"The King" crowned the league title after 16 years of estrangement

Sharjah draws a smile 56 on the face of basket coach citizen Abdul Hamid Ibrahim

• Sharjah won the Basketball League title for the 2019-2020 season.

  Photography: Patrick Castillo

• Sharjah coach: "We reaped the fruits of the work of the past few years with the presence of young blood that confirmed its presence in the team."

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Sharjah gave its national coach Abdul Hamid Ibrahim the 56th championship in his coaching career, after winning the Basketball League title for the 2019-2020 season, which he crowned "The King", by winning the day before yesterday over Shabab Al-Ahly (the title holder) with a score of 106-103, to win Abdul Hamid the title absent from The club's coffers 16 years ago, after he won the 2003-2004 season with him.

Abdul Hamid told "Emirates Today": “The Basketball League title with Sharjah represents the 56th championship in my 30-year career, but it is the most difficult, because the 2019-2020 season was the longest in history in Emirati basketball, as it started in December 2019 before sports activity stopped. Last March, to resume the tournament at the beginning of this month, which imposed great challenges, most notably how players maintain the factors of mental and physical focus during periods of pauses, and return to complete play after seven months in final rounds that made it difficult to give citizen players the required focus.

He added: “Despite the challenges that have been imposed on Emirati sports in general, and basketball in particular, my first goal with Sharjah after renewing my contract last summer was to win back local titles, most notably the league championship absent from the club’s coffers since 2004 when I was coach of a basket. King, especially since the focus on local championships came after the brilliance externally, and the team won the last two editions of the Gulf Club Championship.

He added: “It was not in the history of the Emirati basket that the game had been stopped for seven months, and then played in final rounds, which imposed great challenges on the technical apparatus in how to prepare the players for such roles, but several factors helped Sharjah win the league title, most notably the harvest The fruits of the work of the past few years in the presence of young blood confirmed its presence in the team, and played a major role in distributing the effort to the players throughout the stages of the final match, in which we lost focus during the first stages by a difference of 21 points, before we succeeded in reducing the difference, returning the match and winning the title.

He concluded: “Young Al-Ahly, who has dominated the league titles over the past 11 years, is counted to present a match at a high level despite the influential absences in its ranks, especially at the level of the playmaker’s position, and it was close to continuing to win the championship, had it not been for our success in the third and fourth quarters In regaining the required focus that was behind winning the title ».

Abdel Hamid in lines

■ He started his training career with the unit in 1990.

■ The only citizen trainer who has played abroad.

■ He led the Saudi Jeddah Federation to win the Asian Clubs title.

■ In 2001 he was crowned the best coach in Asia.

■ Al Wasl led the Asian Clubs bronze win in 2008.

He led Al-Wehda to win the first Gulf Cup for Emirates Clubs in 1993.

■ He won the 2011 Arab Championship with Sharjah.

Won with Sharjah the Gulf Championships 2018 and 2019.

■ The King won 11 consecutive victories in both editions.

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