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When Alaa Gives An Autograph,Fans Get More Than A Signature
£ ///
Alaa Abdelnaby has as many fac
ets to his personality as a fine cut dia
mond. The aggressive quickness and
controlled finesse most of the fans admire
on the basketball court is easily recog
nizable. Then there is that one dimple
smile that disarms you. Behind the
smile, there is a glint in his eyes... A
glint that flashes like a neon billboard
to the “ street-w ise” people who are
put on guard. This man is a practical
joker. If you didn’t see the story on
television last Sunday that involved
Alaa and Danny Ainge trying to get an
unsuspecting Jerome Kersey to chip in
on a half-dead race horse, ask a friend
to tell you about it. “ Ainge is the only
Trail Blazer who will challenge me as
a practical jo k er.” Every cham pion
ship team has one player who has the
ability to keep his teammates loose
while maintaining their focus.
“ It’sn o t just becauseof talent that
I’ m here (in the NBA) and other guys
aren’t. Some guys didn’t do the school
work. Some of the guys I played with
in AAU ball were great players... better
than I was at the time...but they d id n ’t
have the grades, so nobody recruited
them. Some of them didn’t even finish
high school. I’m lucky I learned about
the importance of academ ics before the
recruiters came around. I had four or
five good years under my belt by then.
A lot of the guys I played with in AAU
ball,” Abdelnaby continued, “ are stuck
in minimum wage jobs and still playing
on the weekends. I’m not putting them
down, but when you compare what
could have been to w hat it is, and then
say ‘Just because I didn’t go to class,
and didn’t study’... those are poor rea
sons to have to explain to yourself
when you don’t have things. W hen
you’re 40 years old and you have to say
to your kids, ‘I’ve got to teach you what
I did was w rong,’ you’ve got to live up
to that and say, The reason I ’m not
successful is I didn’t go to class or I
dropped out,’ ” Abdelnaby instructed.
“ However you can get it across to kids,
y ou’ve got to let them know that at their
level, academics are just as important
as sports right now. Even if you are a
B a rb e r
is much sweeter than when it’s just
handed to you. The playing time I’m
getting now is much sweeter than if I
had just walked in here and started for
the Trail Blazers. I really worked hard
all season long and all summer long,
now it’s paying off for me. I savor
every minute I get on the court.”
“ The thing I don’t likeabout
my job is that I don ’ t always get looked
a la s a normal person. A fter practice I
take a shower, go to the cleaners and
run errands, just like everyone else.”
Abdelnaby explained. “ Yet people’s
perspective o f pro basketball players
is that at gam e time we put on our
uniforms and after the game we are
put iniO this little box and nobody sees
us until the next game. T hat’s not it at
all. We go to restaurants, we go shop
ping just like everyone else. W e’re
normal.” Abdelnaby likes music; jazz,
rap, R & B, pop, all kinds o f music. He
and C liff have even talked about open
ing a night club. Night clubs are an
occasional outlet because, “ My job
has me around a lot o f people, but not
really with people.” Celebrity status
great player and you make the NBA, has its price to pay. “ I like fitting in,
you still have to have something to do kind o f incognito...I d o n ’t go out with
after you retire.”
a trench coat and dark glasses, I just
W hen it comes to dating and like blending in. That is one thing I
“ hanging o u t” , there were times when like about going home. I live just
Alaa couldn’t be normal. “ I couldn’t across the river from New York City.
be who I wanted to be. My mom In New York, I ’m one of millions and
always told me, ‘To succeed you have it’s nice to be anonym ous once in a
to make sacrifices... You have to give w hile.”
up something you appreciate so that
He is also a college graduate
when you get something else, you’re of highly respected and academically
worthy o f receiving it.’ W hen you’re tough Duke University. He is a thinker.
given something after you’ve earned it. He will even adm it to being too ana
lytical at times. Are people talking to
him because o f what he does for a
living, or because they want to find
out more about him as a person?
Abdelnaby explains, “ Sometimes it’s
a shame that when someone walks
away after a short awkward conversa
tion, I wish I could call them back and
we could talk person-to-person. I’m
not unapproachable, and I d o n ’t have
my head in the clouds. I enjoy people.”
Being single, its no doubt, he has
a lot ladies who want to talk to him.
W hat kind of women does he like? “ I
like someone who is as sim ilar to me
as possible.” ( Okay ladies, if you’re
not a 6 ’10”, 2401b, Egyptian intellec
tual with a great sense o f humor, who
can thunder to the hoop with the speed
and velocity o f a run-away freight
train, don’t be discouraged.) “ Having
friends who have different interests is
fine, but in a girlfriend that you’re
going to be spending a lot o f time
with, I’d like to find someone I have a
lot in common with. One thing is
height; I definitely look at tail girls
more favorably. For a person my
height, it’s easier when she doesn’t
get a stiff neck from looking up at me.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t dated
shorter women or that I w ouldn’t in
the future.”
Dating someone your own height
in high school is often a problem for
anyone who is 6 ’ 1" as a freshman in
Bloomfield, New Jersey. When you
grow 6" over the summer, you get a
sense of how well you’ll be able to
compromise your dating choices in
th ’ r” ture. M ost kids would be trip
ping all over them selves after such a
rapid growth spert. Abdelnaby had a
secret formula for maintaining his coodi-
nation. “ Being from Egypt, I played
soccer until I was a sophomore in high
school. It really helped with my foot
speed, lateral movement, and balance.”
Patrick Ewing and Akeem Olajuw on
both played soccer growing up. Also,
being from Egypt, A laa may be the
only PortlandT rail Blazer in the O lym
pics in 1992.
“ I want to be an ‘O regonian,’ ”
A laa told me. “ I live here and I enjoy it
in Oregon. The biggest asset this place
has is its people. The people out here
have given me nothing but their best,
and I want to give them back nothing
but my best. I’m lucky to be one o f only
300 people who do this for a living.
Some people out there are hurt, o r on
drugs, or having bad luck or out of
work. I ’m thankful, and I ’m so lucky to
be where I am .”
Finally, we talked a little about
autograph seekers. Abdelnaby had an
insightful observation that m ost fans
might find interesting. “ I don’t mind
signing autographs, but if time permits
I ’d rather talk to a fan and get to know
a little about them as a person. M aybe
they think they shouldn’t ‘bother’ us.
No, w e’re human just like them, w e ’re
just working when they’re off work.
W hen som eone just shoves a pen and
paper under your nose and then runs off
it’s kind o f like, you give a little piece
o f yourself to them, and then they go
without leaving any o f themselves
behind.”
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