Deni Avdija Speaks on Car Crash, Wembanyama

Speaking in Hebrew with Israel’s N12 News, Deni Avdija spoke about how an in-season car crash affected his play and glancingly alludes to San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama: > Deni Avdija: [About the car crash] “I saw my life flashing before my eyes.” > Danny Kushmaro (interviewer): “That bad?” > Avdija: “My dad was driving, and I was next to him. He looked away for a second — I think to check something. A woman ran a red light and we crashed head-on. Airbags deployed, the car was a total loss. I took a really, really hard hit to the head from the airbag. My dad almost cut his entire hand. We were both pretty shaken up.” > Kushmaro: “And the next day you played in a game?” > Avdija: “The day after, I had a game...” > Kushmaro: “You’re not serious, are you?” > Avdija: “I’m the kind of guy who hides his injuries and the bad things that happen to him. You know? I’m not the type who comes and complains about things that happened to me or about injuries. I play... As long as I can walk on two legs, I can play.” Avdija also admitted it may not have been “the smartest idea to play” and that playing so quickly after the accident may have contributed to his ongoing back problems There also may still be some friction between Avdija and Wembanyama following their first-round series during this year’s playoffs. While there are conflicting translations from the full video linked at the start of the article (Wembanyama question is asked at around 11:09), Avdija did say “I won’t say what you said, but I’m happy the Knicks won,” and tried to move the conversation along. Full disclosure: I tried two different tools to translate the Wembanyama portion of the video myself from Hebrew to English, but perhaps because the audio for the question came from a speakerphone, I was not able to confirm a translation of the question myself, just Avdija’s response. Hat tip to Blazer’s Edge user pokermonk for the heads up.