HESI U17 TOP 30: The Best Hoopers in the MENA (15-11)

The Middle East and North Africa region has a lot of unseen high-quality hoopers. Here we will give you the top 15-11 basketball players in the MENA Region according to their Regional, Continental and International competitions with their respective teams.

#15 Omar Talaat Abdelmeguid

The stretch four out of Egypt is one of the best shooters on the list and one of the best big men shooters can grow to more of a scoring threat if he can be consistent when attacking off the dribble. Omar has a tough spot behind prolific scoring forwards on the Egyptian team. Nonetheless, he doesn’t fall short and becomes an integral part of the Pharaohs because of his ability to knock down shots from deep consistently.

#14 Zakaryia Khodja

Zakaryia is one of the better scorers on this list. Zakariya helped Algeria achieve the third medal for the Algerian side in their history. Zakaryia is adept at creating contact and drawing fouls on his drives. He is a very adept ballhandler and floor general usually trying to facilitate before deciding to look for a bucket. His defence is one of the best on this list and leading the U16 African Championships in steals with 3.7 SPG. Despite his skills, he does lack shooting abilities only shooting 5.3% from behind the arc. If he works on this and can improve it he will be able to be one of the best guards in the MENA region.

#13 Hassan Amer

Hassan is one of those types of players that can do everything but score and affect the game positively. With that being said Hassan is a prolific scorer. Hassan can score at all 3 levels. He can score off the ball or on the ball. The beautiful thing about Hassan is that if he doesn’t do what he’s best at, scoring, he will try and affect the game in different ways. He will aggressively attack the glass for rebounds, play pest defence, and dive on loose balls. Hassan is loved by coaches because of his low ego and willingness to do about anything on the floor and on top of that he’s very good at putting the ball in the hoop.

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#12 Hussein El Marghy

The big man out of Egypt has a major upside with little downside. He is 6’8″ but moves like a guard. Hussein is very efficient at playing in the post or attacking off the dribble. He’s great at spot-up shooting and picks and popping. His big figure allows him to be able to body players on box-outs and secure rebounds, and despite not being athletic, Hussein is a very shot blocker. Once Hussein can get his body right he’ll be very dangerous.

#11 Sarem Jaafari

Sarem is a good scorer, he’s able to score from anywhere on the court. His shot is so smooth and his ability to pull up from any position on the floor will get you shocked. Sarem is a good rebounder averaging 9.6 RPG in the FIBA U16 Asian Championships. On top of that, he is a prolific rim protector and ball deflector testing offensive players at the rim and off the ball. Once Sarem can get consistent with his scoring he will be a scary piece on any team he is on.