Steve Kerr, the coach of the US national basketball team and the Golden State Warriors, believes Arab countries have made huge strides in the game and is “excited” to see how Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan fare in the Fiba Basketball World Cup, which begins later this month.
Kerr, a nine-time NBA champion as player and coach, took the reins of Team USA at the start of 2022 and will be guiding the Americans in the 2023 World Cup and at next year’s Paris 2024 Olympics Games.
The 57-year-old was born in Beirut and spent a large portion of his childhood in Lebanon, as well as three years living in Cairo, where he studied at Cairo American College (CAC).
The legendary coach has a close relationship with the Middle East and is thrilled to see three Arab nations will be competing at the same World Cup for the first time since 2010.
“It’s very exciting for me to see the progress of basketball in the Middle East,” Kerr said in a Zoom call on Thursday ahead of USA’s upcoming trip to Abu Dhabi for International Basketball Week.
“When I was there in high school, we would play games against the different clubs around Cairo and I was playing for the American school, Cairo American College; so we would play some of the clubs like Ahly and Zamalek and at the time basketball was really not very popular in Egypt, and we would win those games, my high school team.
“And now you watch and you see Zamalek a couple of years ago winning the African club championship. You see the improvement of the players throughout the Middle East and of course the national teams; it’s very exciting and it makes me happy just because of my history in the Middle East.”
Just last month, Al Ahly replicated Zamalek’s 2021 success in the 2023 Basketball Africa League and were crowned champions at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
Egypt will be making their seventh World Cup appearance, led by former NBA assistant coach Roy Rana, and have already touched down in the UAE, winning a friendly game against the Emirati national team in Dubai on Thursday before heading to Abu Dhabi for matches against Mexico and Lebanon.
The Lebanese are back in the World Cup for the first time since 2010 thanks to an impressive showing in the Asia Qualifiers, while Jordan are through for the second consecutive time and third overall.
Jordan face a daunting task as they share Group C with USA, Greece and New Zealand. Kerr has yet to watch the Jordanians in action but will make sure his side will be ready for them when they square off in Pasay, Philippines on August 30.
“I have not seen them play yet. We will watch film of them before our game, we will prepare for them well,” assured Kerr.
“I spent some time in Jordan in the mid-1980s and got to go to Aqaba. I remember having an amazing time in Aqaba, what a beautiful place it is.
“My family has spent some time in Jordan and so they’re all very excited that we’re going to be playing against the Jordanian national team. I’m very excited that basketball in the Middle East is getting better and better and so I’m excited to see the Jordanian team.”
Kerr, along with assistant coaches Erik Spoelstra, Mark Few and Tyronn Lue, has put together a strong US squad that includes Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets' Mikal Bridges, and Austin Reaves of the LA Lakers.
USA’s build-up to the World Cup started with a 117-74 win against Puerto Rico in a friendly in Las Vegas, and will be followed by two games against Slovenia and Spain in Malaga this weekend, before a matches with Greece (August 18) and Germany (August 20) at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena.
The Americans have won the World Cup five times, most recently in 2014, but failed to make the semi-finals in the last tournament, which was their worst ever showing in the competition. They lost to France in the quarters and Serbia in the subsequent classification game.
Asked if anything less than gold would be considered a failure for USA, Kerr said: “We are preparing every day and our goal is to win the gold medal and we’re either going to do it or not, and then after that all of you guys get to say whatever you believe, whether you say it’s a success or a failure or something in between; it doesn’t matter to us.
“Because as a team, as an athlete and as a coach, you just focus on the process and the goal and you know that part of major competition is criticism, and so it’s all fair. But you won’t find me saying anything about success, failure – I’m just focused on the team and the process and where we are.”
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
Results:
5pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1.400m | Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Saab, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Majd Al Gharbia, Saif Al Balushi, Ridha ben Attia
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship (PA) Listed Dh 180,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Money To Burn, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh 70,000 2,200m | Winner: AF Kafu, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 2,400m | Winner: Brass Ring, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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'Falling%20for%20Christmas'
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Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
