Dallas basketball player describes escape from Iran airstrikes – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

As conflict intensified in Iran, U.S. citizens scrambled to return home. A North Texas basketball player was in Tehran when airstrikes began.

Sabria Dean of Dallas captured the moments on camera and later shared her story with NBC 5 after returning home to North Texas.

Since September, Dean had been playing professional basketball for a team in Iran. She said she was staying at a hotel during the playoffs with her teammates, most of whom were from Iran, when the airstrikes began.

“It was a loud noise, but I was just like, I literally was asking them, ‘what was that?’” Dean said.

Her teammates urged her to call home and ask what television stations in the United States were reporting.

“We were on group FaceTime, and my brother answered first, and I was like, ‘bro, that’s a bomb back there.’ His mouth dropped to the floor. He was like, oh my gosh,” she said.

Strikes were happening in Tehran while Dean was there. She began recording the tense moments on her phone.

“It was so loud. I can’t even think of anything else that comes close to how loud it was,” Dean said. “It felt like the ground shook, it kind of vibrated my body, like the whole 30-second sequence of that was insane.”

Dean said the general managers for her team quickly arranged a plan to get her out of the region.

“I’m not sure who they called, but I know within an hour, an hour and a half, they had a whole game plan for me to get out of there,” she said.

They arranged a driver for the first leg of her trip home.

“Oh, that’s a special man because I know that was tough. I could barely keep my eyes open. And I know he was tired, but he drove us 13 hours to Turkey,” Dean said.

In a video that has since gone viral, Dean narrated part of the journey and described how her faith played a role. She said she used what she called her “blessed oil.”

“I had packed up my room, and I hadn’t used it in a couple of months. But I thought it was convenient that I found it when there was stuff like this going on,” she said. “Like, I had nothing else that I could do.”

Dean said her teammates were also a source of strength during the experience and that she had a positive experience living in the country.

“I know that’s probably strange to hear, but the culture is great, even with the differences in religion and government. Nobody ever treated me badly,” she said.

After hours on the road, a 12-hour layover and a 13-hour flight, Dean arrived back at DFW Airport, where family members and her dog, Sadie Mea, greeted her.

She said she is still processing what happened and often writes in a journal to make sense of the experience.

As for the teammates she left behind, Dean said she hopes to reconnect with them soon.

“Those are my teammates, you know. But they became good friends too. And I didn’t really, whenever I left them, I didn’t know what was going to happen the rest of the day,” she said. “So, I didn’t really get to say any proper goodbyes.”