The weekly update on current events in the NMAA Fall League from the Commish

An-Nur's 14 game win streak ends, Sirat with the new uniforms, Ar'Rad lights it up, Haqq impresses, Mujahid escapes, and more.

By Omair Zahid POSTED SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

So I’ve wanted to write these articles since the beginning of the season, or at least have someone write them for us, but haven’t been able to find anyone. So as usual, since there’s no one else to do it, I’ve decided to go ahead and start writing a weekly column about things of note in our league from week to week.  I feel like NMAA needs to get more exposure than just the basketball crowd that comes out every Sunday, and this is one good way to do that. So, here goes…and no, I’m no Bill Simmons, but I’ll try.

I’ve been impressed with the passion most of our teams have displayed so far in our largest league yet. As of week 4, we have 3 teams sitting at 4-1 records in the East division, and one undefeated team in the West division. The Unit has been a great new addition so far. They’ve come in with the right attitude, serious about playing; they actually have t-shirts that match with numbers on the back (amazing how hard some teams find that to be) and really good players who never miss a game. I didn’t expect them to be 4-1 after 5 games. Hamza Sloussi, their captain has done a terrific job. Even more surprising was their 32 point blowout over An-Nur last week. Now this does come with an asterisk as An-Nur  didn’t have their best player in Daniel Celestine, who to me has been the best player in our league for over a year now, but still impressive none the less.

(Note on the t-shirts, we stress to all our captains that players have to have matching shirts and legible numbers, and we still have an occasional guy showing up to play in a wife-beater. Seriously?????  If only I could be like David Stern and hand out fines. Oh well.)

I was also impressed with Ar’Rad. They’ve got a terrific threesome with Pasha Haghigi, Yuseh Nemeh and Alex Castillo. Beating Jund last week was really impressive. The East playoffs are shaping up to be ultra competitive this season.

Was anyone else surprised at how Zabardust almost beat undefeated Mujahid? They’re sitting at 1-4, but they’ve had one of the toughest schedules this season and have played better every week. Once their PG Omeir Ansari joined their team after a 1 year layoff from competitive ball, they became a very solid squad. I’m excited to see them next season and see if they come back stronger.

How crazy was the ending between my own team Haqq and The Unit? A layup by yours truly with 5 seconds left not counted because one of my players from the bench mistakenly called a timeout! And then we ended up not being able to convert after the timeout. Shades of Chris Webber...heartbreaking, but with most of the guys on this team being only 18, I’ve been impressed with how hard we’ve been playing and competing.

Week 5 games I’m looking forward to.

Jund vs Sirat is always a classic battle. Sam Borges of Sirat is coming off a 40 point outing last week. I don’t think team captain Dev Lachman of Jund is going to let him do that again. Should be a close competitive game.  And really excited about the new uniforms Sirat finally got! No longer do we have to look at Wassim Safadi wearing shirts that are hanging on by a thread. (Seriously Wassim, it’s like every shirt you own is ripped.)

My favorite game this week has to be Greyhounds vs Thundercats. The Thundercats in their second season have never won a game. This HAS to be their best shot. It just has to! Why? The Greyhounds have struggled the last few weeks in their last 2 games have only averaged 41 points of offense. The Thundercats average 46 points per game as well as being one of the most entertaining teams to watch. I mean who else do you know will stand up and chant DEFENSE during a game when you’re down by 40??? The Thundercats will!!!!  But I do think the Greyhounds have the edge here.

Haqq takes on Ar’Rad in which you should see a ton of 3s being shot as both teams like to fire away.  This should be an entertaining game to watch as well. Yours truly is coming off a league high 8 threes in one game, which lasted about an hour until Yusef Nemeh of Ar’Rad decided to hit 10 threes in his game. Yea, it’s personal now.

Mujahid is rolling over everyone. Is anyone else surprised they haven’t gotten a technical foul yet this season? It has to be coming soon.

FLB got their first win of the season last week after some tough close losses in the previous weeks. Their reward, they get to play Mujahid and Jund the last two weeks of the season. It’s all about the breaks…those losses from earlier in the season are going to haunt them. But I will say I’ve been blown away with how well Jamal Harris has been playing this season.

An-Nur had their 14 game win streak snapped last week. Captain and League MVP Daniel Celestine missed the game. You know he’s coming back with a mission. Expect a crazy game out of him, and note to anyone out there who wants to try to block him when he’s coming down for a dunk…don’t. If you want to be stubborn, check out the week 3 photo of the week. Yea, I thought so.

So those are the thoughts running through my head from last week to this coming Sunday. It’s one of the best times you can have being in the gym. You know what’s great is seeing people who come to watch for the first time, and discovering how much fun they have just being there. Heck we actually converted one fan to work for us on the tables! The fans are great, and I definitely urge everyone who hasn’t been there to come out and support a team.

And a shoutout to Urooj Ansari, Toni Ramos, Alia Saleh, Somaya El-Ghannam and Dalia Maghoub for rocking the tables. Abdel Rahaman, Malik Benwali and Dev Lachman get honorable mentions too. Without them, we’d have to rely on the players to help.  Yea…

See everyone Sunday!!

Sirat's new uniforms