http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2011/08/nets_jordan_farmar_agrees_to_d.html

Nets' Jordan Farmar agrees to deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv

Published: Wednesday, August 03, 2011, 12:54 PM     Updated: Wednesday, August 03, 2011, 7:48 PM

Jordan Farmar, the Nets’ backup point guard, reached an agreement today on a one-year contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League to play there during the NBA lockout.

The deal includes a termination provision in the event the lockout is settled and the NBA season resumes.

“I’m very excited to play in Tel Aviv,” Farmar told The Star-Ledger. “I went there as a little kid. My stepdad is from Tel Aviv. I watched Tel Aviv play basketball and soccer.”

Israeli teams are allowed to dress only four foreign players for league games.

Farmar, 24, who is Jewish, will initially count as an American on Tel Aviv’s roster, though he said he will apply for Israeli citizenship “to give (the team) more flexibility.”

If he is granted Israeli citizenship, Farmar would then be eligible to play for Israel in international competitions, including the Olympics.

He said that is not something he had thought about, “but now I’m going to live over there and play over there. I’m going to see what happens.”

Farmar says Tel Aviv is a “beautiful place. It’s a beach city — it’s like Miami,” he said. “It’ll be a good experience. I’ll be playing at a high level, staying in shape, and if the NBA starts up, I’ll be ready to play.”

Farmar will leave for Israel at the end of this month, the season begins on Sept. 1. His girlfriend, Jill, and 1-year-old daughter, Phoenix, will be joining him and “a bunch of my family will be commuting to share the experience.”

The 6-2, 180-pound, five-year veteran becomes the second Nets regular this summer to sign a lockout deal overseas. Point guard Deron Williams last month signed a one-year, reported $5 million deal to play in Turkey for Istanbul’s Besiktas.

Farmar said he has not spoken to Williams about his deal or about the process of signing with an overseas team.

Farmar, a Southern California native who played for UCLA and then the Lakers before signing a three-year, $12 million deal with the Nets as a free agent last summer, would not say how much his contract with Tel Aviv is worth.

“I got a good deal, though,” he said.

Serving as a backup first to Devin Harris and then later to Williams, Farmar averaged career highs of 9.6 points and 5.0 assists last season with the Nets. He also started a career-best 18 games.

The agreement came one day after another Israeli team, Maccabi Haifa, announced that it was in advanced negotiations with Farmar and was close to signing him. Haifa, which is owned by New Jersey native Jeffrey Rosen, played a preseason game against the Nets last October at the Prudential Center.

Haifa also is the team that signed American Jeremy Tyler after his junior year of high school.

Tyler flopped in Israel, played a season in Japan, and this summer was picked 39th overall in the NBA Draft by the Charlotte Bobcats, who sold his rights to the Golden State Warriors.