In recent months, many Israelis have been following Danny Abdia’s games at the Washington Wizards, but now it turns out that the Americans are also following the television broadcasts in Israel.
NBC Washington published an article in which they told about the imitation of the Israeli who was selected in 9th place in the draft and his father Zofar on the program “A Wonderful Land”, in a skit that aired a few weeks ago. “If you were wondering how famous Abdia is in Israel, this is a great indication.”
Later in the article, Uri Leizerovich, the actor who plays the character of Danny, was interviewed, who referred to the external resemblance between the two. “We are twins who were separated at birth,” he joked, “I thank you for the privilege of working with the best makeup artists in Israel. This time it was very easy, it took something like 20 minutes. When I did an imitation of Trentino, the makeup took four hours.”
Leizerovich recounted how he learned Abdia, “As an actor and imitator I have to be precise in facial expressions. I watched every interview or video of his, it’s like a gift for me. It helped me grasp the mimicry, body language and voice. I saw Danny keep repeating a few sentences like “I’m super excited” when he lowers his voice, I used it as my key. “
NBC checked and saw that Abdia actually says many times that he is “super excited” during the interviews with him, at least six different times, including four times only on the night of the draft. “While most of the sketch was in Hebrew, Leizerovich made sure to throw the phrase ‘super excited’ in English several times,” it read.
It was noted that it was written that Abdia takes his imitation well with a lot of sense of humor, and even shared the sketch on his Instagram while adding “We did it!”. Finally, NBC raised the question: “Danny Abdia has the honor of getting a character on a famous entertainment show. How many NBA players can say that about themselves?”.
Meanwhile, despite reports that Danny Abdia will return to play tonight, the Wizards have announced that the rookie will not participate in the game against Atlanta (Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m.) “according to the NBA Health Protocol.” Those who will return to the squad are Davis Bartans, Roy Hachimura and Moe Wagner.