A journalist from a leading Portland outlet who closely covers the Portland Trail Blazers emailed me late Thursday night with a few questions about Deni Avdija.
Over there, too, they’re excited that after a few years of drought, they’ve finally sent a player back to the All-Star Game. "How popular is Deni in Israel?" he asked. "Do fans love him and follow every game, or do they barely pay attention?"
How do you even answer a question such as that? How do you explain in a few simple sentences that the word "popular" no longer applies in Avdija’s case, that you almost need a new language to describe it? In a country torn from within for years, after the longest and hardest war in its history, under a real existential threat from an enemy that openly declares its intention to destroy it - a country that cannot agree on anything and is split right down the middle on every possible issue - there is one consensus. Beyond pure sporting excitement, he gives us a kind of joy that is clean, context-free, detached from the noise. I answered him somehow, but you can’t really sum up a feeling like that in a polite email.
There are more athletic, taller and faster players than Deni Avdija, players who shoot better percentages. There are very few in the NBA who combine all those abilities together - you can count them on one hand. But it’s not enough to have it. You also need to be allowed to bring yourself onto the court.
Deni Avdija receiving an All-Star ball while in practice
It has to be said: Deni has had a lot of luck in his career in America. Whenever things turned against him for a short stretch in Washington, a trade, a professional change or an injury would reset the situation and put him back on track. He received enormous patience on a terrible, non-competitive team, where he worked detail by detail on his weaknesses and fixed them. When he moved to Portland, it was because a new front office in Washington decided to reshuffle the deck and not build around him as the previous one had planned. And again, things worked in his favor: a team with a better foundation entering a rebuild, and no serious competition for his minutes.
The start wasn’t great there either, but another opportunity emerged - and this time Avdija exploded. In a system that works for him, with teammates and coaches who surround him with everything he needs. Not every player gets that kind of luck, but not every player knows how to seize those moments. That’s the nerve-wracking reality of the NBA. Your place is always in danger, and if you don’t handle the pressure and perform at the right time, you’ll find yourself trying to maximize contracts on a mid-table team in the Turkish league. Luck alone doesn’t get you to the All-Star Game.
Portland is on a clear path to securing a play-in spot, hoping to complete the next major milestone missing from Avdija’s résumé - and from any Israeli: a playoff appearance. They’ll fight for the eighth seed, which gives two chances to advance, and hope not to slip to tenth. Much of this run came amid a serious wave of injuries that sidelined several key players and left him almost alone to carry the wins. It’s been beautiful to watch. The sense of satisfaction is immense - seeing a 19-year-old who had to relearn everything on a losing team become a 25-year-old superstar on a winning one.
He shoots even when it’s not falling because he’s allowed to - he won’t be benched as punishment, and eventually it goes in. He drives hard into the paint against muscular giants and scores over them. He can be irritating when he complains to referees, but that’s a privilege of a player of his stature. He makes the players around him better.
He’s Deni Avdija. And he’s entirely ours.