Brother Kyrie or Brother Jaylen? A Muslim Fan's NBA Finals Dilemma

This is the first official “Sports Ball” post on The Left Hook podcast.

Friends, I know many of you might not care about the NBA or the sports ball, but I invite you to watch my quick video (at the top of this post), because it might be culturally illuminating, and dare I say, entertaining.

For those who don’t know, it’s NBA Finals season, and the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks are both vying for the trophy.

Muslim fans are having a rare moment of good news because we have two Muslim superstars competing against each other at the highest stage. It’s been a while. We had Kareem, Hakeem the Dream, Shareef Abdur Rahim, Rasheed Wallace, and of course, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf who got Kaepernicked before Colin Kaepernick.

Now, we have some up-and-coming brothers on the UCONN team, and we have Brother Kyrie Irving for Dallas and Brother Jaylen for Boston in the Finals.

However, since no God-fearing, patriotic American with good taste can root for any sports team from Boston or Dallas, we are in a bit of a haram pickle.

Do we root for Brother Kyrie or Brother Jaylen?

I have created a very fair, objective, point-based system where I will award them a point in the following categories:

1. Are they an All-Star?

2. Have they played in the NBA Finals?

3. Are they openly Muslim?

4. Do they fast during Ramadan?

5. Do they attend the local mosque?

6. Do they have dhikr beads?

7. Who has the better Muslim beard?

8. Have they avoided controversies?

I’ll also assign special points when necessary.

Click on the video to see my final fatwa.