Egypt has only ever had two players in the NBA -- Alaa Abdelnaby and Abdel Nader -- with neither home-raised, but change is on the horizon as the Basketball Africa League raises Egypt-based players' profiles in the US.
Egyptian club Zamalek were African champions in 2021 and Al Ahly have made the playoffs in Kigali this year, where they will face hosts Rwanda Energy Group (REG) in the quarterfinals on May 20.
A decade ago, Egyptian players in NCAA Division I were anomalies, but they are increasingly becoming the norm. The current men's players in the division are Ismael Massoud (Georgetown), Essam Mostafa (TCU), Aly Khalifa (BYU), Adam Moussa (Tarleton State), Malek Abdelgowad (Murray State) and Belal Elshakery (Wofford).
One of the players who paved the way for Egyptian basketball was Al Ahly's 7-foot-3 center, Omar Oraby (31), formerly of Rice and USC. He started out as a swimmer and tennis player but became curious about basketball. A chance encounter with a scout from local club Gezira changed his life.
"I started playing [basketball] by myself and the coaches saw me at the club - Gezira Club - where I grew up. Obviously, I was much taller than kids my age, so he picked me to play on the team and that's how it started," Oraby told ESPN.
"I was swimming, actually, for Al Ahly, but Gezira was more of the social club where we would go and hang out with our friends that had a basketball court there, so this is where I used to play basketball."
Gezira has played a role in launching many basketball careers in the country - another being that of Seifeldin Hendawy (17), who spent the bulk of his formative years at Al Ahly, but is currently playing for Angola's Petro de Luanda via the NBA Africa Academy's BAL Elevate Program.
"I saw my father play - he used to play in Ahly. This gave me the influence of playing basketball and being persistent on it and fulfilling my dreams - this was my dream, just to play basketball," Hendawy said.
"I joined [Ahly] when I was 11... I left at 13 and went to Gezira. I played there for two years and then went back to Ahly at U16 [level]."
Hendawy's story is a familiar one in Egyptian basketball - many of the players in the sport today also learned the game from their parents. Another example is Jana El Alfy, who is in her first year at UConn and has the potential to become a global star.
Her father, too, played for Al Ahly, and gender was no obstacle for Hendawy and El Alfy, who grew up playing together socially.
Hendawy recalled: "We used to play pick-up games one on one when she used to be taller than me. When I was young, I was short. When the quarantine hit [in 2020], I grew up.
"I was playing one on one with Jana El Alfy somewhere in Ahly. We'd finish practice and go have fun. We just had nothing to do except go to school and then spend our whole day playing basketball."
Hendawy and El Alfy represent a new generation seeking to restore Egypt to its former glory. Their men's national team were African champions in 1962, 1964, 1970, 1975 and 1983 but never since. In fact, they even won EuroBasket in 1949. The women, meanwhile, were African champions in 1966 and 1968 but have also endured a drought since.
However, partially as a result of their competitive league and partially due to NBA Africa embracing Egypt as a key basketball venue by opening an office in Cairo, there is huge potential for them to rise again.
While Ahly and Zamalek, both from Cairo, are Egypt's two biggest sporting clubs and nearby Gezira can compete with them at basketball, Alexandria, three hours drive away, is known as a proud basketball city.
Apart from Cairo's Zamalek, Ahly and Gezira, Alexandria's Al Ittihad and Sporting Alexandria are the other two clubs to have been Egyptian basketball champions. Last year, Ahly beat Ittihad 3-2 in the finals series, but the MVP, Ehab Amin, was born in Alexandria although he helped Ahly get the win over his home city's biggest club.
Amin, who grew up playing for Sporting Alexandria and played college basketball for Texas A&M CC and Oregon, told journalists at the BAL: "Alexandria, obviously, is the capital of basketball in Egypt... [I was] born and raised [in Alexandria] until I was 17, before I moved to the States, so [I have] a lot of love for Alexandria and, of course, Cairo.
"As you can tell, a lot of kids come and watch the games. The game has been growing a lot. Thanks to the BAL and the Egyptian Federation, the game has been growing tremendously like football has been the whole time here."
Although football remains Egypt's biggest sport by a long way, there is evidence to support Amin's claim that basketball is already growing in Egypt.
"Now, I think it's the most players we've had in Division I basketball. I think we've got six... We have a lot of players in the NBA Academy, a lot of young talent coming up. That's all going to help the country and help the continent grow the sport," Oraby corroborated.
"I went to Rice first and then I went to USC, and back then, I think I was the only one playing Division I basketball... [American Division I players] had access to a lot of resources that we might not have had access to growing up - better facilities, better coaches. Of course, the sport over there is something else compared to Egypt.
"That was the main challenge going there at the beginning - you couldn't keep up with the speed, with the athleticism, because they were better coached growing up.
"When you play basketball in the US, you play basketball for your college, so you don't have the dilemma of balancing between education and sports. In Egypt, it's not the same. When you play basketball - when you play any sport - you play it at a club that has nothing to do with your university or high school or whatever, so it's very tough to do it on your own.
"That's why a lot of people quit playing sports. Their parents say that the most important thing is getting a degree and having good education and they think of sports as having a hobby.
"Over in the US, it's not the case. It's like a profession. It's much more professional and they know how to balance your time and figure out your schedules."
The NBA Africa's presence in Egypt is thus extremely important, as young talents like Hendawy and El Alfy have had access to a hybrid academic-sporting environment from a young age.
The BAL was in Cairo both in 2022 and 2023 for the Nile Conference, while its stadium, the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall, also hosted Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa in August-September 2022.
Furthermore, the NBA Africa opened an office in the city in January, demonstrating its commitment to Egypt as a key basketball venue.
Attendance remains an area of concern. The 5,200-capacity Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall rarely gets close to full for BAL games even when Ahly or Zamalek are playing.
However, the foundations are in place for the quality of basketball in Egypt to reach new highs, and should they repeat the glories from decades ago, then the rest, surely, will follow.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa. The playoffs and final will be played from May 20 to 27 in Kigali, Rwanda.