The next NBA trip to the Holy Land.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports - Column

Roger Mason Jr. has played professional basketball for a dozen years, including several for the San Antonio Spurs. He has also been a leader in the NBA Players Association. This is why it turned more than a few heads when Mason was one of eight NBA players to ride on anti-union rightwing zealot Sheldon Adelson's plane on a trip to Israel.

Organized by the NBA's sole Israeli player, Omri Casspi, the visit was planned for the one-year anniversary of last summer's bombing of Gaza. It was a conscious swipe at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at economically isolating Israel for its continued expansion into the West Bank and military encirclement of the Gaza Strip.

The players apparently had a grand time in Israel, completing several clinics sponsored by NBA Cares, swimming in the Dead Sea, and enjoying the various attractions of Tel Aviv. It was a trip that undoubtedly made Adelson, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who reportedly "blessed" the trip, very happy.

While Mason taking favors from Adelson was a surprise, his liking for The Next NBA Trip to the Holy Land Israel was not. The shooting guard had played for the Hapoel Jerusalem Basketball Club in 2005, and for years has mentioned to others how much that experience meant to him. On completing the journey, Mason told a basketball writer he "would be returning and bringing more NBA players with him."

I sincerely hope he does, but on a profoundly different kind of trip. Instead of visiting the coziest and most comfortable areas of Tel Aviv, under an armed watch that stayed assiduously off camera, next time he should take players to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is not only because the Adelson tour of Israel bestowed invisibility upon the Palestinians, but...