask me I will.”