The unsolved riddle: Israel continues its obsession with Danny Avdia

Even after two seasons in the NBA and a problematic European Championship with the team, the Israeli basketball fan has a hard time deciding whether Danny Avdia is an untapped super talent, a limited complementary player, or another victim of impossible circumstances

Paz Hasdai

10/09/2022

Saturday, September 10, 2022, 08:00 Updated: 08:44

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Tomer Ginat speaks after the Israeli team's landing from the European Basketball Championship (Photo: Niv Aharonson. Editing: Lear Spiegler)

The Israeli basketball team this week managed to meet the strict standards of our soccer team, and draw all the anger and resentment of the fans of the sport.

The Israeli soccer team has always had a special ability to distill all local weaknesses and attract endless criticism and make failures look glorious, while the basketball team in the (probably distant) past had a different image, of "our fighting guys" who cover up their physical inferiority with teamwork, determination and game wisdom.

Recently, unfortunately, our basketball players are also aligning themselves, and falling not only because of professional failures such as lazy defense, but adding to this intrigue in the dressing room and unnecessary dirt, as if it is not enough for them that the failure will cause sadness and disappointment, but they insist that it will also cause disgust and rage.

The one dragged into all the mud is Danny Avdia, beloved of his son, the most exciting thing the industry has produced in recent years, the man who makes us quote every word from anonymous bloggers and negligible podcasts from Washington, and swing wildly between hopes and disappointments.

After two years in the NBA, the basketball fan has a hard time deciphering who Avdia really is and what his value and worth are, because for us he is still a smart and elegant basketball player, a talent that just needs the right coach who knows how to get the best out of him, in our heads the successes in the European Cadet Championship and his beautiful moments as an 18-year-old boy still echo in our heads Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Euroleague, while the reality shows that he is merely a supplementary player, devoid of special influence, with quite a few limitations, who plays for a weak team in the East that fails to get close to the play-in.

It's hard to believe that a week has passed since the moment when he seemed to be a superstar, who managed to turn into another standard Israeli disappointment.

Avdia (photo: official website, FIBA ​​website)

Then the European Championship begins, he opens with 23 points and 15 rebounds and a clutch win against Finland, then excels against the Netherlands as well, and again looks like another superstar in the tournament.

These are very overwhelming days.

Extreme emotional swing.

His performance conquers the networks.

The FIBA ​​Twitter account calls him a "cold-blooded killer." American basketball journalists following the tournament are pouring over her loss.

All the media is about him and only about him.

All thanks to him.

His teammates also feel it.

At airports, in meetings with the public, everyone wants his autographs, the cameras focus on him, he is the only one who walks around with his agent, he is the star.

Decay comes very quickly.

losses.

He does not meet expectations, does not lead to victories, again does not present a satisfactory level.

Everyone is weak, but he is something else.

From him we really hoped.

And again this swing and the internal debates.

Again it is difficult to decide whether it is justified to be disappointed with him and how much he can be blamed.

Again he and he and he.

On the one hand, there is the understanding that the responsibility needs to be removed from him in light of the difficult personal circumstances (Corona, lack of coordination) and the problematic situation in the national team regardless of it (internal tensions, lack of trust in the coach), to understand that it is not easy to be a complementary rotation player who becomes the main star with all the burden and all eyes on him , to understand that without him we would have lost the previous games as well - and on the other hand we are already tired of understanding and pitying.

Tired of looking for justifications for disappointments.

We didn't ask to have Luka Doncic, just to help us beat Poland and the Czech Republic.

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Abdia (Photo: GettyImages, Patrick Smith)

Then came the interview in Serbia of his father, Zupi.

One should never exaggerate the importance of interviews with fathers, especially with a "colorful" type like Zofi, but it does reveal what goes through Danny at home, what voices he hears, what is said to him and instilled in him in his immediate environment, and the man who is dearest to him of all.

These are pretty extreme things.

A father who even wanted him to play for the Serbian national team, who he sees as a Serbian boy, fed him Serbian food, as far as he is concerned in the Israeli national team they do not support him, the coach does not know how to use him, the players do not support him, they do not treat him right, they do not know how to take care of him, they put everything on The shoulders of a 21-year-old boy and then the blame falls on him.

Of course, Danny's Israeliness is indisputable.

He grew up here, was educated here, his friends are from here, he had no doubt that he would play for the Israeli national team, his commitment and motivation are clear.

In this case too, Danny Avdia is the victim of a complex situation, for no injustice, with a father who talks too much, stirs up conflicts and undermines the child's connection to the team.

In fact, Zufi's words illustrate the dilemma in which Danny Avdia is stuck: he calls him "the biggest star in Israeli sports", but does not understand why "one day you are raised to heaven, and the next day you are brought down to the floor".

He is only 21 years old, but the feeling is that Israel has been obsessed with Abdiya for many years, following his every step, drifting up and down.

It's hard to believe that only a week has passed since the moments of euphoria after the victory against Finland, to the feeling of shameful failure.

Another tournament around Avdia there are more questions than answers.

Another week provokes debates and discussions about the extent of his talent, what can be taken out, why the circumstances do not allow it.

The only thing that is indisputable is the failure of the basketball team, which, like its soccer counterpart, manages to neutralize any talent and pull it down with it.

• sport

• basketball

• Israeli basketball teams

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• Danny Avdia

• Israel basketball team

• Zoper Abdia