{"id":506341,"date":"2020-11-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/deni-avdija-is-going-to-the-washington-wizards\/"},"modified":"2020-11-19T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T10:00:00","slug":"deni-avdija-is-going-to-the-washington-wizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/deni-avdija-is-going-to-the-washington-wizards\/","title":{"rendered":"Deni Avdija is going to the Washington Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\t\tThe Israeli League MVP Deni Avdija who developed under the wings of Maccabi Tel Aviv was selected 9th by the Washington Wizards in the 2020 NBA Draft. Unlike any draft before, The 19-year-old player waited to hear his name in Israel and not in the Barclays Center in New York, sitting by his parents Sharon and Zufer, his agent Matan Siman Tov and his personal coach Veliko Perovic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t“For me to represent Israel, to make history, it’s a blessing”, Said\u00a0<\/span>Deni Avdija<\/strong>\u00a0after making history as the highest pick in the history of the country. “I’m super excited to bring my game to the next level, and I’ll make everyone proud. There’s a great journey in front of me, I’ll prove myself every day, help the team as much as I can, and at the end of my career, I’ll be saying I was the best version of myself”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t“I dealt with many challenging situations in Maccabi, and I’m sure I’ll deal with them also in the NBA. I want to thank many people, and hopefully, I won’t forget anyone along the way. First of all, my parents. To the whole Maccabi Tel Aviv organization, to Nikola Vujcic, the coaches, Giannis, and Veliko, who’s been with me the past six years, and without him, I wouldn’t be in this situation”.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\tWith the Wizards selection, Avdija becomes the highest Israeli to be picked in NBA Draft, surpassing Omri Caspi, who was selected 11 years ago 23rd overall by the Sacramento Kings. Avdija will join the Wizards, who are considered a young and hungry team, missing the playoffs the past two seasons after finishing 11th and 9th respectively in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\tThe 55-year-old head coach Scott Brooks runs the show in D.C since 2016. The former NBA point guard coached Oklahoma City for a number of years before moving to the U.S capital. The Wizard’s two biggest stars today are John Wall and Bradley Beal, along with last year’s 9th overall selection Rui Hachimura. This is a relatively balanced roster, which includes Davis Bertans, Thomas Bryant, Ish Smith, Troy Brown, and Shabazz Napier, who all scored in double figures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The young talent, who grew up in Maccabi Tel Aviv, was Washington’s number 9 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Here is the latest on the team from D.C, the coaching staff, and Deni’s new teammates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":506340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-506341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-54"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506341"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=506341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}