Interbasket

Two-time West Asian champions, three-time Asia’s runner-up, and after participating in the last two Fiba World Championship (2002 and 2006), something is amiss with Lebanon… and to me, that is the Olympic Games!

Despite being the favourites in last year’s FIBA Asia Championship that was held in Japan, Lebanon lost a dramatic 74 - 69 match against Iran.  Lebanon lost the one and only automatic invitation that was given to Asia and must now go through the Olympic Qualifiers that will be held in Athens, Greece from 14-20 July 2008.

Comparing the preparations that Lebanon is currently going through and the group in which Lebanon was drawn in, many might agree that these preparations are not quite enough. The ability to stand up against teams like Greece and Brazil, requires more than just two friendly tournaments and in such a short time!

The “Cedars” team was assembled relatively late, around the middle of June, due to the long Lebanese basketball season and then headed immediately after one week to Jordan. Lebanon was able to win the WABA championship, that was held in Amman, Jordan from 19-21 June, against relatively weaker teams (except Jordan) but with an unconvincing performance.  It was clear that the Lebanon still lacked the chemistry and the ability to play fully as a cohesive team.

Lebanon then traveled to Canada to participate in the Jack Donohue International Classic from from June 30 until July 5, 2008.  Their three losses, two against Canada and New Zealand, plus the big loss of Joe Vogel to injury, certainly did not put things back into a positive perspective.  Lebanon not only failed to win any games, but they also failed to improve their style of play.

Perhaps the only bright spot was Rony Fahed, but the rest of the team, even superstar Fadi El-Khatib, were not able to produce their normal way of playing, thus creating more doubts not only to whether Lebanon can make it through to the second round, but also to whether they will be able to give a decent performance that truly reflects the current good level of Basketball in the country.

With not much time left to go, Lebanon headed to France in order to participate in a friendly tournament with Cameroon and Cape Verde.  Cameroon, due to financial problems, forfeited the tournament and Lebanon ended up playing only one match against Cape Verde. Even so, Lebanon lost to Cape Verde in surprising 90-88 match, but the game did have some highlights, as key players played well (El-Khatib scoring 35 pts, Beshara, whom did not play against Canada, added 16 pts, Ali and Rony 15 pts each). This was their last chance to try and improve things and accomodate the abscense of their star center, Vogel.

The Lebanese team did not have enough good preparation and is now having some performance problems, but that never stopped them from playing with their hearts and surprising someone.  Everyone remembers that famous 74-73 win for Lebanon over France on the 23rd of August 2006 in the last FIBA World Championship in Japan.  They were able to beat the odds then, but with all these chemistry issues, can Lebanon do it again?

Sources and Links: Canadian Men defeat Lebanon in opener of Jack Donohue International Classic (basketball.ca) - Tall Blacks down Lebanon 84-71(basketball.ca) - Canada ends Donohue Classic on a positive note (basketball.ca) - Lebanon will miss Joe Vogel in Athens (fiba.com) - National team in trouble (africabasket.com) - Cape Verde defeating Lebanon (In Portuguese) (liberal.sapo.cv) - Lebanese & Middle East Basketball Message Board (Interbasket) - Lebanon NT 2008! (Discussion - Interbasket Forum)

We’ve had a lot of positive traction on our forum from some under-represented regions as we’ve recently received some great members from Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.

Great Egytian and Iranian Basketball Threads
First off, I wanted to recognize a couple great informational forum threads regarding domestic basketball leagues in Iran and Egypt. mohsena2631 and soliman have created and have updated these league threads with stats, news and other pertinent information. Check them out here: Egyptian Basketball and Iranian Basketball Super League.

Fadi El-Khatib Stronger than Yao Ming?
With only a few days left before polls close on the 2007 Interbasket Awards, we’ve had an influx of Lebanese basketball fans voicing their opinions on why Fadi El-Khatib deserves the Interbasket Asian Basketball Player of the 2007 Award over Yao Ming. Many of the votes may be nationalistic, but some true die-hards strongly believe that Fadi is the one.

What about Michael Madanly of Syria?
Also recently, Interbasket has been visited by Syrian basketball fans pushing for the inclusion of Syrian superstar Michael Madanly (misspelt several different ways on our forum mandanly, maadanly, madanley) into the 2007 Asian Player nominees. Unfortunately, we are too far late in the game to have included him. It’s nothing personal against him, just didn’t make much sense with the polls closing soon and Fadi and Yao so far ahead in voting. I hope that the Syrians stick around to nominate him in 2008 if he Madanly is still deserving.

A Question of Weighing Accomplishments
Even with Madanly having been included in our nominations for 2007 IBN Asian Basketball Player of the year, we still have the difficulty of selecting a player from a pool of players that participate in separate leagues.

It’s a question of worth — Does Yao Ming deserve the award simply because he is an all-league center, an all-star, maybe the best center on the earth playing in the toughest basketball league?

Or do we go for great domestic players that are setting precedence, as Fadi Khatib recently did dominating the Ukranian third league in his first year with Cherkaski Mavpi? How much is social change factor in when awarding player of the year?

Or do we go with players like Wang Zhizhi (China), Hamed Haddadi (Iran) or Michael Madanly (Syria)? These players may not be well-known across the continents, but accomplished much in 2007; from leading their team to domestic league championships in 2007 (Wang), leading their country to a surprising gold medal in the 2007 Asian Championships (Haddadi), to being the unquestioned best player in their country, and the leading scorer in the 2007 Dubai Cup and 2007 Asian Club Cup (Madanly).

Weighing the Diversity of Basketball
Different leagues, different competition levels, different awards, different circumstances, different social barriers; so how do does one reconcile all that to select one player? In a way, that’s the beauty of learning about international basketball - all the subtle and extreme differences.

My suggestion is to inform yourself about each player nominated and understand their circumstances. What if Yi Jianlian wins an NBA championship in 2014 and is the first Asian player to take home a NBA Finals MVP, but what if it was the same year that an 6-3 point guard from the Philippines leads his team to a unexpected silver in the Asian Championships, becomes the first Filipino drafted by the Spanish league and becomes an all-ACB performer? (I know that’s an impossible timeline for one calendar year, but I’m just using it to make a point)

o do those three accomplishments (Silver medal as an underdog, first Filipino in ACB, all-ACB) weigh more than an NBA Championship and NBA Finals MVP in your mind? It’s social change vs. important awards and though both are deserving, it would be up to you to decide which is a larger in the big picture. And the best way to do that is to inform yourself before choosing your winner.

Sources and Info: Egyptian league 07/08 - rosters (Forum Thread), Iranian Basketball Super League (Forum Thread), Iranian Basketball Player Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami dies in car accident, Iran: The rising basketball power of Asia, Fadi El-Khatib Dominates First Game in Europe (News), 2007 Interbasket Awards, 2007 IBN Asian Player of the Year (Forum Thread), Middle East Basketball Forum (Interbasket), 2007 Asian Championships Forum, 2007 Dubai Cup (Interbasket).

Fadi El-Khatib’s Visa was refused by the Belgium embassy, possibly putting an end to Cherkasi-Mavpi’s participation in the 2008 FIBA Eurocup Games (at least for now), the top men’s basketball tournament run by FIBA Europe.

Cherkas-Mavpi, in a move of solidarity by it’s players (including former NBA player Martynas Andriuskevicius), the director, and the organization, sent a scathing letter to the Belgian Embassy accusing them of racism and refusing to participate in the tournament if the VISA is not issued by December 18th. El Khatib’s was the only VISA that was not approved. Here is the text from that letter:

“We inform that due to the refusal in issuing the visa for the player of the basketball team ‘Cherkaski Mavpy’ - El Khatib El Cheikh Fadi - was held the extra meeting of the team members, where the prejudiced actions of teh represtatives of the Belgian Embassy were wrathful condemned concerning the representatives of other races and is decided to refuse from participation in FIBA Euro Cup games in solidarity with the player El-Khatib!

The team “Chersaki Mavpy” is agitated with such shameful attitude and disrespect to the people with another skin color and belief! Nowadays, whent he messengers in the whole world try to do all possible to patch up national conflicts, you act qyute the reverse.

The team ‘Cherkaski Mavpy’
Jarutis R., Podolyako D., Lebediev A., Lokhmanchuk Y., Edwards J., Revzin P., Andriukaitis M., Chekovski G., Podkovyrov A., Kholpov V., Kozyryev V., Kotlyar I.”

Fadi El-Khatib is a Lebanese Arab and is Muslim, so many believe that the denial is based on some form of discrimination (as Cherkasy believes) while others believe that it may be political. Some say it could possibly be because Fadi’s papers were not in order but that seems unlikely since all of Mavpi’s VISAs were approved except Fadi’s, which lends more credence to the first two reasons. The Belgian embassy has not responded.

El-Khatib, the Lebanese superstar has played spectacularly in his first European season. Playing in Ukraine’s third league, he is averaging around 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals a game. Read the thread started by El-Khatib’s brother and discuss this topic in our forum.

Sources: Racism in Sports - Fadi El Khatib Cherkassy Mavpy Visa Cancelled (Interbasket Forums), Letter from Cherkasy-Mavpi (Interbasket), Fadi El-Khatib Updates! (Interbasket Forums), Fadi Al-Khatib Dominates in First Game, El-Khatib a Monkey?

Fadi El-Khatib, aka the Tiger, dominated in his first game for Cherkazki Mavpi, a club that plays in the national league in Ukraine. Khatib scored 37 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, passsed for 5 assists and gathered 4 steals as Cherkazki Mavpi defeated Odissa 103-77. It was a tightly contested game despite the outcome, mainly because El-Khatib controlled the fourth-quarter with a 16-point outburst to seal the win for the visiting Monkeys.

Fadi’s next game will be Saturday, October 6th.

Related: Fadi El-Khatib Updates!, Fadi El-Khatib to be a Monkey?

Is Lebanese superstar Fadi El-Khatib headed to the Ukrainian league? He is, according to this thread in our forum.

Fadi El-Khatib will reportedly travel to the city of Cherkasy in the Ukraine next week to discuss specifics with the Ukranian club Cherkaski Mavpi. Khatib’s contract is said to include a clause that allows the former Sagesse star out of his contract if an offer to play for a better team comes along. If the two parties can come to terms, Khatib may be a Monkey next season, a Cherkasky Monkey that is.  (Mavpi translated)

Most fans of Fadi El-Khatib have been hoping that he would have the chance to display his basketball skills outside of the domestics leagues that he’s dominated for so many years. However, every year, those rumors never come to fruition. Whether it was Michael Jordan saying that Khatib should get a shot in the NBA, or the perennial rumors that European teams are courting his services.

I think most would be happy that he’s finally getting a shot to represent not only Lebanon but players’ hopes of that entire region. If Fadi signs, he won’t be playing for a European powerhouse, but perhaps it will give him more a chance to showcase what has made him a superstar in Lebanon all these years.

official website (in Ukrainian) [related thread: Khatib to Ukraine!]