How 'Call of Duty' helped Deni Avdija learn English originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Wizards' 2020 first-round pick Deni Avdija has a strong command of the English language despite growing up in Israel where he primarily spoke Hebrew. He learned English partly in school, but also with help from American pop culture.
More specifically, he learned how to speak the language by playing video games like "Call of Duty." He also watched a lot of American shows growing up.
"'Drake and Josh.' I used to watch 'iCarly.' That was when I was a kid, so it was like kids TV shows," he said, relating to many Wizards fans under the age of 25.
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Avdija apparently liked watching Nickelodeon as a kid, as both of those shows originally aired on the channel. As for "Call of Duty," one can only imagine how that formed his vocabulary. There were likely some curse words mixed in.
Avdija, in fact, also honed his competitive drive while playing video games. He made reference to his competitiveness a few times during his introductory press conference on Thursday.
"I'm very competitive. No matter what I do, I don't like to lose. So, it just comes naturally to me. It's hard for me to lose, no matter where," he said.
Avdija also said: "I can't wait to meet my teammates and we will face the wars together."
We assume he was talking about basketball there and not COD.
