Confidence to face Iran and getting over basketball blues with Khalid Abdel Gabar

LONDON (United Kingdom) - Khalid Abdel Gabar was just coming off the play-offs in the Saudi Arabian local professional league during mid-March before the COVID-19 situation hit. After that, he was off traveling to where he is right now in the UK, but there was a slight problem.

"Actually, when I was traveling, I didn't have a basketball with me," Abdel Gabar revealed in a live chat with the @FIBAAsiaCup Instagram account. "So I ordered a basketball through Amazon because after like a couple of weeks, I was just losing my mind."

"Really, yes! I had to order a basketball from Amazon."

The Saudi Arabia national team up-and-coming star talked about a wide variety of topics in the talk. A replay of the session can be viewed on the FIBA Asia Cup IGTV section.

 

Abdel Gabar made his Saudi Arabia national team debut back at the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Western Region Pre-Qualifiers, where he starred with 14.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. He even recorded a rare triple-double in Saudi Arabia's game against Bahrain.

"It was a really, really great feeling. If you play sports, I think you've always had some type of dream of representing a country," Abdel Gabar said of his feelings in his debut. "Obviously, I got the opportunity in 2018 to join the Saudi Arabia national team, and it's been a great experience. I've always wanted to have that opportunity to play against other countries, and I've just been enjoying it ever since."

Abdel Gabar was fortunate to avoid rookie duties and hazing rituals in his debut since he probably would not have gone through with it anyways.

"If they got me to carry the bags or anything, I don't think I would have done it anyway," he laughed. "I would've told them I'm too old for this."

The 29-year-old brought quite a deal of experience with him to the national team. Though he was born in Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese-Moroccan was raised in Canada, where he played up to college. The 1.88M (6'2") guard's first sport was actually football but later picked up basketball, which most of his Canadian friends were playing.

It's possible that his diverse background made it easier for him to blend in with the team upon his arrival to play with Saudi Arabia. Abdel Gabar made an instant impact on the team. Together they have been making some noise as one of the fastest climbers up the rankings in Asia after their undefeated run through the Western Region Pre-Qualifiers.

"That was a really fun time," he said. "After the tournament, we all just celebrating. You have to remember this is my first time meeting the team as well, so [I was] just trying to get a good idea of everybody's personalities and the interactions. It was really fun, and it's a great group of guys. Everybody has a good personality; it's like a family setting."

Among his teammates that stand out in particular with their personalities are Marzouq Almuwallad, Mathna Almarwani, and Fahad Belal, who "like to crack jokes and are a great group of guys" among others. The chemistry within the team has been evident over the past two years, which has made the future seem bright for Saudi Arabia basketball.

"I feel really good," Abdel Gabar said about his views on their future. "We're getting a lot of support from Federation. I think it starts from the top down, so it starts from the Federation and the management."

Saudi Arabia has managed to keep their core group of guys together to go through more games, practices, and training camps have helped them through to see much success over the past two years.

"We've already seen some good success and we just have to continue looking forward and just keep improving every day."

Abdel Gabar had mentioned even before the start of the Asia Cup Qualifiers that they have good talents and will surprise people. It's been a couple of years since Saudi Arabia has played at the center stage of Asian basketball and they are quickly reminding fans why they were once among the top teams in the Asia Cup.

"I would say [we are] very fast-paced and athletic," he said about the style of Saudi Arabia basketball. "We have very athletic guys. That was something that really surprised me because I didn't really know too much about Saudi Arabia basketball but I noticed when I got there that guys were very athletic. So you'll definitely see a lot of dunking, blocking shots, and just going up and down."

Up and down was also how their first window at the Asia Cup Qualifiers went. Saudi Arabia started by upsetting Qatar before taking in a heartbreaking overtime loss to Syria. It was a game that Abdel Gabar felt could have gone either way and it came down to just a few mistakes on their end.

"But got to take your hats off to [Syria]," Abdel Gabar admitted.

He certainly took his hat off to Syria's Rami Merjaneh, who recorded 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists in that win. Abdel Gabar listed him as one of the outstanding players he's played against so far as a member of the Saudi Arabia national team. Another player is someone who has impressed many other Asia Cup opponents as well.

"Sani [Sakakini] is a great player and got a good game against us," said Abdel Gabar of their clash in the Pre-Qualifiers. "Overall, he does everything for his team and he has that NBA-size body."

Abdel Gabar's national team career is still quite young and he's already looking forward to many more high-level clashes down the road.

"Some teams really stand out," he said. "I'm thinking about like guys and teams that have played in the World Cup so teams like Australia, China, Japan, Philippines. Those are some great teams. A lot of them have NBA representatives like Australia, thinking about guys like Patty Mills, Ben Simmons. Japan has Rui [Hachimura]. He's a really great player."

"Yeah, if I get the opportunity to play against those teams, I'm really looking forward to it!"

Another World Cup team that Saudi Arabia will surely be playing in the near future is Iran. The two teams are currently scheduled to play on November 27, 2020 in Iran before a rematch in Saudi Arabia on February 21, 2021.

"Great team, great players," Abdel Gabar said of Iran. "I'm looking forward to the match and we're trying our best to prepare as much as possible. We're very optimistic. We always want to come into the game knowing that we're going to win and that's our goal."

"That's really what we're trying to pursue and we're hoping that we can surprise some people out there that are watching and continuing to support us."

FIBA