![]() ![]() Anyone who questioned whether the Thompson twins were good because they were 20-year-olds playing against teenagers in a start-up league momentarily got an answer. Ausar was the event’s stat-stuffer, averaging 13.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.8 blocks per game and regularly showing off the defense that made Cooper want to take his career elsewhere.Īusar Thompson was a walking billboard for Overtime Elite. Amen’s Las Vegas Summer League stint was cut short due to an injury in the Rockets’ first game. 4 to the Houston Rockets, and Ausar went behind him to the Detroit Pistons. “They did a little bit better than that.”īack in June’s NBA Draft, Amen and Ausar Thompson became the first twins to be selected in the draft’s top five. “It said, ‘I want this job because we could make these kids lottery picks.’ “I just saw the email the other day,” Cooper told The Athletic this week about his follow-up email to Overtime Elite’s decision-makers following that 2021 minicamp. He’d beat him to the spot, make lunch, eat it and then stop the offensive player in his tracks after he wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin.Ĭooper witnessed that a few times. Cooper remembers many instances when Ausar Thompson, specifically, knew where an offensive player wanted to go before the player did. Their look, the athleticism, the smarts, the defense. Ausar and Amen Thompson demanded attention. It was as if Cooper was seeing double because he was. There was a kid who shared the floor with someone who looked exactly like him. Upon arriving, Cooper didn’t even know how badly he truly wanted to be part of the start-up program. A job as the program’s lead skills trainer wasn’t guaranteed. ![]() shocked the world as they emerged into the knockout stages in lieu of the Euro2022 finalists.Īnd while Morocco were unable to advance through the knockout stages following a 4-0 defeat to France, the legacy left behind by the women's national team and Benzina is nothing short of prodigious.Cooper went there to work the minicamp. The victory secured Morocco the title of the first Middle Eastern and North African region to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.Īfter being drawn into a daunting group with favourites Germany, Columbia and Korea Republic, Benzina and co. The defender helped the Atlas Lions to become the first North African and Arab country to participate in the final of a continental tournament, WAFCON, after defeating African powerhouse and 11-time defending champions Nigeria in the semi-final. It is not the first bout of history making for Benzina, who touts an impressive CV of historic landmarks. ![]() While the in-game addition is a minor technical alteration, the wider impact is inarguably immense, with an entire demographic of fans and players previously disregarded able to feel represented. Nouhaila Benzina and Sofia Bouftini of Morocco celebrate advancing to the knock out stage (Image: Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images) ![]() Previously, Benzina's hijab was not available in the game's World Cup mode, but EA Sports applied an update hours before Morocco's last-16 clash with France. Seven years later, the governing body lifted the ban, though numerous countries and federations, most notably the FFF, still exclude hijabi-wearing players from participating in the sport.īenzina's visibility on the world stage, however, has paved the way for major societal shifts through the women's game.Īnd video game behemoth EA Sports has taken up the call and announced a patch update to FIFA 23 that will see Benzina's in-game avatar include her hijab. In 2007, FIFA issued a ban on all hijabs, with the belief that the garment was a “safety risk” to players. Indeed, less than three weeks before the start of the summer's showpiece event, France’s top administrative court upheld the French football federation's (FFF) ban on players wearing hijabs during football matches, deeming the regulation “suitable and appropriate.” Morocco's first-ever World Cup victory coincided with the sight of Benzina wearing her hijab in what represented watershed territory for athletes of Muslim faith, who have historically struggled to freely express their faith in competitive sports. The 25-year-old became the first footballer in history to don a hijab at a senior-level major tournament when she started Morocco's second group stage match against Korea Republic.īenzina helped her side to a 1-0 victory that eventually landed Morocco an historic spot in the tournament's knockout stages at the expense of two-time world champions Germany. Moroccan star Nouhaila Benzina wrote her name in football's history books during this summer's Women's World Cup, and the defender will now be immortalised for it within football's biggest gaming franchise. ![]()
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