Gottlieb skipped out on Israeli army

Like most travelers, Oklahoma basketball players who have journeyed overseas have returned with some good experiences and some nightmare stories.

Hollis Price's incident in Lithuania last November — he was involved in an altercation on the street after being called racist names — was undoubtedly unnerving, as was Maurice Baker's experience of playing for a Russian club he said he believed to be run by the mafia.

And then there was Doug Gottlieb's experience with the Israeli army. To play in Israel, the former OSU point guard got his Israeli citizenship, and thinking he wasn't in the army's key demographic — he was 26 and married at the time — he wasn't terribly concerned about Israel's conscription policy.

Then he received notice that the army wanted him to stay for a month after the season ended.

"Probably some desk job,” Gottlieb admits, "But I was not into it. I didn't want to risk them throwing a gun in my hands.”

So Gottlieb left Israel and often jokes on his radio show about being an Israeli army deserter.

"I'm going back next summer for a basketball trip so I should probably look into it before I go,” he said. "Because right now I'm AWOL.”

By Andrea Cohen