Muin Bek Hafeez (born 16 March 1996) is an Indian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player, most recently for Indian Bank Chennai BC.

High school

Hailing from Krishnagiri, Muin Hafeez has practiced many different sports disciplines. As a kid he played

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, Kho kho and

Martial Arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

. While at school at the ''SAI Academy'' in Salem, Hafeez also competed in

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

at the divisional and

Throwball Throwball is a non-contact ball sport played across a net between two teams of seven players on a rectangular court. Throwball is popular in Asia, especially on the Indian subcontinent, and was first played in India as a women's sport in Chenn ...

at the state-level.Muin Bek Hafeez's Redemption Song
Karan Madhok (

nba.com The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

), 13 March 2020. Accessed 30 December 2020. Soon, Muin Hafeez discovered his talent for basketball and went on to favor it before all other sports. He normally played the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

position.

College

When Muin Hafeez went to college at Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, he competed against physically bigger opponents. This made him switch positions so he moved outside to play

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He eventually found success representing his university, with whom he won the ''IMG-Reliance College League National Finals''. He was also selected for

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

's U18 squad for the ''Junior Nationals'' in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, and his performances earned him an invite to India's national camps in 2014. In 2017, when he was still in college, he played in the nationals finals once again.

Later playing career

He played for ONGC BC in the 2018 ''Federation Cup''. In 2019, he joined the Indian Bank Chennai BC, which dominated through half a dozen invitational tournaments that year. In 2020, he finished as top scorer for Indian Bank at the National Championship.

India national team

In 2017, as a late bloomer, Hafeez received an invitation for India’s national team. He made his India debut at age 21 for the

2017 SABA Championship The 2017 SABA Championship is the 6th SABA Championship, and the qualifying event in the SABA sub-zone, one of the FIBA Asia's subzone for the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup and 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers. The games were held from 19 t ...

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

. He achieved a rare feat, playing for the senior squad without prior experience with either the U18 or U16 squad. Hafeez played for the team in three continuous tournaments that year-the BRICS Games in China, the

William Jones Cup The William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament (), also known as the William Jones Cup, is an international basketball tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) held annually since 1977 in sports, 1977 ...

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

, and the

2017 FIBA Asia Cup The 2017 FIBA Asia Cup (formerly known as the FIBA Asia Championship) was the 29th continental basketball championship in Asia. The tournament was organised by FIBA Asia. It took place from 8 to 20 August 2017, a week earlier from the initial sche ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. In July 2019, Hafeez finally called back up to the national team. India’s new head coach Veselin Matic gave him the role as

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

, a position, that India has often struggled with in the past. Hafeez later stressed the major adjustments he had to make to switch positions in such a drastic way. At the

2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualification The 2022 FIBA Asia Cup qualification was a basketball competition that was played from February 2018 to August 2021, to determine the fifteen FIBA Asia-Oceania nations who would join the automatically qualified host Indonesia at the 2022 FIBA Asi ...

, at the first game against

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

, Hafeez ended up with 13 points and 8 rebounds, and led the team in efficiency rating (13). Because of his good performance, Hafeez was part of the

Starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are substitutes or b ...

against

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

three days later. By the final buzzer, Hafeez had ended with a team-high 24 points, a game-high 8 assists, plus 8 rebounds and 3 steals, all while finishing with the highest efficiency in the game (32). India cruised to a 94-75 win. India was able to end its losing streak.India ease to win over Iraq in Asia Cup 2021 qualifier

Olympic Channel Olympic Channel is an over-the-top Internet television service operated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was launched on August 21, 2016, alongside the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The service aims to maintain year-round ...

, 24 February 2020. Accessed 18 January 2021.

Personal

He holds a degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

.Hoop and the hype: Meet the promising basketball talent knocking on Team India doors
Shivani Naik (

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

), 9 January 2020. Accessed 12 January 2021.

High school

College

Later playing career

India national team

Personal

References

External links