Brotherhood Through Basketball

SPORTS Brotherhood Through Basketball

A local league impresses talent and faith of all kinds through its organized, competitive hoops and an unshakeable brotherly bond

BY HABEEBA HUSAIN

When former and current NBA players stand on the sidelines of your basketball game — and even join in themselves — it’s clear you’ve got something special on your hands.

Muslim Basketball, a men’s league that began in New Jersey 15 years ago, not only left a spectacular impression on its 1,400-plus unique players over the years, but also on the pros too.

“I think it has great potential, great potential,” said former NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf when he visited the league in 2013. “I’m really liking what I see.”

In addition to Abdul-Rauf, many other Muslim and non-Muslim talents have graced the league’s courts. Former Seton Hall University starter and current head coach at Farleigh Dickinson University Marcus Toney-El, a former University of Pennsylvania two-time Ivy League Player of the Year, retired professional player overseas Ibrahim Jaaber and current NBA player Enes Kanter have all had a connection with Muslim Basketball.

Kanter is the most recent. The current Portland Trail Blazer visited Muslim Basketball in 2019 through a joint event with SMILE for Charity, a nonprofit also based in New Jersey.

The 6-foot-11-inch center’s visit was twofold. In the morning, he hosted a Q&A with the Muslim Basketball players in Parsippany and then competed in a 3-point shootout with a longtime member of the league.

“Our player actually won,” says 25-year-old Ibrahim Omar, who joined Muslim Basketball as a stats keeper in high school 10 years ago and currently serves as a commissioner/director. “We had [Kanter] hanging out in the crowd while our games were going on, watching … cheering, and players chatting with him on the sideline.”

Kanter also sold some autographs, and the money raised went to SMILE for Charity to help combat poverty in the state.

For the second part of the NBA player’s visit, Muslim Basketball organized a youth camp at nearby Passaic High School. One hundred kids, aged 6 to 17, participated.

“He actually scratched our schedule and told us what to do,” laughs another commissioner/director, 36-year-old Edriss Froogh.

But it wasn’t always bright lights and big names.

The humble beginnings of Muslim Basketball date back to the summer of 2005, when a group of friends gathered to play pickup games outdoors. As interest grew, they formalized the competition and launched the first season the following year.

By 2007, these friends had established Muslim Basketball as a non-profit organization. Today the league is held in two states: the original New Jersey and in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. Players can expect competitive indoor games at their respective facil-

faces. Due to gym availability, the league needs to limit the number of teams and, unfortunately, sometimes has to turn players away. “We have very, very loyal players,” says Omar. “The kids who play in our league love it.” But due to the ongoing pandemic, the gyms look more like ghost towns. Muslim Basketball canceled its Winterball 2020 season right before their playoff games a year ago, following the example of the NBA. A year into lockdown, things are still a little uncertain. Omar explains that Muslim Basketball took three main points into consideration: government protocols, level of risk from a moral standpoint and comfort of players. Although at the time of writing the state had resumed most indoor sports, Muslim Basketball remains at that second point. “We’re still not comfortable as a league MUSLIM BASKETBALL WELCOMES ALL coming back yet and bringing that large level of measured risk to our players and their fam-

INTERESTED PLAYERS INTO ITS LEAGUE. IN ITS ilies,” Omar says. MOST RECENT SEASON, NEW JERSEY HOSTED 70% OF MUSLIM AND 30% OF NON-MUSLIM PLAYERS, Froogh and Omar are monitoring the vaccination’s distribution and hope to reassess closer to fall with the rest of the league’s Board of WHILE PENNSYLVANIA WAS SPLIT 50-50. Directors and commissioners. For now, the men get their basketball fix by watching pros like Kanter on the screen. As for their brotherhood fix, that comes through ity, electronic scoreboards, certified referees, jer- social media, phone calls and FaceTime. seys and highlights, as well as detailed individual “[The brotherhood] shows now during Covid-19 so much,” Froogh says. “Every and team statistics — all of which can be found on time I chat with a player … it’s like, ‘Bro I miss playing, but I miss being with the MuslimBasketball.org. guys [even more].’ No one just came for their own game. You came and you stayed

But perhaps the most enticing thing the league for the two, three hours that everybody was playing.” has to offer is its brotherhood. Once it’s deemed completely safe, players can look forward to donning the

“One [player] was telling me … how Muslim Muslim Basketball jersey once again. Basketball actually changed his life,” Omar says. “He They’ll come for the competitive play, but they’ll stay for that special brothwasn’t very close to the Muslim community. He didn’t erhood bond. ih have a connection to the masjid or anything like that. But when he started playing — that was his opportunity to have Muslim friends and a real community.” Habeeba Husain is a freelance journalist based in the New York tri-state area. She helps manage Muslim-run businesses WuduGear and Kamani. Her work has appeared in SLAM Magazine, WhyIslam.org and Narrative.ly, among other online and print publications.

Muslim Basketball welcomes all interested players into its league. In its most recent season, New Jersey hosted 70% of Muslim and 30% of non-Muslim play- ISNA Monthly Sustainer –ers, while Pennsylvania was split 50-50. A Good Deed Done Regularly!

Due to this diverse makeup of players, the league has two unique responsibilities: You can make an impact with as little as “How well are we able to serve our community directly, first and foremost,” Omar explains. “And $10 per month! from there, how can we also capitalize on some opportunities to spread a good positive message of Islam, which we’ve realized has been more organic than anything — da‘wa by interaction.” For the then college-aged Froogh, Muslim Basketball provided an atmosphere in which he could play competitively and still be surrounded by those who shared his Islamic values. “I was asked to come in as a sub,” Froogh says about his initial interaction with the league in 2008. “Honestly, the first time I watched them even play I fell in love with the league — everything about it.” Froogh isn’t the only one who felt that way. Among www.isna.net • (317) 839-8157 the registrants each season, Muslim Basketball sees roughly 80% of players return as opposed to new Convenient. Secure. Affordable.