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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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