Reflecting on the UAE national team’s showing at the recently concluded Dubai International Tournament, it was clear to see that the team’s involvement was more about taking part than competing.
While the UAE’s football team are rightfully receiving plaudits for their triumphant Gulf Cup campaign, its basketballing brother is still struggling for recognition and participation.
Despite the Dubai international Tournament’s rules allowing each team to bring in three professional ringers, the UAE chose to go with a fully local team to help increase exposure, choosing development over short term results.
There is no basketball equivalent in the UAE to an Omar Abdulrahman; a player that can put bums on seats as instantly as one of his traps, and there is no professional league to incentivise commitment in the sport.
The UAE has had its time in the basketball sun; in the late ’90s and ’00s when the team won three Gulf Cup titles – more than any other nation – with the last coming in 2009.
Since then, new regulations have meant that sports clubs around the country can only facilitate two team sports. Major clubs like Al Ahli and Al Nasr decided to plunge their money into their football and basketball, but many others chose to go with other team sports like volleyball, cutting the league down from 17 teams to seven – a number that has now risen to 12 with Al Ain and Abu Dhabi clubs newly registering.
Local clubs like Sharjah and Al Shabab have enjoyed regional success in the Arab Cup and the Gulf Cup in the last two years but those wins only proved what can be done by hiring expensive foreigners.
The problem is a common one. The local league isn’t professional because there isn’t enough interest and quality to attract investors but there isn’t the quality and interest because it isn’t professional.
It’s a vicious cycle and one that UAE technical director Mounir Ben Slimane has the difficult task of overcoming. “We have lots of things to implement,” Ben Slimane told Sport360. “We want to develop two levels. We want to improve the player participation so we have more players and second we want to improve the quality and have more talent.
“To reach those goals we will be counting on the new blood from 3-on-3 competitions and use the code to be a driver to get more players into the game.
“The other target should be reached if we work with players on a daily basis with a single player to improve and meet the standards we need.”
Ben Slimane and the basketball federation are leaning heavily on the idea that 3-on-3 basketball can, due to its ease and accessibility, inspire more children to take up the sport, catch the bug and eventually go onto serve their country.
If the UAE’s Dubai International Tournament showed they are a little short on players, it also proved they are not low on quality. Rashid al Zaibi and Qeis Shabebi, most notably, showed a range of moves, athleticism and nice touches.
They were only let down by the lack of depth in the side as well as the obvious drawbacks of amateurism like fitness and cohesion.
Ben Slimane is aware that the UAE only a need one or two more Al Zaib’is and Shabebi’s to legitimately make waves on a continental level at 3-on-3. But apart from participation and professionalism, there is another problem that stalks Emirati sport in general, that of an unwillingness to go abroad and learn the game at a higher level.
“The NBA and NCAA are always coming here and looking to give scholarships but the players are happy in their comfort zone. They know that it is not easy to go up a level because there is a price, more commitment, dedication and hard work.”
Riyadi’s young starlet Ahmad Ibrahim was a shining example of what can be gained from going abroad. The Lebanese youngster left his home country at 14 years old to play high school and NCAA basketball in America before returning to Lebanon.
“Rashid al Zaibi, when he was 16 – now he’s 22 – was contacted by a top Turkish club but his parents wouldn’t allow him to go and two years ago he was approached by a Chinese team to play in the CBA,” Ben Slimane explained. “We had Duke University play against us and we had lots of intrigue from NBA teams to put some players in the D-League. They must go and be able to go and discover, and learn at an early age.
“If the players get in a comfort zone in their standard with the national team, they will never think to play abroad and compete at a higher level.
“We always want to move players out of that comfort zone but it is not easy. Imagine if we could create a good 3-on-3 national team and we can compete on the world tour. We have the talent.
“We have so many players like Talal Salem who went over to the Basketball Without Borders – a joint venture between the NBA and FIBA, Shabebi was in Japan and won the Red Bull 1-on-1 contest over there and was sent to Las Vegas last year. Omar Khaled who plays for Al Ahli was at the Basketball Without Borders, there are so many kids we could send.”
At the moment, Ben Slimane has to make do with what he has but he is hoping the 3-on-3 game will allow him to compete internationally using his best three players, rather than struggling to fill a 12-man squad with students who play twice or three times a week. While 3-on-3 will be used developmentally to get players into the game, the UAE plan to become masters of the code to help the country make its mark in foreign competition.
“The process of getting players for the national team is from clubs and the process for clubs is to get players from schools.
“In the schools they play 5-on-5. Our reasoning is to target the schools and universities and local communities everywhere, and we want to take advantage of (3-on-3’s) ease to play; there is only one hoop, six players, one half court and it will get more players to fall in love with the game and that helps the clubs to pick players and then as a consequence more players for the national team.
“We try to convince parents, the decision makers, to choose basketball. Every parent would rather their child went into football because that is where the money is and you dream about the money.
“By the size of the roster and human resources we have here it is hard to put together a strong 12-man team but if we just have three players then it is easier for us to compete and get higher in the rankings.
“We are trying very hard to reach a new community and create a parallel team in the basketball community.”
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