Kazemi plans to be first Iranian to receive U.S. hoops scholarship (cont.)

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Ibrahim has taken some steps to Americanize Kazemi's basketball skill set; in his work as a travel agent, Ibrahim has counted a number of NBA players as clients, and he called upon one of them for a favor this year. That was how Kazemi's primary workout partner in Houston became Nick Van Exel.

"The first time Anthony told me we were going to work out with a real NBA player, I was so excited," Kazemi said. "[Van Exel] knows so much stuff that he can show me. We have been doing a lot of ballhandling and shooting." Van Exel has confided in Ibrahim that he thinks Kazemi, as a collegian, "can play anywhere in the country."

During spring break from Patterson, in April, Ibrahim took Kazemi to play in the Houston Rockets' Blacktop Battle, a high-profile streetball tournament in the city. There, Kazemi finished third in the dunk contest -- although he questions, half-seriously, whether he was stiffed by internationally unfriendly judges. "I went through my legs [in the air] and dunked it, and the judge only gave me eight," he said, laughing. Lest anyone worry about him being corrupted by the And-1 movement that has decayed American fundamentals, Kazemi makes it clear that what went on in the Blacktop Battle, "was not real basketball."

No player -- especially an unknown name from Iran -- can earn scholarship offers based on a few workouts and a streetball tournament, though, which is why Ibrahim sent Kazemi on a barnstorming tour of Big 12 summer camps earlier this summer. During June, Kazemi and Ibrahim road-tripped to Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri and Oklahoma State, putting on stellar enough performances in the latter three camps to spark recruiting interest. Those were Kazemi's first experiences inside major-college gyms, and he said he was slack-jawed in amazement -- think Hoosiers entering Hinkle Fieldhouse -- the first time he stepped inside, especially at Gallagher-Iba in Stillwater.

"We don't have any big, stadium gyms in Iran," he said. "I've been to NBA games with Anthony in Houston, but when I went to college I thought it was going to be normal-sized. When I saw Oklahoma State and Missouri and Texas and A&M, all those gyms are huge. It was very nice."

Kazemi has not acted in awe of any American talent on the AAU circuit. He played well enough with Team Arkansas in the Kingwood Classic in May that he was picked up by the elite Houston Select squad -- with whom he'll be traveling to Las Vegas later this month. After Las Vegas he will face one of the biggest dilemmas of his young life: Does he risk leaving the states to play with the Iranian junior team in the West Asian championships in Yemen, when it's not yet a certainty that he'll be able to obtain another visa back into the U.S.?

Students coming to American from Iran, which has been listed by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism, are faced with tough choices. Their F-1 visas, unlike those of a student from an EU nation, are only good for one entry. To re-enter, Kazemi must apply all over again -- and given that there hasn't been a U.S. Embassy in Iran since the hostage crisis of 1979, this is no cakewalk. Ibrahim helped Kazemi navigate a "challenging" documentation process the first time around -- but even a lengthy delay in the ordeal could endanger his schooling for the '08-09 year.

Because of this issue, Kazemi says, "I'm not playing relaxed when I'm here. I'm in the U.S. to get better as a player -- but I practiced three years with my national team, and I am the captain. It was very important to me."

While the Iranian senior national team -- which qualified for the Summer Olympics for the first time since 1948 -- begins a short exhibition series at the Rocky Mountain Review summer league in Salt Lake City this week, Kazemi said his junior teammates from Iran have been calling him daily with pleas to re-join their squad. The top three teams from the West Asian Games advance to the FIBA World Championships, and without Kazemi, its star, Iran will have a difficult time clinching one of those bids.

Ibrahim and Kazemi, as of Monday night, were still considering their options for the West Asian Games trip, getting opinions about whether obtaining a return F-1 visa in August was a possibility. Kazemi said his teammates from Iran have been calling him, almost daily, with pleas to rejoin the Iranian U-18 squad. He desperately wants to do just that -- but only if it doesn't jeopardize his shot of playing in the NCAA, and perhaps someday, the NBA.

"They all keep saying, 'We know [being] over there is better for you, and we know that you can play over there. But we need you,'" Kazemi said. "But I have to say to them, 'C'mon, you have to leave me alone. I'm sad about this. It's hard not to go back.'"