Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax
Is Deni Avdija the hero we need, or the one we deserve?
Deni Avdija is at the center of a new dilemma about Jewish identity and sport. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
By Louis Keene April 24, 2026
Something strange, funny and frankly delicious happened on social media last Tuesday night: A legion of extremely online sports fans stepped forward one by one to admit that the NBA’s most famous Israeli was, unfortunately, very good at basketball.
Deni Avdija, the 25-year-old forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, had just scored 41 points and the game-winning basket in a winner-takes-all game, carrying his team to its first playoff appearance in five years. Under the greatest pressure of his career, he had been undeniable.
One poor social media user grieving the revelation practically wept: “Deni a f—ing hooper bro I’m sorry I’m sorry.” Wrote another: “I don’t think there’s ever been a player to shut me up as much as Deni has tonight.
Others clarified the root of all the dismay. “Accidentally celebrated Denicide,” one confessed, using a crude portmanteau you can probably figure out. Another said Avdija had beaten his opponent “IDF style.” Their bitterness was not about Avdija the basketball player, in other words. It was about his country of birth, the wars it has waged and the awful human toll of the last two-and-a-half years.
It is both the projection of anti-Israel resentments onto Avdija and his ability to transcend them that make him the defining Jewish athlete of our time, a Sandy Koufax figure for the 21st-century. Koufax’s decision to sit out a World Series game on Yom Kippur was a snapshot of Jewish assimilation questions in midcentury America; Avdija’s breakthrough, and the tempest it provoked, reflect the tensions around Israel and Zionism inherent to American Jewish experience today.
No Jewish pro athlete since Koufax — not a slugger like Shawn Green or another ace pitcher like Max Fried; not an Orthodox overachiever like Ryan Turell — has carried the emotional valence of the post-10/7 Israeli NBA star. Avdija unites and divides simply by keeping his team on TV. At the outset of every playoff game, NBC allows each team’s starters to introduce themselves and state their alma mater. Avdija, who did not attend college, says “Herzeliya, Israel.” It feels significant.
Avdija has said fairly little about Israeli politics or the war, but left enough crumbs for any hater or superfan to work with. He has posted standard (though to most Jewish fans still meaningful) solidarity messages along the lines of “Am Yisrael Chai.” He shared on social media that he personally knew Oct. 7 victims and Sharpied the names of fallen Israeli soldiers on his shoes. These messages are undoubtedly political — they are comments on Jewish nationhood and a raging war. And while Avdija has not carried water for his country’s leadership, he also has not condemned it.
He also served, albeit briefly in the Israeli army. This was in 2020, long before World War III began and, as the Guardian’s Lee Escobedo wrote, at an age most people have not formed ironclad opinions. Drafted by the Washington Wizards as a teenager, he was exempt from mandatory service; nevertheless, he enlisted briefly and did something along the lines of basic training. Avdija completed his service under an “Outstanding Athlete” designation, and never saw combat.
Nevertheless, online NBA fans have taken to calling him a war criminal, and some have — ironically, I think? — attributed his ability to earn free throws to the domineering influence of Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s clear Avdija hears the noise that has become familiar to many American Jews in the last two years. “It’s frustrating to see all the hate,” he said. “Like, I have a good game or get All-Star votes, and all the comments are people connecting me to politics. Like, why can’t I just be a good basketball player? Why does it matter if I’m from Israel, or wherever in the world, or what my race is? Just respect me as a basketball player.”
Perhaps a desire to overcome bias against his nationality has motivated his recent success. After last Tuesday’s masterpiece, he poured in 30 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a loss to the heavily favored San Antonio Spurs; in Game 2, Avdija used his signature deceleration move to set up the game-winning alley-oop dunk. It felt especially good, he said afterward, to win on the Israeli Day of Independence. (Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime).
Freighted with the ambassadorship of an unpopular country, Avdija is only capable, or willing, of representing it by being the best basketball player he can be. That approach is as valid as the frustration he isn’t saying or doing more — this is sports, where the dreams and anxieties of the viewing public are always projected onto the contestants, and this is the sports hero we’re getting.
No more than Koufax solved assimilation can Avdija define the terms of Zionism and Jewish identity. And it’s possible his big moment has yet to come. In the meantime, Avdija is modeling the kind of excellence that gave Koufax — holder of three Cy Young awards and four World Series trophies — a platform to begin with. More than anything, people love a winner.
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