Arab village is unlikely source for potential star - Haaretz

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Fri., November 02, 2007 Cheshvan 21, 5768

Israel Time: 02:05 (EST+7)

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Arab village is unlikely source for potential star

By Jerry Mittleman

tags: Israel

The Israeli Arab village of Jatt, in the area known as the "Triangle," is an unlikely source for big time U.S. college basketball prospects. But all that changed when Samer Jasser, 2.01 meters, approached San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford this summer and asked for help in advancing his basketball career.

Only a few short months later, Jasser is in the starting lineup for Lee Academy, a prep school with a high-powered basketball program located in central Maine. In his brief time there, Jasser has already received feelers from three or four Division I college programs.

Jasser, whose natural position is power forward, is a graduate of Peace Players International, an interfaith program that uses basketball to connect youth in so-called "trouble spots" around the world, like the Middle East, Northern Ireland and South Africa.

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Peace Players has been active since 2001 and has been promoting basketball programs with Israeli and Palestinians youngsters since December 2005. ESPN has written about the program extensively and Peace Players also receives support from the NBA. It was during a Peace Player program in Israel this summer that Jasser met up with Buford, and the GM of the reigning NBA champions agreed to help further his development.

Jasser has relatively limited experience in organized basketball but is considered to have a large upside. He does have some prior international experience, getting limited playing time as a member of Israel's under-18 national squad this summer. Before that, he starred last season for Gan Shmuel in Israel's second division youth league.

Gan Shmuel coach Gal Knaz first saw Jasser as a ninth grader in Jatt. "He was tall, athletic but technically undeveloped," the coach said. It took several years for Knaz to convince Jatt officials to allow Jasser to come play for the kibbutz, and "Samer improved tremendously last season," Knaz said. "He still needs to work on his offense, but he was the league's best defensive player and rebounder."

Knaz thinks that Jasser should continue to improve.

"Samer is intelligent, modest and studious. Until now, he always invested a lot in schoolwork and this will be the first time he is devoting himself seriously to basketball. The connections he has made in the U.S. should help him a lot," Knaz said.

Jasser claims that Buford has practically served as a "second father" since his arrival in the States. "We are in contact every two to three days," Jasser said, "and he keeps up on what's happening with me."

The Jatt native has found the perfect basketball patron saint. The Spurs and Buford have mastered the market for foreign players and have captured three NBA titles in the last five years through the efforts of stars from all over the world.

Central Maine is better known for bears then for high-caliber basketball, but some of the nation's strongest prep school basketball programs are located in the state, so Lee Academy faces high level competition. Last year, it was considered by scouts to be one of the top 15 basketball prep schools in the U.S. According to Jasser, all of their graduates go on to play college basketball.

Lee's roster is a virtual United Nations with players from all over the world including Australia, Croatia and Finland, as well as Israel.

Winter comes to Maine early and so does basketball. Lee opened it's season two weeks ago and Jasser had 12 points, eight rebounds and five blocks in the season opener.

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