A Tale Of Palestinian Athletes Suffering Real Hardships NOT Being Reported

The media has had a field day reporting about the hardships of palestinian Olympic athletes, at the hands of Israel. Like swimmer Mary al-Atrash, who was supposedly denied access to any Olympic-sized pool (an accusation that holds no water).

What they have not reported are real hardships they endure at the hands of their own people. Like this one borne out from a Hoops Style interview with Jerry Steele, the coach of the palestinian national basketball team, from September last year.

A tale of corruption, negligence, threats and abuse.

palestine basketballHow crazy is to coach the Palestinian National Team?

JS: Trust me, there is no crazier coaching job than this.

I’ll try to be concise but it’s difficult. Palestine has basketball leagues operated and controlled by their basketball federation. Their federation is made up of five people who are all political appointees to the position. In Palestine, having an official title is a big deal and is more important that what you do with the position you have been given.

These federation members are, at best, basketball fans. They know nothing about what it takes to play; they know nothing about what it takes to coach; they know nothing about how to operate a program and certainly know nothing about how to develop basketball.

Their top league, which they call the Super League is anything but super. Their games have a distinct resemblance to early Saturday morning pickup games among the old guys who used to play at the YMCA. Except that the guys at the “Y” at least have an idea of how to move like basketball players.

The Federation has done nothing to help. They fight against every training advancement we try to implement. They don’t know what we are trying to do, but they are not about to admit that they don’t know what they are doing or that they need help. That would be disastrous for them.

They have lied about us in their local media and threatened any player who works out with us with permanent exclusion from all federation-sanctioned basketball.

They let us choose a National Team but they give us no practice time, little to no access to a gym and no opportunity to prepare appropriately for any international tournaments.

We went to work finding players for the National Team and training young players who were already available in the fundamentals of the game. All the federation did was ask us why we didn’t chose their 30-plus year-old stars from their Super League.

They sent us to tournaments at the last second, didn’t provide approved uniforms for us and still expected us to win. Then when we did win, they had their handpicked journalist write about what great work they did in spite of the coaching to produce a successful team.

After we helped them win a second-place trophy in an international tournament (they had never won any trophy prior to that) they came home and refused to give us access to players or training time.

They came to me to help with some problems with FIBA and player eligibility. Being an attorney, the first thing I asked them was “What do the rules say?” They didn’t know. I asked if they had a copy of the rules. “No”. “Have you ever read the rules?” “No”. “We thought maybe you could find them on the Internet”.

I got busy and did all the homework and produce a 130-page document with life stories and citizenship and birth documents for players that were available to us. I worked with FIBA to get those players eligible to play for Palestine. They showed up for the tournament last spring and we won a berth in our current tournament.

Again, the federation took all the credit and told the media that they had found all the players and that they had an in with FIBA now so that they could get anyone they wanted eligible to play for them. That was certainly news to FIBA and me.

We got our berth in this tournament and the Federation met with us and promised a summer full of training camps and warmup tournaments/friendly games prior to this championship. None of what they promised was done.

In the final analysis, one of the players, Sani Sakakini, one of my assistants and I did whatever planning their was. Sani arranged for a place for us to practice in Jordan. He also arranged for a couple of friendly games with the Jordanian National team while we were there.

We made our way to China for a four-team tournament we had been invited to. The federation did nothing to get us properly registered for that tournament, so I had to do all of that when we arrived on site in China after apologizing profusely to the tournament hosts.

Then after the tournament, nothing had been arranged for our continued training in China. I had to do that with the gracious help of the local tournament organizers. We arranged for everything –  including hotels, practice facilities, transportation and even borrowing some basketballs to us. The federation did nothing.

However, the federation did eventually show up in China along with their paid journalist, who made daily reports about what a great job the federation was doing.

Now, understand that I am trying to instill in these young men concepts of truthfulness and integrity. We’re trying to learn the value of hard work and delayed gratification. And all the time we are doing this training, they are threatened and afraid to tell anyone the truth about the way their federation has treated them and this opportunity.

When we got to this tournament, they told the players that they could not afford to pay for their laundry. They instructed them to do their own laundry in their hotel rooms. This is while the players are still practicing twice a day and going through shirts/shorts/socks like crazy.

Mind you, the federation can’t help with laundry for the guys doing all the work, but they pay for everything for their journalist and they incur $3,000 worth of fines from FIBA for being late with mandatory filings (all of which I had told them about and instructed them how to do for weeks before the filings were due).

Crazy? I haven’t even begun to tell you how they mistreat their own young people just to maintain their own position of power. The president of the federation has a nickname with the team. His nickname is Flash. They call him that because all he does as President is come to games and events and get his picture taken.

Yes, this is the craziest coaching job I have ever heard of.

This is the absolute truth: The national team was selected by the federation on the basis of which players they thought they would like to take a vacation with and based on which clubs they owed a favor to. That was the structure.

But you have not read about this anywhere in the mainstream media, because no Jews no news.

Hat tip: kweansmom

5 thoughts on “A Tale Of Palestinian Athletes Suffering Real Hardships NOT Being Reported”

  1. Feh. This tool wants to help build “Palestine”? He deserves whatever frustration and tsuris he gets, IMO. But I am glad he has the courage to tell the truth about his gracious hosts!

  2. With the Olympics underway, the anti-Israel propaganda machine is out in full force. Every little setback suffered by Team Palestine, from donated uniforms stuck in Israeli customs to inadequate training facilities is blamed on the evil occupation. This article helps put it in perspective. At the end of his two-year contract with the Palestinians, Coach Steele had little to lose by exposing the corruption, cronyism, incompetence, and bigotry of the Palestinian Basketball Federation. This shows how Palestinian athletes are held back not by the oppressive Israelis but by their own people.

  3. Hmmm, maybe Mary al-Atrash didn’t apply for access in Israel because she would have been punished by “her own” for doing so! (The lie about not having access to anything in Gaza or “West Bank” is probably just normal brainwashing.)

    1. That’s probably true, but you would think actual journalists would take a few moments to investigate and report the truth. Unfortunately, truth never seems to enter into the equation when it comes to anti-Israel propaganda. The press becomes merely a mouthpiece for the Palestinian narrative.

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