The 2026 NBA All-Star Game, one of the biggest events of the NBA season, will take place in Los Angeles in about a month and a half, on February 15, 2026.
Under the current format, basketball fans in the United States and around the world have the ability to influence and vote on who should play in the prestigious event, with fan voting accounting for 50 percent of the weighting in selecting the All-Star starting lineups.
The remaining votes are divided between players and team staff, who also choose the players who should take part in the major event. Based on the combined results, the selected players are invited.
Two weeks have passed since online voting opened, and the first results were released on Monday.
One player ranked highly in the and potentially on his way to making history is none other than Deni Avdija, the standout Israeli in the NBA who plays for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Avdija received no fewer than 606,299 fan votes as of Monday, placing him seventh in the Western Conference, just two spots away from being chosen for the West’s starting five.
In Israel as well, fans have been encouraged to vote for Portland’s Israeli star to help him make history and become the first Israeli player to participate in the prestigious game.
For now, Avdija can certainly be pleased with the strong support, having surpassed some of the world’s top players, including LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, who ranked ninth, and Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets, who placed eighth.
Avdija was selected ninth overall in the 2020 NBA draft by the Wizards and spent his first four NBA seasons in Washington before being traded to Portland before the start of the 2024-25 season.
Last February, he recorded a new career high for an Israeli NBA player, scoring 43 points in a contest against the New Orleans Pelicans.
This season, Avdija is averaging 25.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game. On Sunday night, he helped Portland end a three-game losing skid with a win over the Boston Celtics, in which the Israeli scored 24 points and added 10 assists and seven rebounds.