While Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija didn\u2019t play during Sunday\u2019s 130-111 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, he still spoke with media afterward to discuss his selection as an NBA Western Conference All-Star reserve. Avdija\u2019s first-time selection is major news in Rip City, giving the franchise its first All-Star since Damian Lillard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked hard,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cI play hard. I don\u2019t want to say I deserve it, but I do respect me and my game, and I\u2019m really happy that I\u2019m able to be an All-Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news dropped Sunday afternoon during Portland\u2019s pregame film session ahead of the Cleveland matchup. Avdija said he had no idea beforehand if he was going to make the cut or not. When his phone began buzzing like crazy, he even wondered if it was people telling him to keep his head up after missing out. Avdija said he was so focused on the game \u2014 and is still so focused on how to help his team get out of this five-game slide \u2014 that the weight of the accomplishment hasn\u2019t fully sunk in yet. He expects that\u2019ll happen more as All-Star Weekend, taking place Feb. 13-15, gets closer.<\/p>\n
While the feat hasn\u2019t fully hit him yet, Avdija does feel the love and congratulations sent from family, friends, fans, teammates and coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of love \u2014 not only from family and friends \u2014 it\u2019s also the fans,\u201d Avdija said. \u201cAnd the whole State of Israel is just standing behind me, for real. My teammates have been awesome. Coaches. Everybody just hugging and showing the love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avdija was also quick to give his teammates credit when a reporter asked about their role in the accomplishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for making this point of thought because I couldn\u2019t do it without my teammates,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without them. How we share the ball, how we play hard, where we are in the standings \u2014 it\u2019s a team sport at the end of the day. You can be as good as you want, but you need your teammates to be there. \u2026 I can go down the line and thank my teammates, and they know I love them. And they helped me pursue a dream, and I\u2019m gonna help them pursue theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avdija was a last-minute scratch against Cleveland due to lingering issues with the lower back strain he first suffered on Jan. 12. At the pregame podium, Splitter said Avdija would probably play against the Cavs, but it would depend on how he felt during warmups. Avdija felt pain as he warmed up, so the decision was made to sit him for the night.<\/p>\n
Avdija said it was bittersweet to sit out on the night of his All-Star selection. He still doesn\u2019t think his back issue is anything serious, but he\u2019s trying to think about what\u2019s best for the long-term.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to see my teammates out there playing and really competing, and I\u2019m not able to help,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, there is still a long season to go, and there is still accomplishments that we need to do, and I don\u2019t want to be half-Deni in those. I really want to be myself. As much as it\u2019s hard for me to do, but I\u2019ve gotta be responsible for me and also for my teammates for them to get me at 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija didn\u2019t play during Sunday\u2019s 130-111 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37660,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-577143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-blazers-news","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116000741395401625","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}