The Wizards perhaps found the steal of the draft Wednesday when Israeli prospect Deni Avdija fell to them at No. 9 overall. Just like every draft pick, his story was retold on the ESPN broadcast about how he became the person and player he is today, and fun tidbits about his life. Fun tidbits such as the fact that he learned to speak English while playing Call of Duty.
How someone goes about learning a new language is always an interesting factoid -- for example, my dad, a Peruvian immigrant, learned colloquial English through watching MTV in the 1990s. But the quietly hilarious part about Avdija's is the kind of language he potentially heard while playing the first-person shooter.
Call of Duty games are typically rated M for Mature, meaning the single player campaign and other local game modes have pretty free reign with regards to the profanity in the dialogue. The online interactions, however, are outside of the umbrella of ESRB's ratings, which means the language Avdija could have picked up might have been a bit more, let's say, colorful.
Chances are, when he's on the court with other NBA players, he'll be hearing the colorful language that the Call of Duty games' ratings warn parents against. Let's just hope that his education into English doesn't cause an unfortunate heated gaming moment.
