A bummer in the Spurs stands
Go Knicks
by Henry Sumber
In Finals Game 1, people in the expensive seats in San Antonio said something that appeared to bother Knicks star Jalen Brunson. The Finals have mostly been thrilling, but at times it feels impossible to keep America’s culture wars out of the arena. Consider the recent experience of 13-year-old Henry Sumber, who’s writing his first story for TrueHoop.
My whole life, I have gotten really into things. Many kids watched Cars and traded Pokémon cards. But I got consumed to the point that I knew the name of every car in Cars, and every Pokémon. Those things felt like they became my entire life.
In last year’s playoffs, something new caught my attention: basketball. I live in Austin, but both of my parents are from New York. They watched the Knicks games when they were kids, and we watched the Knicks make a run to the conference finals. Everyone (me, my mom, my dad, my brother) has become a Knicks fan and we put on almost every game this season and we know the Knicks’ whole 15-man roster.
Then, in April, I learned my mom was going to take me to the first game of the Spurs vs. Blazers playoff series. I was stoked. At age 13, I was gonna be there for history, and that for the rest of my life I could say that I went to Wemby’s first NBA playoff game. The Spurs, they’re like a second-favorite team. My family and I live in Texas and want to see the Spurs have success, but if it comes down to it, it’s the Knicks every time.
However I also feel a connection to the Blazers because I’m a second-generation American. My grandma immigrated to New York from Israel so even though I’m not from Israel myself, it still feels nice seeing someone represent that background at such a high level. He’s the best Israeli basketball player ever, so whenever Deni Avdija does well, I feel a sort of pride, as a Jew, about what he’s accomplishing.
We drove with some friends, and got In-N-Out on the way. It’s their tradition and the Spurs have never lost when they make that stop. As I said before this game is a big deal, as we were parking and I saw all of the Spurs fans it started to feel real. The arena was organized into different sections, with different colored shirts for every section. I put on my blue shirt and got ready to witness history.
For the most part this game was thrilling. But as it went on, whenever Deni Avdija made a play or got a call, the man sitting next to me kept making comments about Avdija being Israeli or Jewish. He looked to be in his early twenties and was saying things like “go back to Tel Aviv” or “how much did Netanyahu pay the refs for that call?” He said several times he thought Netanyahu was influencing Adam Silver to rig the game for the Blazers.
I understand that global conflicts involving the United States, Israel, and Iran can cause people to be emotional and bring politics into places they do not belong. But I had never, up until this point, realized how that would affect a player like Avdija, or others with similarly Jewish or Israeli identities.
I don’t want to be too meta and it probably seems obvious, but this isn’t something that only happens at Spurs games. It happens all over the NBA, sports, and the world. Anti-semitism is a global problem and there ARE real people on the receiving end of these comments, and it hurts. So please, no matter your political view, your nationality, or religion, stop making mean hurtful comments about entire groups of people just because you don’t like a few.
Sitting there, I felt betrayed by the Spurs’ fanbase and the NBA as whole. Me and my mom whispered to each other a couple times, asking questions like “Did you hear what he said?” and “Do you want to do anything about it?” After a few comments we made the decision that we really didn’t want to start any drama or speak up, and I’m still thrilled I got to see Wemby’s first playoff game.
The crazy thing is: we lucked into more tickets for tonight’s Finals Game 2. I can’t wait.
Thank you for reading TrueHoop!
Deni Avdija said he was “happy and proud” to join the IOF and would “do whatever is asked of me” by an organization every human rights group now says has committed genocide, a genocide directed by Benjamin Netanyahu that we have witnessed in real time via troves of videos and photos documenting the grisly murder of thousands of children. Avdija continues to post pictures celebrating the IOF.
There are many anti-Semitic bigots and there are also many people who view Israel as a foreign apartheid state guilty of heinous war crimes. A foreign apartheid state guilty of heinous war crimes with a massively outsized influence on U.S. government (this very blog has covered some of this to a lesser extent as part of its Epstein deep-dive).
Deni Avdija doesn’t just proudly rep Jews, he doesn’t even just proudly rep Israel, he proudly reps the IOF. For that last part he will be shamed by someone in the crowd every single time he steps on the court for the rest of his life. And he deserves it.
Young fans like Henry Sumber should never be subject to belligerence or even have to put up with sitting next to it for a whole game. The older I get, the more I want to protect children from the world and the pains of being a part of it. Kids should get to grow up in their own little fantasy to an extent where they’re not burdened by financial concerns or relationship drama or health scares.
The situation in the above TrueHoop post is labeled a “bummer” and since it negatively affected what should have been a great experience I’d have to agree. What’s less clear is…a lot. I don’t know if TrueHoop just ran a piece where some poor 13-year old had to deal with an anti-Semitic fan nearby the whole game and it’s a sad outrage, or if TrueHoop just ran a piece where some poor 13-year old is conflating legitimate criticism of a pariah state with anti-Semitism, which would itself be anti-Semitic by not differentiating between Jewish people and the Israeli government.
It’s not the kid’s fault. He’s telling his story. And maybe they just didn’t want to include some of the blatantly anti-Semitic stuff this Spurs fan actually said because it’s so offensive and you don’t wanna put the kid through writing that. Hell, telling even someone who cheers on war criminals he worked with to go back home *is* at least walking right up to the line because of how that phrase is typically employed. But I do usually see more clarity or nuance from TrueHoop.
Love this! Agree with Henry 100%