The Sacramento Kings will host Maccabi Haifa in a preseason basketball game on Oct. 17.
Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv are two of three international teams traveling this month to the United States and Canada for nine preseason games against NBA teams. The other team is Flamengo, from Rio de Janeiro.
Maccabi Haifa was the runner-up in the Israeli Super League last season. In the previous season, Haifa won the championship, beating powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv for its first Israeli title since the team’s founding in 1953.
Adding to the Israel ambiance of the game, which will take place in Sacramento’s Sleep Train Pavilion, the Kings recently signed 26-year-old Israeli Omri Casspi, who played two seasons for the team from 2009 to 2011. In five NBA seasons, the 6-foot-9-inch forward has averaged 7.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
In 2009, Casspi became the first Israeli-born player to be drafted by an NBA team and play in the NBA. He had two decent seasons in Sacramento, but was traded in 2011 to the Cleveland Cavaliers; last season, he played for the Houston Rockets.
Maccabi Haifa also will play against the Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers and Toronto Raptors. In 2012, Maccabi Haifa played an exhibition game in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors, losing 108-100.
Maccabi Tel Aviv played the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Brooklyn Nets earlier this week. A perennial powerhouse, Maccabi Tel Aviv won the Euroleague title last year under the leadership of head coach David Blatt, now the head coach of the Cavaliers.
For ticket information about the Maccabi Haifa game in Sacramento, visit www.sacramentokings.com or call (888) 915-4647.