NBA’s only Israeli player traded from its second-worst team to its third-worst

The Portland Trail Blazers gave up four draft picks to pry Deni Avdija away from the Washington Wizards

Deni Avdija averaged 14.7 points on 50% shooting in his fourth NBA season, both career highs. Photo by Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images

By Louis Keene June 26, 2024

The NBA’s only Israeli born player is heading west.

Deni Avdija, who emerged last season in Washington as one of the league’s most efficient young players, has been traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, ESPN reported Wednesday.

Avdija, 23, whose four-year, $55 million contract extension signed last October came with increased responsibility on a rebuilding Wizards team, averaged 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in his fourth year in the NBA, all career-high stats. He scored an astonishing 43 points in a game in February; his previous high had been 25.

But the team finished the season with the NBA’s second-worst record. Avdija’s new team finished tied for third-worst (and worst in the Western Conference).

Portland gave up several valuable trade assets to acquire Avdija, a 6-foot-8 forward, including the 14th pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft, a first-round pick in 2029, two future second-round picks and former Sixth Man of the Year award winner Malcolm Brogdon.

With the move, he will surrender one of the more adorable NBA nicknames: “The Wizraeli.”

After drafting Avdija with the ninth overall pick in 2020 — making him the only Jewish player in the league at the time — the Wizards became the first team to launch Hebrew language Instagram and Twitter accounts. Since then, Avdija has been joined in the NBA’s Jewish ranks by the Charlotte Hornets’ Amari Bailey. The Sacramento Kings’ Domantas Sabonis is reportedly converting to Judaism.

Born in Kibbutz Beit Zera to a Jewish mother and a Muslim father, Avdija has embraced his Jewish identity and his Israeli background on and off the court. He has joined local rabbis to light Hanukkah candles (with a blessing!); and, following a spate of terrorist attacks in Israel, he drew a Jewish star on his sneakers.

With about 75,000 people, Greater Portland’s Jewish community is about a quarter of the size of Greater Washington’s. And, in a crucial downgrade, Portland doesn’t have a direct flight to Tel Aviv.

It does, however, have a restaurant that the fine dining website Eater called a “culinary love letter to Tel Aviv.”

Correction: The headline and a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Portland Trail Blazers’ finish last season. They were the third-worst team, not the worst.

Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York magazine and Vice. He is based in Los Angeles.

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