Pakistan - Herricks' Rahi a South Asian with a dream

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Five years ago while visiting his father's hometown in Pakistan, American-born Shaan Rahi had a pleasant experience on a basketball court in Sahiwal, a town just outside Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab State.

To his surprise, a small crowd gathered to see him play. "They told their friends that I was from America," Rahi said. "They were thinking, 'He's American, he must be really good.' "

While he may have felt instantly comfortable in that corner of the basketball universe, it wasn't quite so easy back home.

For a lanky kid with hoop dreams, his first year participating in Herricks' regular Saturday basketball clinics was a trying exercise in size-inferiority. He wasn't yet old enough to play high school ball.

"I looked at the varsity team, like, 'Wow, how did they get so good?' I thought they were so huge and muscular," he said.

His first couple of games as a varsity player at Herricks were no more comforting. Opponents seemed to be singling him out with rough, physical play and so much trash talk, that he began questioning how much fun he was having. "They were on me so hard," Rahi recalled.

But it turns out, those relatives in Pakistan were right. Things are a bit different these days for the 16-year-old junior guard/forward. When Herricks goes through its warm-ups before games, it's not uncommon for a satisfied grin to break out on Rahi's face before the opening tip. Rahi, at peace with himself on the court - and in the classroom - averaged 15 points for Herricks. He had season highs of 32 points and 19 rebounds in a game against New Hyde Park.

A reversal of roles now has the young players at Herricks' clinics in awe of Rahi, who now stands at 6-4. This spring he will play for Syosset assistant Tom Hughes with the AAU Rising Stars.

If he achieves his goal of playing college basketball at the Division I level, he will be one of few South Asians to do so. He says the experience on the court while in Pakistan serves as a driving force for his success in the United States.

Before Pakistan's parliamentary elections on Feb. 18, the country was devastated by a rash of car and suicide bombings by Islamic militants, and by the assassination of Pakistan People's Party leader and feminist icon Benazir Bhutto. A week later, a suicide bomber killed Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmad Baig, the surgeon general of the Pakistani Army, and six others.

Deadly suicide blasts in Lahore on March 4 marked the fifth consecutive day of attacks by pro-Taliban militants there. Despite this turmoil, the Rahi family will go to Pakistan for the first time in nearly five years.

"I have a little bit of fear," said Intaz Rahi, Shaan's father, of returning to Pakistan. "But I also have good connections and good friends. They will advise me where and where not to go."

Pakistan is home to some of the world's best cricket players, and soccer has always been popular in South Asian countries. But where cricket is a relic of English colonial rule in South Asian, basketball is a sport whose growth in the region has been built on the growing popularity of the NBA worldwide. When Shaan was watching an NBA game recently, Intaz, half-seriously, asked Shaan how long it would be before he played in the league.
"I'm from a family where I was encouraged to concentrate on education," said Intaz, who is 50 and owns a contracting business. "My father really tried to push me away from sports. But Shaan's dream is that he will be a leading player in his future. It is my dream also."

Intaz wants his son to be proud of his Pakistani heritage, and attempts to explain its political situation. But to Shaan, the dearth of South Asian basketball players at the highest levels of the sport in America is just as perplexing as, say, the intricacies of political representation in Pakistan's National Assembly. "Even when we go to other schools, I don't see that many brown kids playing," said Rahi, in reference to how South Asian youth describe themselves. "It would be nice to have someone to relate to."

His high school coach says that if he gets stronger and improves his jump shot he has a solid chance to make it to Division I. Said Herricks coach Tom Kinsella: "Shaan and one other player on our team are the only ones who didn't miss a practice all year." You cannot teach dedication, he says.

His father recalled the way that South Asians adopt "cricket diplomacy" to unite people during significant international matches. He knows how much his son loves basketball, and it's why Shaan, in his own small way, could help spur another type of diplomacy, perhaps on a basketball court this summer in Pakistan.