ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Born in Lebanon and splitting his teenage years between California and Egypt, Arizona Wildcats basketball legend Steve Kerr has swum, literally and figuratively, through a mix of historically fraught Middle East cultures.
It helped that politicians opened the Israel-Egypt border after 1979.
“When we were in Cairo, we traveled across the border because of that agreement,” Kerr said Wednesday, after running Team USA through a workout at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus in his role as head coach of the U.S. men’s basketball team.
Arizona Wildcats legend Steve Kerr, head coach of the U.S. men’s basketball national team, works with his roster of entirely NBA players during training camp for Aug. 3 in in Las Vegas. This week, Kerr and Team USA are in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, at the same time his alma mater’s team is in the UAE as part of its Summer 2023 Mideast tour.
“We traveled to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,” Kerr said. “I remember swimming in the Suez Canal with my mom and dad and brother, watching the ships go by. It was pretty cool.”
Kerr’s USA roster of NBA stars is in Abu Dhabi this week training for the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup just as the UA men’s basketball program’s Summer 2023 Mideast tour also made its way to the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
In looking back on his own upbringing, those travels back and forth between California and the Middle East, because of Kerr’s father’s work at the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo, left an impression that remains deep even today.
It’s one reason why, in an age where many prominent sports figures shy away from taking political stands, Kerr has been outspoken about racism, gun violence and political issues, even voicing opinions during news conferences in his day job as head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
“It’s a huge part of my worldview and shaping who I am,” Kerr said. “I think learning compassion and empathy, seeing Third World poverty — real poverty — and seeing how joyful people were even in the midst of extreme poverty made a huge impression on me.
“And I think it helped me understand how to relate to everyone. Because it’s like, yes, we all come from different cultures, but we’re all human beings. We all have the same sort of needs.”
It would be easy for Kerr to see it differently. Tension in the Middle East, after all, led to the assassination of his father, Malcolm, in 1984, just 18 months after he became president of the American University of Beirut. Malcolm Kerr was killed on a walk to his office one morning, reportedly targeted by Islamic terrorists looking to murder a high-profile American.
Team USA head coach and Arizona basketball alumnus Steve Kerr (pictured during the U.S. team’s training camp earlier this month in Las Vegas) is in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the same time as the Arizona Wildcats this week. Kerr is preparing his team for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Today, still, there are still tensions all around the Middle East. And of course there are also successes.
“I remember when my dad came home the day of the Israel-Palestinian peace accords with Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel,” Kerr said Wednesday. “There’s tons of history and there has been improvement in certain areas. You still have the Palestinian question that that will continue to sort of split a lot of Israelis in terms of how occupation is being handled and it splits Americans, too, so there’s a lot of issues.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same. The same issues now, existed years ago.”
As Steve Kerr has indicated many times over the years since he left UA to become a championship-ring-collecting NBA player and coach, basketball helped him cope with his father’s assassination.
Kerr scored 12 points wearing his familiar No. 25 jersey for the Wildcats just two nights after his father died; and four years later, when ASU fans tauntingly referenced the murder by shouting “P.L.O.” (the acronym for Palestinian Liberation Organization), Kerr hit all six 3-pointers he tried and scored 22 points.
Now, Kerr, Team USA and a bevy of Wildcats are in a position to have basketball help others. The Athletes for Israel group said it was hoping the swing the UA and Kansas State University teams made through Jerusalem and Tel Aviv earlier in their trips would shine a favorable light on Israel, while the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism is sponsoring the team’s stay in the United Arab Emirates.
Together, USA Basketball, Arizona and Kansas State are participating in what UAE officials are calling “International Basketball Week.”
Arizona is said to be the first college basketball team to ever play a game in the UAE when it faced a group of local players and former stateside college standouts in an exhibition matchup Thursday; later in the day, Kansas State took on the Mexico national team. And USA Basketball, with Kerr leading the way and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few as an assistant coach — Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd worked for Few for two decades before his first head coaching job turned up in Tucson — is in town preparing for the World Cup, facing Greece on Friday and Germany on Sunday.
United States head coach Steve Kerr, far left, sits with his staff, (from left) Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few, during an exhibition game Aug. 7 against Puerto Rico in Las Vegas. The Arizona basketball connection to this year’s U.S. team includes both Kerr, a Wildcat legend in his playing days, and Few. Current UA coach Tommy Lloyd was an assistant under Few for two decades at Gonzaga before accepting his own first head coaching role in Tucson two seasons ago.
Kerr said his focus is on creating goodwill through basketball, and that he’s been educating his players about places they ultimately visit. New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, who played collegiately at Villanova and is among Kerr’s leaders on the USA senior team this summer, said “it’s been a great opportunity” playing under and getting to know Kerr this summer, after facing him in the NBA.
Kerr said it’s difficult when players are put in a position to speak on political issues, but that he’s been making sure they’re educated on wherever they go. He said his USA players took particular interest in learning about the UAE.
“I think our players really appreciate learning about where we are, and what’s what’s going on in the world,” Kerr said. “We always know we’re not going to be able to please everyone. We are aware we can be thrown into the middle of the political stuff.
“But part of sports is to generate goodwill between different countries, capture fans’ imagination and bring a lot of joy to different countries. So that’s our focus.”
VIDEO (ARAB NEWS VIA YOUTUBE): The US national team, coached by Arizona Wildcats legend Steve Kerr, is on a mission in Abu Dhabi, where it is wrapping up preparations before flying to Manila for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Read more: https://arab.news/jfh4g
