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He's 7-5, 260 pounds, with a 8-foot wingspan. He turned eighteen less

 than a week ago. He’s a shot blocker with a soft shooting touch. He comes from Iran, and he can grab the rim flat footed and dunk on his tippy-toes!

The natural reaction to “from Iran” is, “So he can’t play, right?” But he can. He’s still raw but not as raw as you might imagine.

Jaber Rouzbahani has been playing basketball for less than four years. He played Yao Ming in an Asian Tournament last year and held him to 15 points. (About half of what Yao was averaging in the tournament.) He also played at the (19-under) World Junior Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece last summer in front of NBA scouts averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds per game and an eye opening 7 blocks, leading the entire tournament.

Jaber (pronounced JAB-er) has been working with Ansar Alameen, a (NBA skill development) coach since moving to America. Alameen said, “His development since I’ve been working with him is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It really comes down to his attitude.”

Rouzbahani was brought over from Iran three months ago after acquiring the necessary visa. He is currently staying in the Bay Area and works out at Contra Costa College.

His caretaker/advisor/translator Hashim Alauddeen, who works for Lebron James’ agent Aaron Goodwin, has brought the kid over and taken him into his home“Jaber expected there to be a disco tech on every corner.” said Alauddeen describing Jaber's misconceptions about the US being similar to our misconceptions about Iran. "There are a lot of misconceptions, in Iran it’s obviously a different culture, there is a more traditional dress and public presentation there, but people are people".

Alauddeen, from the Bay Area, is a long time friend of Goodwin who met his Iranian wife while studying in Tahran.

“They would never have allowed me to bring Jaber here if it wasn’t for my wife.”, explained Alauddeen. Describing the pitch he made to Jaber’s family, “I told them that Goodwin represents LeBron James and helped him get a 100 million dollar shoe deal from Nike, they looked at me like I was crazy. For shoes?”

Jaber had a normal family upbringing with loving parents. His father is average height standing roughly 6 foot. While his mother is tall at about 5'11.
born with the same pituitary gland disorder as fellow draft prospect Pavel Podkolzine. Also known as “giantism”, it is a disorder related to the pituitary gland which is involved in growth. Left untreated people with this disorder often die from it in their 30‘s or 40‘s as their body cannot sustain the growth.

Unlike Podkolzine, Rouzbahani had his pituitary gland removed 2 years ago. Pavel however is currently taking medication to combat the disorder.

As with much of the world, basketball is an afterthought to soccer. In Iran, basketball is almost non-existant. There is one gym in the city where Jaber is from and it is used by the professional team. Growing up, Rouzbahani had heard of "Shaq" but didn't know what he did.

He had a chance to meet his favorite player (Shaquille O'Neal) on a chance meeting on a trip up to Portland. As the two biggest people for miles around, the two spotted one another from across a parking lot. Shaq walked the length of the parking lot to shake the big fella’s hand. Shaq said, "You're the big kid from Iran right?". When asked how he knew of Jaber, Shaq pointed to his head and said, "I know everything."

Jaber’s English is still in it's infant stages. Since coming to the US, one of the first English words he learned is "foul".

 Since not knowing the word was causing arguements in pickup games as opponents didn’t believe that he didn't know how to speak English. He’s still reluctant to call fouls, so his trainer tells him to continue going hard to the basket even after the foul. former Georgetown center and 7-footer Wesley Wilson. “When Wesley started playing him a month ago he was killing him”, Alauddeen said. “Now, Jaber can play him head up.”

Seen in the photo below posting up against Wilson, Jaber would hit a shot from the top of the key to win this game and walked off the court with a big grin on his face.

Jaber is in the same boat with Pavel Podkolzine and Peter Ramos as he’s young and has great potential but still a big project. He is more raw than the others but defensively there is even more intrigue because of the development curve. He won't ever be a 20 game scorer, but he could be a big value to a team as a shot blocker.

Jaber has declared for the draft and will stay the course and hope to get drafted or worst case scenario hope to get picked up by a team as a free agent and put on IR for a few seasons to develop.

One “unnamed NBA team” has already inquired about hiding him, so apparently teams have interest. With his considerable upside, how could they not