There\u2019s a weird, psychological tension around basketball fouls. Not unlike a trial. A single rubbered heartbeat thumps in our collective throats. In basketball litigation, the verdict is televised and delivered in public by the referee\u2019s whistle. Deni Avdija faced more trials than a career criminal in early January, when he scored 41 points in the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 win over the Houston Rockets. Twenty-eight came from the field. The other 13 were handed to him at the stripe.<\/p>\n
The online response was immediate, echoing the criticism that has followed the Israeli all season: he\u2019s a free-throw merchant. It\u2019s a specific kind of hoops pejorative \u2013 not quite cheating, but a kind of outsourcing, farming points out to the refs. After the game, Rockets forward Tari Eason was asked what makes Avdija so difficult to guard. His answer was one word: \u201cZebras.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free throws piss us off because they\u2019re a successful grift, like follow-up emails. And Avdija has made them work this season \u2013 he is second in the league in free-throw attempts per game, and third in free-throws made. That production has made him as the frontrunner for the Most Improved Player award<\/a> and earned his first All-Star reserve role<\/a>, finishing ahead<\/a> of LeBron James and Kevin Durant in the second fan-voting returns. The Trail Blazers look poised to make the play-in, which would be their first postseason appearance since 2021.<\/p>\n But visibility invites scrutiny. Since arriving in Portland in 2024 and being empowered as a point-forward, Avdija has played with a downhill, neurotic energy. He strikes a contrapposto pose before diving into carnage, absorbing all the unseen elbows and shit talk, and yes, waiting for the call. Fans mock this kind of stuff \u2026 unless their team\u2019s superstar employs it. While elite floppers such as James Harden or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are criticized for on-court shenanigans, the ire leveled at Avdija spills into judgments about who he is and where he is from.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a defense of Avdija\u2019s politics, nor an attempt to launder them through basketball. As Advija\u2019s notoriety rises, so will the criticism. The internet gases up entropy. So we\u2019ve seen the basketball insults devolve. Terrorist. Genocidal. An already controversial athlete has been transformed into a proxy for the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. But we should be able to criticize what Avdija has said without pretending that the way he plays is a reflection of Israel\u2019s bloodshed in Gaza.<\/p>\n The scrutiny doesn\u2019t emerge from nowhere. As an Israeli, Avdija is one of the very few NBA<\/a> players with publicly documented service in the Israel Defense Forces. Avdija was born on a kibbutz in northern Israel and enlisted in April 2020, during the NBA\u2019s pandemic pause, under Israel\u2019s mandatory conscription system. That fact is searchable. It\u2019s certainly been passed around. Since Israel\u2019s large-scale bombing of Gaza, it\u2019s calcified into an accusation.<\/p>\n I believe Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza are genocide. All the world has forsaken Palestine. But we don\u2019t need to lie to make a point. Avdija has not committed war crimes. There\u2019s no evidence tying him to specific acts of violence against civilians, and he completed his service in North America playing basketball. He served before the Gaza bloodshed, when he was only 19, an age old enough to serve, but young enough for someone not to have developed iron-clad views. Claims require proof. The word crime is reserved for actions that can be demonstrated, not simply inferred to fit confirmation bias.<\/p>\n Some argue that serving in the IDF is itself a war crime. That\u2019s an impossible, specious standard. To collapse all service into criminality is to abandon the distinction between institutional violence and personal culpability. That distinction is the only thing separating accountability from chaos.<\/p>\n So Avdija clearly isn\u2019t the enemy here, even though I\u2019m not rooting for him either. The real sins come from way higher up the ladder. People are rightly furious our US tax dollars continue to fund a genocide. It began under a Democrat, Joe Biden, and continues under a Republican, Donald Trump. We struggle just sitting with our anger. So we strike out with balled fists \u2013 at someone we can project our rage upon, and Avdija is an easy target, not the target.<\/p>\n States commit atrocities. Governments lie. Militaries enforce policy. Individuals exist within those systems, sometimes complicit, sometimes constrained, and occasionally wrong without being criminal. There\u2019s another complication. Avdija is a Zionist. That is, if the word is used according to its dictionary definition<\/a> \u2013 which includes someone being \u201ca supporter of modern Israel\u201d \u2013 rather than as slur.<\/p>\n In a March 2025 interview<\/a> with Israel Hayom, Avdija said, \u201cI love Israel\u201d, and described representing his country as a source of pride and responsibility. Avdija has also said, \u201cnot everyone understands 100% what\u2019s happening in Israel\u201d, adding that he tries to explain the situation \u201cfrom the right good side.\u201d<\/p>\n Zionism doesn\u2019t imply criminality, but fans are entitled to criticize Avdija\u2019s national pride when he\u2019s been totally silent about the mass Palestinian civilian deaths at the hands of his home country. When images of destroyed neighborhoods and dead children routinely circulate across social feeds, neutrality can\u2019t be viewed as a serious position. And Avdija continues to express his support for Israel despite its actions. In a recent profile in the Athletic<\/a>, Avidja expressed anger at Israel\u2019s critics and at how politics and basketball are routinely linked with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an athlete. I don\u2019t really get into politics, because it\u2019s not my job,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI obviously stand for my country, because that\u2019s where I\u2019m from. It\u2019s frustrating to see all the hate. Like, I have a good game or get All-Star votes, and all the comments are people connecting me to politics. Like, why can\u2019t I just be a good basketball player? Why does it matter if I\u2019m from Israel, or wherever in the world, or what my race is? Just respect me as a basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the trap: he wants the benefits of nationalism without any accountability for what that nationalism is doing in the world. Maybe Avdija genuinely believes Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza are fine, which is his right. But he shouldn\u2019t be surprised \u2013 or complain \u2013 when he gets backlash for wading into the subject.<\/p>\n And athletes have shown you can love aspects of your country \u2013 your family, your friends, the ideals it is supposed to represent \u2013 while also being deeply uncomfortable about its actions. Under Trump, we have seen children snatched away by federal officials, citizens shot dead in the streets, and our supposed allies threatened and insulted. When asked about representing the US at the Winter Olympics last week, freestyle skier Hunter Hess eloquently expressed his ambivalence<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now \u2026 It\u2019s a little hard. There\u2019s obviously a lot going on that I\u2019m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren\u2019t. I think for me it\u2019s more I\u2019m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the US,\u201d Hess said.<\/p>\n But just because Hess\u2019s views are noble doesn\u2019t make him a better skier \u2013 though it may make him easier to root for. And just because Avdija\u2019s comments are, at best, tone deaf it doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s a worse basketball player. It\u2019s possible to be furious about the Gaza bloodbath \u2013 and our tax dollars funding it \u2013 without collapsing the argument, lazily, into a basketball debate. It\u2019s far more important than that. Especially when the jazzed-up thump of online dribble is easier to referee. The danger isn\u2019t that Avdija escapes criticism. The danger is that in making crucial debates into arguments about basketball, we lose sight of what is really important.<\/p>\n Otherwise, anything can become an indictment \u2013 even a free throw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a weird, psychological tension around basketball fouls. Not unlike a trial. 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