Muslim Basketball

Man oh man, Taka took that loss in the inter-league championship personal and seems to have assembled the MB version of the avengers. So much so they had to create a Yazur “B-team” to accommodate all the people they wanted to bring from the Bronx…

Abu retired to the bench for most of the game just smiling watching his younger brother Surakata tear it up, putting up an easy 18 points on 7-9 shooting. Newcomer Salihoun spent all his VC on an insane finishing package around the rim, like seriously, how did he make half those shots? This team is stacked from top to bottom and is clearly the team to beat for the 2nd season in a row. These north guys don’t stand a chance…

The infamous “Guard Me” Popal team said we want to win this season, and recruited Big Moose to help them achieve that. They came out looking for blood and got exactly that, winning by a cool 28. With 4 players in double figures, it’s clear that they have no shortage of scorers and playmakers. Big Moose led the way with an effortless 18 points and 11 boards. Definitely a top team in the league.

P.S. - Watch out for Ehsan, he might be tracking his stats in a notebook next game just to make sure they don’t miss ANY of his points. 

Here’s another team that said we want to win this season, so Ryan “watch out I’m bringing my brother” Albana got in the lab and it finally showed on the stat sheet. The Albana brothers combined for 31 points and took home the easy victory. With 4 people in double figures, it's clear these guys are hungry to win. Also shoutout Osad, hustling on every loose play and even getting himself a bucket. Mans is dedicated to his craft.  

Well well well, the father and son duo are back at it again and clearly haven’t missed a beat. Enough Lebron and Bronny talk, this is the OG father-son duo. Combining for 31 points of their own, the Shaban fam led their team to a blowout victory. One thing that really stands out is their defense, as they held Bir Seb’a to a week-low 33 points on 29% shooting. One second they are down a couple points, and a couple minutes later they are up 20. That defensive burner can get real hot with any team that Sami Shaban is on. 

Mr. Ibraheem Sharaf lit the fire under Lil O Abbassi calling someone else the best shooter in the league, and Lil O basically just said “bet”. He came out and dropped 6 threes on 50% shooting, and took home player of the week with a stellar 29 points and 9 rebounds (?! C’mon ya’ll, someone needs to box this Lil Guy out). Hopefully he gave his fan boys who were jumping up and down even on his missed shots an autograph after the game. 

Omar Mana continues to cement himself as a top 3 big man in the league, and it doesn’t matter if it’s north or central league. His 17 points and 15 boards on 7-13 shooting helped Nazareth grind out a hard fought victory against a Tulkarem team that just did not want to go away. This team will only climb the rankings when Mana’s running mate Shafic returns to action. 

Things did not go the way they wanted for Tulkarem this week. Missing big man Aaron Laplaca, who would’ve helped their chances at slowing down Omar Mana, hurt them this game and it showed. Raheem putting up an uncharacteristic 0 points and Minhaj going 1-8 also did not help their chances of winning. It’s not all gloom and doom though, as newcomer Mohsin put up a solid 15 and 14 and has shown he will be a problem for other big men in the league. Now we just need Tarek to stop acting like he’s a coach and suit up for action. If Raheem and Minhaj decide to play ball and Aaron/Tarek come back, watch out… 

It was clearly the first time this team was playing organized ball together and it showed in multiple plays throughout the game. No flow to the offense but still, only lost by 10 while keeping it close throughout most of the game against a team that has played together multiple times. Abdullah Sillah showed up pouring in 16 points on an impressive 70% shooting clip. If they iron out the offensive wrinkles, this team will be hard to beat, even if they are just the “Yazur B Team”…

Side note: Husan Zakir’s step back 3 after his defender slapped the ground as if he was locking up was top play of the week for me. Let him talk his talk ref, he absolutely torched his defender and had him thinking he was back up in north league. 

All newcomers to the league but you can tell that they have some ballers. Elton Vojka showed flashes of being a shooting threat with 4 threes this game. It’s only up from here in terms of team chemistry so let’s see how they do as the weeks go by. 

Getting blown out by 28 is really not it. This team really had some offensive problems trying to get the ball in the basket. It was clearly Ibraheem's first game back from injury and they were missing their rebounder in Ahmed Kouar and scorer in Omar Usmani, but no excuses for losing like that. Omar Khan led the way in scoring with 17 points. Let’s see if they can turn it around next week against a fellow team that is also looking for their first win after a disappointing loss. 

Okay I get it, they gave up 93 points and got blown out by 45 points, but to be fair they went up against arguable the most stacked team in any MB division. The first half was a different story than the second half though. Tiberias withstood some serious blows from Yazur and it was only a 6 point game. Then, well, down goes Mahrooz after a swipe down on his eye. He did come back and played with 1 eye open though, but too little too late at that point. This is a way better team than this week’s standings show so don’t expect them to be this low any longer. 

Scoring the least amount of points this week on 29% shooting will usually land you at the last spot on the power rankings. Granted, they were missing Anas who we hear is a baller. Mahmoud Zayed led the way with 11 points on 4-14 shooting, but we know he’s a better shooter than that. Expect this team to be much better with Anas back in action dictating the offense.