Passion for learning broke Muin Bek Hafeez through to become India's future

CHENNAI (India) - Basketball was the new and shiny game that was introduced at Muin Bek Hafeez’s school in Tamil Nadu. And Hafeez really loved playing games.

He always had to be playing something when he was young. Mostly, it was cricket. Sometimes it was Kho-Kho or Martial Arts. He even competed in Judo and throw-ball to some relative success. Outside of the sports world, Hafeez also expresses himself artistically.

"I sketch," he said. "I was sketched regularly when I had more time for myself. Now, whenever I get free time, I sit down for a sketch."

But when basketball came along, he quickly latched onto this new activity.

"Ever since my childhood, I was never much into books and I wasn’t the study-focused type," said the rising star guard. "I only loved playing, interested only in games, whatever I could play and any time of the day."

"Around my teenage years, the school in which I was studying built a new basketball court. The hype that grew in each student knowing the new sport, with me being one of them, was the reason I started playing."

"The excitement to learn something new and enthusiasm are what led me to play the game."

So Hafeez kept on learning and the enthusiasm kept him engaged. The more he learned, the better he became.

However, his younger playing days might look nothing like how he is shining on the court nowadays.

At 1.89 M (6’2”), Hafeez starred as the point guard for India at the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers with averages of 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game. He’s taking more than 5 three-pointers per game, knocking them down at a rate of 40 percent.

This was probably not how a young Hafeez would have envisioned his basketball future, considering how he played when he started.

"I was the tallest kid when I started playing, so I practiced as a center," Hafeez revealed. "I would play only the center position."

That wouldn’t be the case for long.

"Then when I went to college, I met people taller than me. Trust me, I felt my height was nothing compared to them. So my coach taught me to play forward and since then, I practiced to play as forward."

It didn’t stop there.

"Later, my coach tried me as a guard, just to check my skills and he actually kept me as the guard later on. It wasn't easy to shift from one position to another because every position has its own sets of footwork and techniques. For being a guard, having the ball-handling skill and shooting accuracy is very vital."

"But I also had this will in me - in fact, it's there in me since I was a kid - that I will do whatever new is taught to me, especially if it's related to something I love. Whether I would succeed in learning it or not is secondary, but the will to try it at least is important. Learning new things in sports only makes it more interesting, right?"

"All this made me only practice more and wanting to do more and likewise playing center or forward and now guard helps me to understand and analyze the game better."

Passion for the game and becoming a better version of himself fuelled Hafeez through any obstacle thrown at him. Even now that he’s looking more and more like an important piece of the future of India basketball, that passion is still strong in the 23-year-old.

"With time, I fell in love with the game and my attachment towards it only became stronger. Right from my school days when I started understanding the game, the beauty of it kept encouraging my interest towards it and gave me a clear path to what I wanted in life. Even today and further, I will keep falling in love with basketball since it is a priority and keeps teaching me new things."

Nothing else engaged Hafeez’s competitiveness like basketball. He hails from Krishnagiri, a small town in Tamil Nadu, which means his exposure was limited. Each time he got the chance to gain experience at a bigger stage, it accelerated his drive.

There was always a level higher than whatever success he had just achieved and he was always chasing it.

"Nothing else would interest me other than games. Once I started playing basketball and with each higher step I took, I felt that I could do something bigger, like something big was made for me here."

"At the U16 Nationals was when I realized the game on a whole new level of seriousness. With practices and help from my coaches, I knew that in order to get something big, I would have to push myself through every situation to grasp that big stage."

Hafeez continued to stand out at the youth level. After starring for his state at the Junior Nationals, he was invited to India’s national training camp in 2014 - when he was just 18 years old. It was a long stretch for the teenager with no previous youth national team experience make the final cut, but Hafeez still took it hard  when he couldn’t find his name on the final roster.

"I missed the cut to make the national team in 2014 and that was pretty depressing," expressed Hafeez. "Getting into the camp for the first time, giving myself completely to it. It was sad losing out the dream to wear the India jersey with the tricolor on it."

"But like I said, I only wanted to improve myself. I moved on from that grief and practiced more than I would usually. By age, I could not play U18 any more and had to compete for a spot on the senior team, where the synchronization between the physique, IQ, and maturity is completely on a higher level."

"To take a place in between them, I had to be like them. It wasn't easy but I went with the flow and did what my inner self told me to do. This is why I could come back better, though I need to learn more."

He never expected to make it on the senior national team. He starred at the U16 level playing for Tamil Nadu and still didn’t make the youth national team back then. He also never got called up to showcase his skills with the U18 national teams.

“I  was obviously disappointed but I believed that everything happens for a reason and for the better. This only made me work harder on myself, for myself; made me reflect on my mistakes and areas I had to improve on the court. I started improving my skills with every passing tournament, gaining more knowledge from my coaches."

“Then finally in the year 2017, I made it to the Senior Indian Team. It was obviously a beautiful feeling like I broke my own challenge bars one at a time. So yeah, it felt good.”

At 21 years old, with zero experience playing for the national team at the youth level, Muin Bek Hafeez made his senior NT debut in 2017. His first major FIBA event was at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017, wearing the number 77. He usually wore 7, a number that was assigned to him by his first-ever basketball coach, but 30-year-old vet Anil Krishne had already locked the number down.

That didn’t bother him as he finished with a solid average of 6.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in 23.8 minutes played per game. He had finally made it and he was doing well.

The joyous sensation didn’t last long for Hafeez as India struggled to claim wins over the years. He suddenly found himself looking from the outside of the national team program over a lengthy stretch.

But with changes made and his fire of passion reignited, Hafeez made it back into the mix. Though India’s Asia Cup Qualifiers campaign and Hafeez’s return started with a tough loss to Bahrain, they quickly redeemed themselves with a big-time away win over Iraq in the next game.

Hafeez had 24 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals in the win, one of the best performances of the first window among all players.

The first window was also another opportunity to play and learn from a player Hafeez looks up to.

“I admire Vishesh Bhrighuvanshi for his calm and poise nature on the court and the way he handles the entire team, his commanding quality is something I look up to and learn from.”

But other than that, it’s more of just picking up anything he liked than trying to emulate any one person in particular.

“To be really honest, I haven't taken inspiration from anyone else,” Hafeez admits. “I am more like the person who learns new things and if I love it, I would follow the path and accept whatever would come on the way.”

However, there is one exception.

“Now, there's Luka Doncic. I follow his game because, at his age, the way he plays and the level he plays at is amazing. He is someone to learn new things from.”

That’s definitely a good option to model someone’s game after. And at the rate that Muin Bek Hafeez has been able to absorb and learn new things on the fly, it might not be such good news for the opponents of India in the future.

FIBA