Best of SI: Deni Avdija Hopes to Be Israel's First NBA Star

An early evening practice at Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Menora Mivtachim Arena is ending and 100 fans, mostly kids celebrating their birthdays or b’nai mitzvahs, shuffle down from the lower bowl to one of the baselines. As Maccabi’s roster begins to clear the floor, Deni Avdija is one of the few instructed to stay behind. Just six weeks from celebrating his 19th birthday, he’s not much older than many of the fans he’s about to greet. His dark hair is tapered and combed over to one side of his head. Patches of scruff populate the sides of his face and under his chin. “It doesn’t grow,” he says of his beard.

“I hate shaving. I’m always cutting myself.”

Despite his youth, the 6' 9", 215-pound Avdija (pronounced Ahv-DEE-yah) is already one of the most famous athletes in his hoops-crazed homeland. He’s far from the best player on what Maccabi forward Quincy Acy, an NBA veteran, calls “the Yankees” of Israeli sports, but he’s the most sought-after player among autograph hunters.

NBA teams are on the lookout for the next Luka Doncic, making comparisons between the two similarly sized international wings inevitable. Both the Israeli and last season’s Rookie of the Year can also score in transition and play multiple positions. While Avdija doesn’t have the professional bona fides that Doncic, the 2018 EuroLeague MVP, brought to the league, the Israeli is still likely to go in the lottery of the NBA draft—potentially the top five—and become the highest pick ever from a country of nine million people.

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