Abdel Nader: From Egypt to the NBA

Abdel Nader’s path to the NBA has been long, with a lot of stops on the way

22-years-old is old for a rookie, but Abdel Nader has a chance to stick with the Boston Celtics after a promising summer league. The wing player out of Iowa State was drafted with the 58th pick and was the most surprising contributor on the Celtics this summer. In eight games and three starts, Nader averaged 10 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, including scoring in double-digits in all five Las Vegas games.

He’s gone from the 58th pick in the draft, who didn’t have many people talking about him following the draft, to a possible contributor on the Celtics one day. Nader and the Celtics haven’t agreed to terms like Demetrius Jackson and Ben Bentil have – the Celtics other two second round picks. Which leads to the assumption that he’ll be in Maine for his rookie season, and then have a chance to make the roster next season.

Although, how far Nader has come so far is amazing. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt and didn’t move to the United States until he was three-years-old. Egypt isn’t a country that produces much NBA talent – Nader is only the second Egyptian-born NBA player. In fact, according to FIBA, Egypt is ranked as the 41st best basketball country in the world.

Luckily, for Nader’s basketball career, his family moved to Skokie, Illinois and he became a star at Niles North. As a senior, he averaged a ridiculous 23.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He received many accolades, as well – which included being named to Chicago Tribune’s First Team All-State and to the ESPN Chicago All-Area team.

Still, Nader was only a two-star recruit coming out of high school, and opted towards staying near home. He attended Northern Illinois, the only Division-I school to offer him. However, to put it nicely, Northern Illinois is really bad at basketball.

Nader led the team with 10.4 points per game as a freshman, but only shot 33.7 percent from the field. He also added 4.2 rebounds per contest, but the Huskies still went 5-26 on the season as Nader was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team.

Then problems started to arise. Nader was suspended for the first six games of his sophomore season for violating team rules – underage consumption of alcohol. According to the Des Moines Register, only being an hour away from home was too big of a distraction for him. He ended up hanging out with old friends and family, rather than going to the gym to work on his game or doing school work.

He still played in 19 games for the Huskies as a sophomore and was the only player to average double-digit points (13.1) or at least five rebounds (4.6). Nader still owned a dreadful 33.7 percent shooting percentage, and his three-point percentage dropped to just 27.7 percent.

Pair his suspension with another 5-25 season, it’s no surprise that Nader opted towards transferring. Getting farther away from home and maturing as an adult clearly helped him get focused on his game and school work during his last couple of years. He ended up choosing Iowa State, despite admitting he never heard of them before they started recruiting him.

The Cyclones ended up making it to the Sweet 16 in 2013-14 as Nader had to sit out a season for transferring. Then, Nader’s debut with Iowa State got delayed even longer as he was suspended three games for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Nader was still somewhat immature as a junior, and coming off the bench for his junior season likely helped him grow as a person and player.

After seeing around 25 minutes per night in each of his first two seasons with the Huskies, Nader only saw 16.4 minutes per game as a junior. He also only attempted 5.6 shots per game after taking 13.9 the year prior. It did help his shooting percentage as he connected on 40.6 percent of his shots, although his three-point percentage dipped to 21.7 percent.

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When Fred Hoiberg left to coach the Chicago Bulls at the end of the season, Nader almost left for the NBA, as well – according to the Des Moines Register. If he chose to leave school early, we likely wouldn’t have heard of Nader and he would be somewhere overseas, just a mere second thought to Huskies’ and Cyclones’ fans.

With that being said, Steve Prohm – Iowa State’s head coach – talked to Nader and laid out what he wanted to do the next season and how he would use Nader. It’s obvious in hindsight that Prohm and Nader connected right away, and it’s a good thing they did because Prohm was able to get more out of Nader than any coach has before.

Nader knew he had to put together his best season as a senior if he wanted any shot at making the NBA. He did just that as he saw 31.1 minutes per game (career-high) and contributed 12.9 points, five rebounds and 1.1 steals per contest. Not to mention his career-high shooting percentages – 47.8 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three. Both were extremely uncharacteristic of what we saw from Nader during his first three seasons.

He scored his 1,000th point, grabbed his 500th rebound and hit his 100th three-pointer as a senior. Not to mention that he hit a game-winning three against #22 Cincinnati with 11 seconds remaining.

Although, his biggest moment came when he posterized Mitchell Solomon of Oklahoma State with one of the best dunks in Iowa State history. It made him an internet sensation overnight, and people were finally learning who Abdel Nader was.

It’s pretty crazy to think about how far Nader has come. He has a chance to make the Celtics roster this season, and will have a significant role in the D-League if he doesn’t. That’s a big difference than winning 10 games in two seasons to start off his college career. Or when he came off the bench as a junior after being the star player for two seasons.

Not to mention his maturity off-the-court since he was suspended for the second time in college at the start of his Iowa State tenure.

Next: Demetrius Jackson Signing Will Pay Off For Celtics

Abdel Nader has never been a big name, and he’ll have to continue proving himself. Although, after summer league, Nader was one of the most talked about players on Boston. He’s come a far way from being just a kid from Egypt, and there should be bigger things in store now that he has his head on straight and is better able to utilize his skill set.

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