Israel’s first major achievement in international basketball was Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1977 European championship, an event so important that then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin delayed his resignation announcement until the final match had ended.
Basketball’s popularity in the Jewish state has grown massively over the ensuing decades, but Israel has not yet produced a homegrown star who excelled in the world’s top league, the NBA.
That could be set to change, beginning this week, with 19-year-old Deni Avdija starting his NBA career with the Washington Wizards.
The 6-foot-9 small forward was chosen ninth overall in the November draft, the highest-ever slot for an Israeli-born pla…
Keep on reading: Israel basketball opens new chapter with Avdija’s NBA debut