Deni Avdija is an NBA All-Star.<\/p>\n
Let that sink in a bit.<\/p>\n
For the Israeli it is a dream come true, just as it is for the entire State of Israel. <\/p>\n
The Portland Trail Blazers forward was named to the Western Conference team as one of the 14 reserves announced for the 2026 All-Star Game that is slated to be played on February 15th at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n
Avdija, who is the first Israeli to be named as an NBA All-Star ranked fifth in fan voting in the West with 2.2 million votes. Only Luka Don\u010di\u0107, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished ahead of him.<\/p>\n
The 25-year old who was born in Beit Zera near the Sea of Galilee, is averaging 25.5 points and 6.7 assists along with 7.2 rebounds in 44 games and is one of three players, all Europeans, who are averaging at least 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists together with Jokic and Doncic. This season, Avidja has a trio of triple-doubles and has reached double figures in assists nine times while having scored 20 or more points 35 times. <\/p>\n
The All-Star format will feature the USA vs The World with three teams of at least eight players playing 12-minute games in a round-robin format. After the first three games, the two teams with the best records will advance to the final, where the champion will be crowned. If all three teams finish with a 1-1 record, the tiebreaker will be point differential.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-8 Avdija is in his second season with the Blazers after spending his first four years in the world\u2019s greatest league with the Washington Wizards who selected him 9th overall in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft. Prior to that Avdija began his professional career with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel where he was a 3x league champions along with capturing the 2020 MVP award.<\/p>\n
Omri Casspi, the first Israeli in the NBA congratulated Avdija, \u201cDeni, what immense pride! Seeing the journey you\u2019ve taken, the hard work and perseverance, it\u2019s well deserved. Enjoy every moment on this stage; you are proof that the sky is the limit and this is only the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portland Head Coach Tiago Splitter added, \u201cProud of him. I know he cares about this team. When you see a person like that succeeding, it\u2019s truly special.\u201d<\/p>\n
After learning that he would be an All-Star this season, Avdija reflected on the journey to get to this point in his career, \u201cObviously, I couldn\u2019t do it without my teammates and coaches, and the whole crew that\u2019s just been with me this season, it\u2019s been amazing. There\u2019s a long season to go. I gotta focus on the team and see how we get better as a group, but definitely as an individual accolade that\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI started playing basketball without a dream and just to see, pursue it and just see wherever it takes me, and it\u2019s hard to believe that you just accomplish thing after thing after thing. It\u2019s just emotional for me for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were plenty of top names who were not selected including Kawhi Leonard, Laurie Markkanen and James Harden and this is something that Avdija understands after he was given the nod. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s great players that didn\u2019t get chosen for the All-Star game and obviously, there\u2019s a lot of talent in this league that could have been instead of me. But I worked hard. I play hard. I don\u2019t want to say I deserve it, but I do respect me and my game and I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m able to be an All-Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avdija also reflected on his concern about the team and there standing in the league, \u201cI think the mindset of you being in it is just fun, but I have a lot of other things I think about. You know what I\u2019m saying? It\u2019s just how to win games because we\u2019re struggling a little bit right now as a team. So I\u2019m thinking more about the team right now than actually the All-Star. I feel like the closer it\u2019s going to get, the more I\u2019m going to think about it. But for now, I\u2019m really trying to stay with my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabra received a ton of love from everyone back in the Holy Land and that\u2019s not something he takes for granted, \u201cA lot of congratulation messages and the amount of love, not only from the family and friends, but also the fans and the whole state of Israel, for real, is just standing behind me. It\u2019s amazing. My teammates have been awesome. Coaches, everybody. Just hugging and showing the love, for sure.\u201d <\/p>\n
On the topic of team, Avdija was very thankful to those he shares the lockerroom with on a day in and day out basis, \u201cA lot of times, if you\u2019re not on a team that\u2019s playing well, you don\u2019t really get that. I couldn\u2019t do it without my teammates, couldn\u2019t do it without them. How we share the ball, how we play hard, how are we in the standings. A lot of it is a team sport at the end of the day. You can be as good as you want, but you need your teammates to be there. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to play as a team and contribute for having success as a team and an individual. I feel like they\u2019ve done a great job. I can go down the line and thank my teammates and they know I love them. They helped me pursue the dream and I\u2019m going to help them pursue theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avijda also looked back at what an NBA rookie Deni Avdija back in 2020 would have thought about the accomplishment of becoming an All-Star, \u201cThat he\u2019s proud, that he\u2019s been through a lot and that I\u2019m glad that I was patient with it and I didn\u2019t give up, no matter the situation, no matter where I\u2019ve been. I\u2019ve been in some moments in this path that wasn\u2019t looking good or great and I doubted myself. But I kept working on it and I kept being patient and I knew my opportunity to shine would come. I\u2019m glad this organization and this team let me do it and hopefully, there\u2019s a lot more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deni Avdija is an NBA All-Star. Let that sink in a bit. For the Israeli it is a dream come true, just as it is for the entire State of Israel. The Portland Trail Blazers forward was named to the Western Conference team as one of the 14 reserves announced for the 2026 All-Star Game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":169615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-169613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-deni-avdija","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n