Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Remember Me?—Alaa Abdelnaby


It’s the Dog Days of summer and there is no NBA season in sight or even any NBA players on websites, so we must make do.  Instead of dwelling on these negative circumstances that are out of our control lets take a trip down memory lane with a new post called “Remember Me?”  We hope to look at the unsung heroes of Blazers teams past, the guys that got minimal minutes and only lasted a couple of years but did everything they could to try and help us win. Today’s featured guest is Alaa Abdelnaby.   

From the OG Rip City days comes Egyptian born Alaa Abdelnaby (whose name shall hence forth be read/said only in full, to do so otherwise is a discredit to the comedy of errors that is trying to pronounce his name).  Drafted by the Blazers in 1990 out of Duke University, Alaa Abdelnaby became a solid bench player during the Blazers’ run to the Finals against the Bulls in 1992, playing in 71 games that season.  Before he was ever a Dukey and a Blazer, Mr. Abdel… Alaa Abdelnaby was a McDonalds All-American out of his home state of New Jersey.

My favorite Alaa Abdelnaby memory was during a game back in 91-92, he came off the bench into the game, took his warm-up top off, got onto the court and then realized he had forgotten to put his jersey on.  This by no means typifies Alaa Abdelnaby and what he meant for the Blazers of that era.  He was a blue collar player who played through pain most of his career and worked his way up to a starter for the 92-93 Boston team.   

I will leave the floor open to any comments or favorite memories of Alaa Abdelnaby.     

--Josh

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