Khalid El-Amin's Son Ishmael To Follow In His DI Footsteps
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Khalid El-Amin was as dynamic a point guard as we have seen in this state. He was the man at Minneapolis North High School.
Now it's time for his oldest son to shine at Hopkins High School, with some help from his dad.
Khalid is in the weight room, working with his two sons. His oldest, Ishmael, is a senior. Khalid has missed much of his basketball career because he has been playing overseas. This season he is not, so he's here.
"It's been great actually. You know, through the years I haven't always been here to watch him personally, but now I get to be here and really get to see him and have my hands on him and teach him," Khalid said.
Even when Dad was not here, he cast a shadow. That is what happens when are considered one of the best basketball players to come out of the state.
Khalid was the point guard on three straight state championship teams. You receive legendary status that your son cannot miss.
'I've heard so many different stories, so many great stories. I've seen films, so I know he was a man in Minnesota when he played back in the day," Ishmael said. "He held it down."
He is doing a pretty good job of cutting his own path. He is already committed to Division I Ball State. The comparisons to Dad are at least in the conversation.
"The strange part is just making comparisons. You kind of want to make comparisons all the time. Khalid was, you know, truly, truly special. And he had such a strong and powerful personality. And [Ishmael] is just getting that," said Hopkins Coach Ken Novak.
That is, to an extent, what Khalid sees; a kid transforming into a young man.
"I don't get nervous. I get excited because, you know, I'm ready for them to break out and be the player that I know that they can be," Khalid said. "But I know it's a process, and I'm willing to wait … for their game to mature."
Part of what made Khalid the player he was did not make sense. He was short and a bit pudgy, but that did not matter. He was game-on every day.
"I had the ambition. I wanted people to … remember me," Khalid said. "When I played the game, I wanted everyone in the stands that was in the gym to notice that Khalid El-Amin was on the floor."
And that's what his son is becoming; a leader who loves the action, and who wants to own it.
"Be a leader for my team, you know, whatever situation we're in, whatever thing we need to get done, you know, to get a 'W' out there on the court," Ishmael said.
What Khalid knows is that this a process, and the key to his son's development is the key to what he sees in all the basketball players he trains.
"They don't know what their potential could be," Khalid said. "Each player that plays the game, I'm sure they want to be good. They see themselves hitting that last-second shot to win the game. They see themselves playing in Division I or NBA. But they don't put in the work to do that."
Because he not only was good enough, but he still is good enough to handle his son in a game of father-son one-on-one.
"We go back and forth. We've played a couple of times, but as of right now I'm close but I'm not there yet," Ishmael said. "I got a couple new things I need to learn still, but I'll get him soon."