From the foul line to the fault line: Deni Avdija, Israel and the collapse of online nuance

The danger around the Portland star is that in making crucial debates into arguments about basketball, we lose sight of what is really important

There's a weird, psychological tension around basketball fouls. Not unlike a trial. A single rubbered heartbeat thumps in our collective throats. In basketball litigation, the verdict is televised and delivered in public by the referee's whistle. Deni Avdija faced more trials than a career criminal in early January, when he scored 41 points in the Portland Trail Blazers' win over the Houston Rockets. Twenty-eight came from the field. The other 13 were handed to him at the stripe.

The online response was immediate, echoing the criticism that has followed the Israeli all season: he's a free-throw merchant. It's a specific kind of hoops pejorative - not quite cheating, but a kind of outsourcing, farming points out to the refs. After the game, Rockets forward Tari Eason was asked what makes Avdija so difficult to guard. His answer was one word: Zebras."