GAM3

Karim Sheaib is playing for love. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised on the streets of Philadelphia, Karim played basketball like it was his job since he was 13 in the Cypriot national league. After a fight with the commissioner, however, he was barred from playing and left basketball for two years. Now, he’s back on the court here, at Bourj Hammoud’s municipal basketball courts, and angling for the grand prize – a trip to Copenhagen to play against the best teams from Egypt and Denmark in the international finals. It’s his best chance to reunite with the Danish girl that got away.

The May 4 “battle,” as they are called, was the last before the finals in June. About 200 players in three men’s age brackets, a women’s division and a wheel-chair basketball division competed from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. While battle winners in each division get t-shirts, medals and gift certificates, the winners in the men’s 18-and-up and women’s open (14 and up) divisions from previous battles compete in the finals, and the winners there go to Denmark.

(Picture: Spencer Osberg)

Mac McClenahan, Lebanon’s country manager for GAM3, which runs the program, added that, “We also take two girls and two boys, the ones who are most responsible and the good leaders. These two will pair up with two in Denmark and play as a team in the GAM3 finals in Denmark, in downtown Copenhagen.”

Sandra Najem, a student at Notre Dame University in Lebanon and one of the star players of the winning team in the women’s division, the “Fighters,” said, “This is my first time playing in the GAM3 battles. I play in a league at university and heard about it through friends.”

Najem was also fresh off her victory in the three-point shot contest that day, where her 13 baskets in under a minute put her over the next highest contender, with 11. The crowd was alive with excitement that a woman had taken the title, and Najem was modest but obviously pleased. “That’s also my first time in a three-point contest. At first I was nervous, but then it just felt natural.”

There was a range of talent on display at the battle, from quasi-professionals and long-time players like Sheaib and Najem to scrappy beginners like “Cool Team.” Cool Team member Ola Shatila said, “We’ve only been practicing for two months, we’re beginners!” Cool Team had just come off a win, however, and the girls were flushed and in high spirits.

The Bourj Hammoud battle was a raucous affair, with hip hop music blasting from hastily rigged speakers, four games going at any one time, a breakdance competition, graffiti spray painting, and free shish taouk for the players and staff. The day of the battle McClenahan was seemingly everywhere, from nine in the morning until six in the evening, fixing sound equipment, updating score boards, checking the refreshments and settling disputes. He sat with NOW Lebanon in GAM3’s office in Saifi, overlooking Martyr’s Square, the next day.

McClenahan, who recently converted to Shi’ism for his fiancé, cuts an unlikely figure for running Lebanon’s street basketball tournament. His laid back style and laconic drawl would seem more at home in Malibu than his present neighborhood of Qasqas. He recounted, “GAM3 came here to do research and check it out and they got in touch with me, because that's what I was doing my thesis on, basketball in Lebanon.”

GAM3, a Danish NGO launched in 2002 to offer underprivileged youth healthy alternatives that teach them about empowerment and teamwork, came to Cairo and Beirut in 2007. McClenahan said, “It turned out that most of the players were of Middle Eastern origin in Denmark; they did most of the programs in housing projects they have there. So they wanted to expand, and they figured let’s do something in the Arab world.”

GAM3 found itself right at home in Lebanon. McClenahan explained, “It's disputed as to whether participation is higher in basketball or soccer [in Lebanon]. Soccer is probably higher. But basketball is more popular in TV and in fans. Basketball is huge.”

The focus of the program is the weekly practices from March 1 to June 8 held in four locations, or “zones:” Qasqas, Bourj al Barajneh, Shiyyah, and Bourj Hammoud. In its first year in Lebanon, GAM3 had about 50 players showing up to weekly practices, but some 400-450 now regularly attend and there are several hundred more signed up on the Facebook group “Got GAM3…,” most of them from the greater Beirut area. McClenahan said, “This year it expanded quite a bit. The budget for the whole year is over $100,000.”

He added, “The main two supporters are the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Group, and MS Danish association for international cooperation, they're a new supporter. Those are the main two involved in the overall funding. Then there's also private supporters. In Lebanon, we had one private sponsor, Class Sports and now Peak Sports. They help us out with prizes and such.”

McClenahan estimated that some 60% of the players in a given “battle” were not GAM3 regulars but had heard of the games through their clubs and schools. He said, “We advertise in courts and through word of mouth.” Recruiting is largely dependent on GAM3’s 17 coaches in Lebanon, who often coach in schools or in clubs as well.

GAM3’s is applying to become a Lebanese NGO, and its goal now is to build the infrastructure necessary to allow the street basketball program to continue unaided, making the project wholly Lebanese. McClenahan said, “We built a court in Shiyyah on the municipal lands, which was part volunteer and part GAM3 paying. It's very much a community project, the whole community was involved.”

As Lebanon tries to heal the rifts of the past couple years, GAM3’s emphasis on cross-community engagement and youth empowerment are making an impact. After cancelling weekend practices on May 10-11 due to street battles in and around Beirut, activities are back on, and GAM3 is even taking advantage of the lifting of the downtown sit-in. NOW caught up with McClenahan in Hamra on May 16, and he reported, “The finals are on for June 1 in Martyr’s Square! We’re also working with the US Embassy to get the Black Eyed Peas to come for a big tournament in August, and we’re pretty close to a deal on that. So come on by!”

This aricle was written by Benjamin Ryan and kindly provided by NOW LEBANON