As part of our build-up to the Tokyo Olympics we will be profiling Arab athletes and para-athletes as well as those from the Mena region hoping to make it to this summer's Games
With the Olympics fast approaching, there are scores of Arab athletes still looking to punch their tickets to Tokyo, but it’s not just the competitors that are working hard to fulfil their dream of making it to the Games.
In a gym somewhere in Amsterdam, Egyptian coach Hakim Salem is busy preparing the Dutch women’s 3x3 basketball national squad for this month’s Olympic qualifying tournament, hoping that his side will be one of the eight teams that will feature in the sport’s debut appearance at the Games.
After a trio of successful 3x3 competitions held at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010, 2014 and 2018, the ever-popular street version of basketball – played on a half-court – will be part of a senior Olympics for the first time in Tokyo this summer. It will be staged at the Aomi Urban Sports Park, alongside sport climbing, where fans and players can enjoy spectacular views of the Tokyo Bay.
Salem, an Egyptian who immigrated to the Netherlands with his parents when he was 14 years old, has been involved with the Dutch national basketball team set up since 2015 and is currently the head coach of both the 5-on-5 and 3x3 women’s national sides, along with the federation’s talent programme.
The 43-year-old has enjoyed a great degree of success with the 3x3 squad so far, clinching silver at the Europe Cup in Bucharest in 2018 and placing fourth at the 2017 World Cup in Nantes.
Tokyo hopes
Four teams – Russian Olympic committee, China, Mongolia and Romania – have already gained direct entry into the Tokyo Olympics, courtesy of their ranking, and Salem is working hard with his side to try and secure one of the remaining four spots.
The top three teams in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Graz (May 26-30) will make it to the Games, and the last ticket will be up for grabs at an event in Hungary next month.
"It's quite interesting to see the 3x3 grow and really become very popular. When we had the World Championship in Amsterdam, we had a venue with a capacity for 3,000 people and it was sold out every day, it was really great," Salem told The National.
“We have a very good chance to qualify for Tokyo but we know also that the competition is very tough.”
‘A players’ game’
The 3x3 basketball discipline has experienced exponential growth over the past decade. This fast-paced version of the game is described as a “10-minute sprint”, and gives the audience the chance to enjoy multiple games in a row without a hint of boredom creeping in. Play never stops, since as soon as a team scores, the ball is immediately back in play.
Each side has three players on the court and one player on the sidelines as a substitute. Coaches are not allowed to coach during the games, which means all possible scenarios are well thought-out before the action begins.
“They’re on their own,” Salem says of his charges.
“Like FIBA said, they wanted to have a player game, it’s only for the players now, let them play. And I agree, because you teach them how to take the right decisions, you teach them how to play and you say, ‘Okay, go ahead, have fun, it’s on you now’.
“So for me it’s only preparing and then trying to sit back and watch the game which is very difficult because you cannot help them, you’re just watching the game, I can’t do anything.”
‘Terrible’ times during Covid
The pandemic has wreaked havoc with the global sporting calendar over the past 14 months and 3x3 basketball was no exception. Salem admits it has been extremely challenging to keep his players’ motivation up, and the lack of playing opportunities means the team will head to Graz with limited competition under their belt.
“It was terrible actually because we didn’t have any games at all,” Salem said.
In an attempt to give the players a glimpse of action, Salem organised a few scrimmage games against the German national team, who managed to cross the border and visit the Dutch side at their gym.
“Still, it is a scrimmage game. It’s not like the real stuff,” he explained. “After that I decided to add some young boys to the team so we can scrimmage against them; it gives you a different perspective a little bit, physically. So that was a very good mindset of us, to play against the boys.”
Trip to Cairo
On Thursday, Salem and the Dutch team will travel to Cairo after he succeeded in arranging a couple of friendly games against the Egyptian national team, which would give the players a chance to compete in hot weather and in different conditions.
“Egypt will be our first international game in one-and-a-half years,” says Salem.
“The last year really was very hard because there was no perspective, like 'Okay we’re practicing, but why are we practicing?' We don’t have games, we don’t have anything, we don’t know if the Olympics are going through or not, so there were a lot of question marks.
“And let’s be honest, the players want to play games.
“So let’s say around December it was a really, really hard time for us to keep everyone checked in, motivated – I mean they still come practice but it’s a different type of practice.”
Salem realised it was a good idea to give the players some time off before training resumed in January.
“We started again to keep the spirit high, but it was difficult because in Holland we had a very tough lockdown. So we practice but only the Olympic sports are practicing and normally you can say, 'Okay you know what, let’s go and play today some soccer, or let’s play volleyball, or let’s do something else with a different team'. But now it was only the coach, eight players and that’s who we see every day, sometimes twice a day.
“So it wasn’t fun to be honest but I can see now that they have perspective, ‘Oh we’re going to travel to Egypt, that’s great’, they’re very psyched and hyped. So they’ve started to get this motivation.”
Proud Egyptian
Salem is keen to see how his players will react to the pressure of the short visit to Cairo and on a personal level he is excited to be going back home in a working capacity.
“I’m very proud to say I’m an Egyptian man, who grew up in Egypt and transitioned to Holland and became the first foreign national team coach on the women’s side. I’m very proud of that,” he said.
There will be one more stop for the Dutch squad before Olympic qualifiers, as they’ve been invited to compete in a 3x3 Women's Series event in Mies, Switzerland from May 15-16.
Salem is feeling confident about the team’s chances but also acknowledges that the margins in the game are extremely slim.
An attractive product
He believes 3x3 basketball will get a huge boost by making its Olympics debut, which would give the sport a much wider platform to showcase everything that is special about it.
“3x3 is very attractive, so all the young generation and the young kids are going to love seeing it on TV,” he said.
“You know when you watch a 5-on-5 game, you have to almost sit down for two hours and let’s be honest, not all the games are fun to watch. But 3x3, because it’s very fast, it’s a lot of mistakes, it’s a lot of oohs and aahs, it will be great to watch on TV.”
Salem began his career in coaching basketball when he was 23 years old. When he transitioned into 3x3, he realised the game had grown so rapidly and he had to redo the federation’s scouting model in order to find the right type of players that can endure the physicality of 3x3.
“It’s much more physical than 5-on-5 but I think this year they are trying to keep it as clean as possible. Because this started of course like street basketball, so you have to be physical. And also the referees don’t want to call a lot of fouls because they want the game to continue,” he explains.
“But it is very, very hard and tiring if they are running back and forth, back and forth, it’s really different conditioning. It becomes a little bit physical and if you lose your mind and you make let’s say seven team fouls, you get two free throws and two free throws are very expensive, so you have to be smart also and keep your mind and head cool a little bit and stay with the game plan, no fouls, good defence. It’s totally different defence to 5-on-5; in 5-on-5 you can help your teammate a little bit, 3x3 you have to do a lot of one-on-one.”
Great potential
Salem has kept a close eye on the development of 3x3 in Egypt and believes his home country has a strong chance of making it to the Olympics one day. The women’s team are already African champions.
“Egypt has a very, very good basketball team, the only thing I miss with them is discipline and some more experience,” he said.
“When I grew up, I can still vividly remember every day, after we eat in Ramadan, you go outside and you play soccer, just on the street. You block the street and you make like a tournament. That’s how we did it in the past.
“Right now, if you look at Egypt, they’re really growing in soccer pitches, basketball courts, so it’s easy now to say, ‘Okay it’s now 9pm, it’s only 30 degrees, not too hot, and let’s play’.
“When I was in 2007 in Egypt and we decided to go to a club, El Shams club, and we decided to have just 3x3 pick-up games, everyone came from around the club just to play. All of a sudden we had four teams on the side waiting to come in and we had a great tournament because the weather is good, the court is good and we have basketball players in Egypt.
“So I think 3x3 will be even bigger if the Egyptian federation decides to put more focus on it.”
