Samir St. Clair, the subject of this month’s #BlackEye, started his basketball coaching journey on a humble, helping his friend run a team of pre-teens. Little did he know his love of leading and guiding the careers of athletes would take him around the world! Now he’s here with us in Japan doing the damn thing!
His journey is a remarkable one! Here’s an excerpt:
After one year at Clark, St. Clair made the decision that this would be his career path, and that it was time he sought a position as head coach. An opportunity to do just that presented itself then. Only problem was, it was a long way from Georgia. Namely, in the Middle East, in the United Arab Emirates. His plan was just to stay there a couple of years, acquire some head coaching experience and then make his way back to the US. But, like myself and many of the expats here in Japan as well, that couple of years kept extending—and for good reasons.
“We got spoiled in Dubai, socially,” St. Clair says. “You can find your own niche and be comfortable. There’s a basketball community and a large community of African-Americans there, as well. It’s just like home, really. There are 110 different nationalities that live there, about 10 million people all told, and about 85% of the population are foreigners. You’ve got everything there. If you didn’t know you were in Dubai, you might think you were in Miami!”
For the rest of the story, peep the full article for the Japan Times HERE: The Hoops Worth Going Through!
Enjoy!!
Baye