Abdel Nader with his team, Maine Red Claws, Abdel Nader official account on Twitter
CAIRO –26 September2017: After a long journey, Abdel Nader finally achieved his dream by playing in the NBA with the Boston Celtics.
The Boston Celtics announced Tuesday that they have signed rookie forward Abdel Nader. Nader never imagined he would be the second Egyptian to play in the NBA.
Alaa Abd Rab Elnaby, the first Egyptian to play in the NBA, played for Portland, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, and Sacramento Kings. He was signed by the Golden State Warriors but never played for the team.
Nader was born in Alexandria, Egypt and moved to the United States with his family in 1996 at the age of three. He lived inSkokie, Illinois. He speaks fluent Arabic and majored in liberal studies at Iowa State.
Nader found his passion for basketball early on, as he played for Niles North High School and led them to their first sectional championship. He garnered First Team All-State honors from the Chicago Tribune.
It took a lot of work for Nader’s long-shot dream to come true as he enrolled at Northern Illinois University and appeared in all 31 games, starting in 29 of them. Nader's impressive freshman season earned him Mid American Conference (MAC) All-Freshman Team honors.
A video from @abdelnader2 official account on twitter
He moved to Iowa State, where he became a professional basketball player. He got confident by featuring in 32 games, averaging 5.8 points and 2.9 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game.
In June 2016, Nader was drafted by the Boston Celtics with the 58th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft. On November 2016, he was acquired by the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League.
With the Red Claws, Nader was even better than he had been in college or Summer League. Starting 40 games and playing as the focal point for the first time since his Northern Illinois days, he averaged 21.3 points per game on 44.7 percent shooting from the floor.
On April 2017, he was named the 2016–17 NBA Development League Rookie of the Year, becoming the first internationally-born player to be named NBA D-League Rookie of the Year and the third Red Claws player to earn the honor.
On July 14, 2017, Nader agreed to a four-year, $6M deal with the Celtics.
All the following quotes are according to www.sircharlesincharge.com:
“I was really excited,” said Nader on receiving a four-year contract. “I wasn’t sure what to think at first. The fact that they would offer me a four-year deal was basically them showing faith in me and their willingness to work with me over a period of time. That was the biggest thing that really stuck out to me. They drafted me when no one else would. They basically believed in me when no one else would.”
“If I can help some kids from where I’m from – the Middle East/North Africa area – and inspire them to better their lives with basketball, because it’s helped me so much; that would mean the world to me.”
Despite leaving the country at the age of three for Illinois, Nader stays up to date on what’s going in Egypt.
“Any positivity I can bring to that country,” said Nader. “Any hope I can give kids or families that they can make it out or better their lives, that is the end goal.”
When it comes to basketball in Egypt, Nader does have interest in playing for their national team one day, along with being a participant in the NBA Africa game, akin to teammate Jaylen Brown this year.
Abdel Nader will make his debut for the 2017-18 Boston Celtics on October 17.
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