We may be piqued whenever a stranger wishes us a Merry Christmas during the holiday season. It’s a fair complaint. But it’s hard to be piqued about anything when your co-worker gifts you a Rolex for Christmas. Omri Casspi, the first Israeli player in the NBA, is having his best year yet playing for the Houston Rockets. It doesn’t hurt when you’re on the court alongside superstars Dwight Howard and James Harden. Now Casspi’s got the jury to prove it.
Today, GQ informed the world about the gift-giving habits of Rockets’ big man Dwight Howard, who recently showered his teammates with some pretty nice holiday spoils. From the looks of it, Omri Casspi received a Date Just Blue Rolex–your run-of-the-mill oyster, steel, and white gold bauble from the Swiss watchmaker. Yesterday, Casspi put up a picture of the gift on his Instagram feed with the simple message: Thank You. @dwighthoward.
All-Star James Harden, who is playing a little bit beyond Rolex-grade basketball, crowed a little more effusively after receiving a Audemars Piguet watch from Howard.
S/O to my guy!!!! @dwighthoward got me the AP I wanted for Christmas. That’s love bro.
Everything seems to be coming up Casspi these days. He is finally playing the most minutes of his career and doing it on a winning team. The Rockets are in a bottleneck near the top of the brutal Western Conference, sitting just five-and-a-half games back from the league-leading upstarts, the Portland Trailblazers.
Earlier this month, we reported on Casspi’s trip to Washington, D.C., for the White House Hanukkah party. There he rubbed elbows with President Obama, talked some basketball, and charmingly enough, brought along his mom as his date. Merry Christmas, Omri!
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.