FIBA 2023 World Cup: Analysing The Egypt Roster

With the 19th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup beginning on August 25th, there follows a look at the rosters for each of the 32 teams taking part. This instalment looks at the team from 17-time AfroBasket medallist and five-time champion, Egypt.

Adam Moussa

• PG – 6’3 – Born 14th July 2002
• Black Hills State University, NCAA Division II

In his first collegiate season, Moussa piled in the numbers, and he has only grown from there. Last year as a junior, he averaged 11.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.5 blocks per game, albeit on a 38.4% shooting percentage. The jump shot is somewhat broken, the finishing in the lane inefficient and the shot selection over-aggressive, yet Moussa absolutely makes things happen on the court; extremely committed to the glass, moving defenders around with the handle, posting up on occasion and always attacking. This is a big step up for him, but he merits a look as a dynamic prospect.

Omar Hisham Hussein

• SG – 6’2 – Born 29th March 1995
• Zamalek, Egypt

Ever since he was a child, Hisham has only ever played for Zamalek, and at this point, I imagine he always will. That is not to say, however, that he has played all that much. Hisham captains the team, but, in the Basketball Africa League at least, he nevertheless plays very little, and the same seems inevitably true here. Without size, athleticism or a shooting stroke for the highest levels, it is hard to find rotation minutes for him, even in a shallow Egyptian wing rotation. Nevertheless, intangibles matter.

Amr Alaa Zahran

• SG – 6’3 – Born 6th October 2001
• Al Ahly, Egypt

One thing to know about the Egyptian league is that, despite having some quality players in it, numbers seem not to be available as best as this interloper can tell. Not on any website, nor on any stats service, nor in any language. It is therefore not known what Zahran averaged in Egyptian league play last season. What is known is that, in the Basketball Africa League, he averaged 6.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, which would have been higher had his usually-decent jump shot turned up. Zahran likes to play defence, particularly help defence, and often wildly overhelping in the process; he also is a below-average athlete for the backcourt position, and if he wanders off, doubles needlessly, plays behind with the hope of reaching in for the deflection or jumps the passing lanes against the quality athletes in this competition, he will get burned. But if he stays home, he offers some three-and-D usage.

Karim Hatem Elgizawy

• PG/SG – 6’3 – Born 13th January 2005
• Al Ahly, Egypt

From playing in the under-19 World Cup in July to playing in the senior edition six weeks later, Elgizawy is having himself quite the summer. In said U-19 competition, he recorded averages of 7.1 points and 4.6 assists per game, and in the Under-16 African Championships back in 2021, he further averaged 6.5 points and 4.4 assists per game. In both, he showed some speed, handle and aggression, though the balance in his jump shooting form needs work still.

Youssef Aboushousha

• SG/SF – 6’4 – Born 9th June 1993
• Al Ittihad, Egypt

Contrasting the youth of Elgizawy and Moussa is the veteran Aboushousha, who can also be seen listed as Youssef Shousha in some places. His is an off-ball game, some shooting and probing, albeit not especially efficient at either. And as ever with Egyptian league players – as Aboushousha has been for his entire career to date – there is a shortage of available statistics to back up any other conclusions.

Amr Elgendy

• SG – 6’4 – Born 14th June 1991
• Al Ahly, Egypt

Egypt’s best off guard – if counting Ehab Amin as an undersized small forward – is Elgendy (variously listed as El Gendy), another from the Al Ahly national team pipeline. Although he barely featured in the Basketball Africa League for Al Ahly, Elgendy did have a substantial role in the Arab Club Championships last October, averaging 12.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game, nice all-around shooting guard numbers. A lefty shooter, Elgendy plays for the jump shot and has plenty of range on it, although he like many on this roster is devoid of the length and athleticism to be able to compete defensively against the best.

Ehab Amin

• SG/SF – 6’4 – Born 1st August 1995
• Al Ahly, Egypt

A graduate of Oregon, Amin returned to his homeland to play since leaving the Ducks in 2019, and has been one of the best players there. Hugely impactful on the defensive end, Amin has also taken on greater offensive responsibility over the years, to the tune of averaging 12.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in Basketball Africa League play last season. Hustle, energy, vocals, charges, flops, spot-ups and run-outs are the best parts of Amin’s game, and it appears he is getting better off the bounce, too.

Khaled Waleed Abdelgawad

• PF – 6’8 – Born 15th February 1999
• Zamalek, Egypt

As described above, it is difficult to get any numbers or any video on Egyptian players yet to leave Egypt. In the case of Abdelgawad, his biggest body of numbers available to these eyes were the nine games he played in the 2021 AfroBasket qualifiers, in which he averaged 3.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. The fouls were high, the turnovers were really high, and the free throw shooting (38.5%) was really low. Nice blocked shot numbers, though.

Assem Marei

• PF – 6’9 – Born 16th June 1992
• Changwon Sakers, South Korea

Marei, one of Egypt’s best-ever basketball players, has moved on from his quality European career to go out to Korea, where he has spent the last two years with the Sakers. In 2022/23, he averaged 15.0 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in only 24.8 minutes per game, and while the lack of size seen among Korea’s domestic players invariably means good rebounding numbers for any import big in the competition, none put in as many as Marei, who even outrebounded Jameel Warney. Marei is not a shooter, nor a great athlete, nor a multi-positional defender; rather, he eschews the modern stuff for a more old school game, dribble-driving, handing off, catching deep, screening, rolling, posting, hooking, spinning and finishing. He has good hands, good feet and good positional sense. You wish he was a bit quicker, but he is still the key to this Egyptian team.

Patrick Gardner

• PF/C – 6’9 – Born 1st January 2000
• Marist, NCAA Division I

Gardner, a 2023 graduate of Marist, has begun his professional career with a stint on the Miami Heat’s summer league team followed immediately by this trip to the World Cup. It is quite the speed of climb for a man playing for Division II Saint Michael’s University as recently as a year ago. Gardner has been able to skyrocket in this way on account of his play as a stretch five – the 19.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks per game he averaged in his lone Division I season are intriguing just on their face alone, but it is the 37.8% three-point shooting in a 6’11 frame that gives him the Justin Hamilton potential that the Heat were taking a look at at. And having an Egyptian mother means this could merely be the first of several World Cup rosters for him.

Anas Mahmoud

• C – 7’0 – Born 9th May 1995
• Al Ittihad, Egypt

Louisville graduate Mahmoud has a very intriguing playing style given his height, but the height alone does not tell the story of his physical profile. Narrow in his frame, he is instead very mobile, far more of a face-up player than a paint loiterer. There is no three-point shot to go with that, which would be ideal, and the bad free throw stroke does not suggest one is forthcoming any time soon, but he can defend with range more than many seven-footers, and throws in some handle to boot. The Egyptian version of Joakim Noah, then, is a very important piece if Egypt are to pull out any wins in this tournament.

Omar Oraby

• C – 7’2 – Born 8th September 1991
• Al Ahly, Egypt

Aside from beginning his pro career as a member of the Houston Rockets’ summer league roster, Oraby has been back in his home nation since graduating from USC back in 2014, which as ever means little in the way of available numbers to refer to. In last year’s BAL, however, he averaged 8.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in only 18 minutes per game, shooting 73.5% from the field. Although spindly, Oraby has the height advantage everywhere he goes, and plays accordingly as a rim protector, rebounder and shotblocker. And given that he will have Mahmoud and Gardner to share the five spot with, the perennially high foul rate born out of his very limited lateral movement need not matter. In his spot, he can rebound over the top, catch, finish, and get in the way, in both good ways and bad.

Group A: Italy, Angola, Philippines, Dominican Republic

Group B: China, Serbia, Puerto Rico, South Sudan

Group C: USA, Greece, Jordan, New Zealand

Group D: Egypt, Mexico, Lithuania, Montenegro

Group E: Germany, Finland, Australia, Japan

Group F: Slovenia, Cape Verde, Georgia, Venezuela

Group G: Iran, Spain, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire

Group H: Canada, Latvia, France, Lebanon