Israeli basketball star Omri Casspi took a huge step in his Israel-to-NBA saga Thursday when he became the first Israeli player ever selected in the first round of the NBA Draft - an important, but certainly not final, stage in an attempted journey to the world's preeminent professional basketball league. Casspi is the focus of a national obsession with the idea of an Israeli making it into the NBA, in which some 20 percent of the players are foreigners.

SATIRE - Immediately following an interview Wednesday with Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters handed their notepads, cameras, and press passes to the Penguins captain and asked him to cover the Eastern Conference Finals. "You'll be there already, right?" said sportswriter Dave Molinari, assuring Crosby he would receive the newspaper's standard $85 in compensation for each freelance article accepted. "It would save the paper a lot of time and money is all. Just remember to spell-check, because there's no real Sports editor anymore." - THE ONION

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships will have a very different look this year. The Centre Court, where all the finals are played, has the benefit of a new retractable roof -- ending "rain stopped play." - NPR.org

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