Oren Manor likes to boast that he was a Deni Avdija fan before it was cool.
Manor, an Israeli sportswriter, has been following Avdija since he was a 16-year-old playing in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth program. He wasn’t surprised to see the small forward, now 24, have a breakout year this season with the Portland Trail Blazers.
But now, Manor is far from alone on the Avdija bandwagon. As Avdija — the lone Israeli in the NBA — has one great game after another, Manor has gotten a laugh out of the lengths Israeli newspapers will go to highlight his success.
“Every media group in Israel, sports or no sports, will have a daily headline about something Deni did,” he said. “‘Oh, you won’t believe the prestigious list Deni is on, click here.’ And then you go down, you find out he finished sixth in the voting for top player in the west in the month of February.”
Avdija’s season, however, is no joke — and neither is the Deni-mania sweeping Israel. For a nation at war, grappling with a hostage crisis and riven by protests, the success of a hometown boy, 7,000 miles away in Oregon, is something everyone can unite behind.
Big shoes to fill
“He is the story, and he’s a much bigger story now as his numbers are much, much bigger,” said Manor, who has lived in Portland for 15 years. “But he carries a very big weight on his shoulders, and his personal success with Israelis always translates to national pride. And when you’re at war, you want pride.”
To put Avdija’s numbers in context: Before joining the Trail Blazers, he had averaged a solid if unspectacular 9.8 points per game over his four seasons with the Washington Wizards.
In his past 16 games, however, those stats have ballooned to 24.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. This season, he has had eight 30+ point performances and his first two career triple-doubles. Overall, he’s averaging a career high of 16.9 points per game this year.
His success hasn’t saved Portland, which is due to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. But it has buoyed his Israeli and Israeli-American fans fans.
“As an Israeli basketball player, he’s the best I’ve seen, and many people think he’s going to be the greatest Israeli player of all time,” said Moshe Halickman, who covers basketball for the popular Sports Rabbi website. “He’s the top Israeli NBA player we ever had. Omri Casspi really did something big by being the first Israeli in the NBA, but Deni is turning into a star in the league.”
There are sportswriters like Manor, Halickman and the YouTuber Pini Barel, whose social media sometimes resembles an Avdija highlight reel. And then there are fans like Yaakov Tzedek, 32, of the coastal town of Or Akiva, who compensates for the 10-hour time difference between Israel and Portland by watching Avdija over an early breakfast.
“I do watch all the Trail Blazers games, usually live or very close to live broadcasts,” said Tzedek — a commitment that entails turning on the game at 5 a.m. Tzedek, who runs a media company among other business ventures, also manages a Facebook page for Israeli fans of Avdija.
“I actively follow the [Blazers], mainly because of Deni,” he said. “Honestly, it’s just really fun and exciting to watch. I wouldn’t say it’s life-changing, but it definitely brings a lot of pride to Israel and gives us some joyful, quiet moments — especially in a year like this, when things have been so difficult here.”
Halickman said the signs of Avdija’s celebrity status in Israel are everywhere — from his 2021 sponsorship deal with the Israeli version of corn flakes to a newfound job description: the bar mitzvah gift of choice for jet-setting Israeli boys.
“In Israel, there was a trend, like around 10 years ago, that Israelis who had a bar mitzvah … went on trips to watch Lionel Messi for Barcelona’s soccer team. And the new trend is kind of turning into Israelis flying to watch Deni play,” Halickman said. “It’s amazing also to see how Deni treats the Israeli crowd. He’s taking pictures, autographs, speaking to them.”
That was the case even before Oct. 7, 2023. During previous conflicts back home, Avdija drew Stars of David on his shoes to express his support for Israel. He also shared Hanukkah with his teammates, spoke at the Wizards’ Jewish Heritage Night and attempted to grow the NBA’s popularity in Israel.
Since the Hamas attack that began the war in Gaza and sparked a global surge in antisemitism, Avdija has become even more vocal about his national pride, telling one Israeli outlet that he “tried to do what I could to bring some pride to Israel through basketball and my efforts off the court.” A few weeks after Oct. 7, Avdija hung around the court postgame, with an Israeli flag draped around him, as fans sang Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem. Avdija has also been spotted with the flag displayed in his locker.
Avdija’s following has grown steadily since his days as a teenage star for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He’s a three-time Israeli League champion and helped lead Israel to back-to-back FIBA U20 European Championship titles in 2018-2019, winning the tournament’s MVP award in 2019. He remains the captain of the country’s senior national team today.
Halickman remembers watching from the stands in 2018, as a 17-year-old Avdija scored 11 points off the bench for Maccabi Tel Aviv in a season-opening win over Maccabi Ashdod. Last year, Halickman traveled to D.C. to cover two Wizards games.
Some of the talk about Avdija takes on a touch of the hyperbolic. Manor compared Avdija’s build and athleticism to that of NBA legend LeBron James. Both players are 6-foot-9, and both, Manor explained, embody what’s known in basketball as a “tweener” — a player is both fast and strong enough to play multiple positions
“Very early, when he was about 15 or 16 years old, people realized he’s gonna be a basketball player, a professional basketball player,” Manor said. “All of the other functions of character — the leadership, the confidence, the chutzpah to go and argue with the refs on every other call he doesn’t get — he always has in him. Now it’s just really popped because of the circumstances.”
Avdija’s breakout comes during an era of Jewish basketball excellence. On Monday, the University of Florida’s Todd Golden became the first Jewish coach to win March Madness since 1988. University of Michigan star Danny Wolf, himself an Israeli-American, is expected to declare for this summer’s NBA draft, where he could be a first-round pick. So could Israeli Ben Saraf, who is playing professionally in Germany.
They would join a growing Jewish NBA roster that includes Avdija, Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis — who is converting to Judaism and having his own stellar season — and G League prospect Amari Bailey.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch,” Tzedek said. “Hopefully, they’ll be on different teams so we can enjoy watching them compete and support each other.”
As for Avdija, the work isn’t done. Halickman said the real goal is to reach the NBA playoffs, something Casspi never did in 10 seasons in the league. The Wizards made the postseason in Avdija’s rookie year, but he was injured.
“That’s the next goal for Deni,” Halickman said. “He’s doing amazing things personally right now, but what we want to see is really something successful that he’ll do with a team, and I think he’s in the right direction. He’s only 24 years old. Long career ahead, promising team, so there’s a lot to look forward to.”