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How UAE youngsters are chasing basketball dreams

Hamdan Alnuami’s love for dunking and breaking ankles like Kyrie Irving is second to none. Alnuami, 15, is an aspirational Emirati student who wishes to represent his country on the international stage.


The past three years, he has been focusing on improving his skills by attending training sessions with various international coaches and players. His association with the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League has assisted him in achieving this goal, which is a basketball league for boys and girls from Abu Dhabi’s local schools under the international Jr. NBA programme.


“American professional basketball player Kyrie Irving possesses an edge because of the countless designs he has for scoring the basketball. It is interesting because he can be effective scoring in every area,” explained Hamdan, a pupil at the Britain-based GEMS American Academy. “He probably is the fiercest scorer of all time. It does not matter where in the court you are on.”
 

Hamdan’s love for basketball began in 2022, when he participated in the local Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League organized by his school. Today, the league, in its third season in Abu Dhabi, has expanded its reach from 75 schools to a whopping 90 teams which are based out of the Capital and Al Ain – thus reaching out to over 11000 children since its inception.


The Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League is a part of 10 Jr. NBA leagues in the entire Middle East region together servicing over four thousand youth a year. This Jr. NBA is truly just one of many parts of the NBA’s systemic approach to grow the game, where kids start in youth leagues such as the Jr. NBA and NBA Basketball Schools, then progress on to Basketball Without Borders (BWB) and the NBA Academy.


Building blocks are thus easily depicted through these various programs, paving the way for future generation of basketball players that would represent the Middle East. The ideal objective is to see the first Emirati boy or girl play for the NBA in the near future.


He trained at a local gym with a personal trainer to perfect his game technique and watched some professional players from afar. “I would be watching NBA matches and stars, studying them, and watching the mistakes of my friends and other groups. I was trying to get as much knowledge of basketball as I could,” he said.
 

The organization has made history by holding its third, and the biggest, Jr. NBA Week in the Middle East for the last time in Abu Dhabi with 65 clinics targeting children and youth, coaches and referees trying to reach out more than 7000 youth and 450 from all over.

The week-long activities were organized jointly with the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets around the NBA AUH Games 2024, and comprised clinics at NBA District and NYU Abu Dhabi and a Her Time to Play Day, coaches’ and referees’ clinics, a NBA Cares clinic, and at the end of the week, an NBA Basketball School tournament, among all the other events held during the week.

The panel was part of the activities conducted around the NBA Abu Dhabi Games of about a week earlier. In this case the league also organised a female-only clinic for 130 girls and a leadership panel for the same number of girls from the local community.

At the ‘Her Time To Play’ event, the two-time WNBA Champion Sylvia Fowles and former WNBA player and current Boston Celtics Vice President of Team Operations and Organizational Growth, Allison Feaster, and female Muslim basketball influencer, Jamad Fiin speak about female empowerment, overcoming challenges and women in sports. After this, the girls also received their on-court practicum featuring an all-women coaching staff as well.

Hamdan is equally resolute in the fact that one day he will make his love for hobbies into a profession because he feels he is already on that path.

'Well it is true school and studies are important and my parents allow me to do whatever I want to do as long as I concentrate on studies. But they also allow me to practice with my team, Al Jazeera, every day. They say to me, 'It can help you get a scholarship in the US, so never give up dreams of playing for the national team.'

Explore the inspiring journeys of UAE youngsters chasing their basketball dreams—discover their passion, hard work, and determination to make it big. To get the latest news subscribe to Just Dubai!

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