MEDINA (Saudi Arabia) - Wael Arakji has the opportunity to author unprecedented success in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) should he bring the upstart Al Ula Club to the Promised Land.
The reigning league MVP could become the first player to win all championships in the pan-regional competition in the event that he and the Saudi Basketball League outfit take home the WASL-Gulf League crown.
"I signed here to reach this stage," he said after their 91-79 win over Al Arabi SC at the Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hall last January 20 to clinch the no. 1 spot in Group B and head straight to the Semi-Finals.
Arakji joined the Arabian Leopards back in July of last year, bringing with him an extensive basketball resume highlighted by a West Asia 'three-peat' and a WASL back-to-back feat with the mighty Al Riyadi.
That's precisely why some fans and observers got quickly excited when the club was confirmed to join the league last September, intrigued as well to see a player of his caliber take his talents to the Gulf League.
As the dust settled in the Sub-Zone League's Group Phase, the lefty guard helped bring Al Ula to the Semi-Finals, which is already an achievement per se for a team that's just in its first rodeo in WASL.
And an achievement for Arakji himself, too, as he's playing in the Semi-Finals for the fourth time in as many league campaigns. But being the winner that he is, the Lebanese star isn't planning to stop anytime soon.
"In West Asia, in this tournament, I've won it for like three times so far," said the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup MVP, who's currently leading the WASL-Gulf League in scoring with 29.0 points per game on 59.5-percent shooting.
"So now, I'm on a new mission. I need to lead this team to reach the Final and win the WASL-Gulf League. Hopefully, we're gonna do that," added Arakji, who's also averaging 5.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists.
Yet he's also aware that he couldn't do it all by himself, that achieving such gravity of success would require a total team effort which he believes they could accomplish, given how he's liking their growth together.
"We're climbing the stairs step by step," Arakji said, "We're doing a great job, honestly; game by game, we're improving. Coach Izzat [Ismail] arrived here, like, four weeks ago, and week after week we're getting better."
"The best part of it is we've won all our tough games so far, and we've been doing a great job. We're playing very good defense. I know we can be better. But the team is winning, everybody's doing what he's supposed to do."
"And, we're winning collectively," he added. "This is the most important thing."
As optimistic as he is, Arakji, together with the rest of his squad, would rather choose to stay grounded and focused on the task at hand. That means working for the Semi-Finals first, before anything else.
"We don't want to put extra pressure on ourselves. Now, we have reached the Semi-Finals, we need to win two games to reach the Final. And again, like I said, we will climb the ladder step by step," he said.
FIBA