With one game left to play in the group phase, Israel guaranteed themselves a place in the knockout stage of FIBA 2025 EuroBasket today by defeating Belgium 92-89. With the win, Israel will finish in the top four teams in Group D, confirming their spot in the next round.
Once again, Portland Trail Blazers’ Deni Avdija was tremendous, tallying 22 points in the victory. This marked the fourth consecutive game of at least 20 points for the Blazers forward. Roman Sorkin, formally of the University of Oregon,
chipped in 18 points for Israel.
Before the game, Avdija sat down with Moshe Barda of Israel’s ONE for an interview in Hebrew. Avdija relates how at one point he considered retiring at a young age.
I mentioned this once in an interview when I was in a situation where it was already overwhelming on my part. I would play with players two years older than me and they would abuse me in training. At a young age, I had the obstacle of playing with players older than me and I wasn’t good enough yet, and I already felt that basketball was too much, and I didn’t play for a month, and I stopped playing, and then I went back to training. -via google translate
He also talked about the support he is getting from the Blazers organization. Assistant GM Mike Schmitz, Director of Health and Player Performance Courtney Watson, and Head Coach Chauncey Billups are all in attendance at EuroBasket.
Yes, I think Portland is invested on a personal level. First of all, it’s very exciting for me to see that the club cares about me like that and it’s something I’ve been missing for a long time, but to see this support and the coaches and the assistant GM, and the doctors who come to take care of me and are there for me, it shows a lot about how Portland as a club and how Portland treats me and it’s not something that’s taken for granted. -via google translate
Group play will conclude with Israel facing Luka Doncic and Slovenia on Thursday. Then it’s on to the knockout stage where Israel will face an undetermined opponent on either September 6 or 7 in the round of 16.
