JEDDAH, 7 July 2007 — Gold’s Gym completed their second annual Three-on-three Basketball Tournament. The first tournament of the summer season brought out club players, basketball players, football players, kids, and old timers all competing for prizes.
The way players from Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli played together on different teams; you forget that there is a constant rivalry between the clubs. The players love the game and this coming together showed it.
The basketball community was well represented with two teams from Ittihad and Ahli, Egypt team one and Egypt team two, Nadeem’s Gold’s Gym house team, Shatty’s Lebanese and American team, Ameen’s Giants, David’s kids from the compound, Jeddah United’s boys team were among the 12 teams that participated in this year’s tournament.
The players really enjoyed the facilities and the friendly atmosphere that Captain Assad and Gold’s Gym provided. The basketball players and friends had a chance to play together, relax, and enjoy some great games. The tournament was spread out over an eight-day period. The 12 teams were divided into 2 groups and each team played four games in their group. The two top teams from each group advanced to the final four playoff. Each game was 20 minutes, with two ten-minuet halves. The scoring gave one point for every basket and two for a three-point shot. Every foul shot counted as one point.
The teams that made it to the final four were Ittihad, Nadeem’s Gold’s Gym players, Omar’s Heat, and Shatty’s team. The best game of the tournament was Shatty’s team against Nadeem’s team to go to the finals. The game went into overtime with Gold’s Gym’s Mustafa Khan hitting 16 out of 18 foul shots to edge out Shatty’s team 38 -35. In the other semifinal game, Ittihad breezed past Omar’s Heat. The final was Ittihad’s Ayman Al Madani, Yaya Iberahim, Sayeed Al-Bahi, and Faris Nadeef, against Gold’s Gym’s Nadeem Sultani, Mustafa Khan, Majed Al Kabri, and Raed Hawsawi. Ittihad took an early lead with Yaya and Ayman hitting the three and Sayeed doing his regular driving to the hoop and scoring.
Gold’s Nadeem and Raed kept the game close and Mustafa kept hitting and making his foul shots. Gold’s were down by seven at half time. They got back in the game but ran out of time, with Ittihad making 8 out of 10 of their last foul shots to pull away and win by 6 points 42-36.
The referees were Waleed Rashwan, Nawaf Sharawi, and Umar Abdul Salam. Majed Al Kabri won the three-point shootout hitting 7 out of 10 shots. All first place winners received three months free membership at Gold’s Gym, and second place one month free. The basketball players all agreed that it was a great way to start the summer.
