This week’s quick international roundup of the player performances during the last few days. This post includes discussion about Yi Jianlian‘s return to the New Jersey Nets, Pau Gasol‘s extension, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah’s contributions to the Chicago Bulls, J.J. Barea’s career year, and Žalgiris Kaunas fills their head coach position.

• Yi Jianlian returned to the New Jersey Nets last night. The 7-0 Chinese forward came off the bench and scored 22 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, in 30 minutes.  Even with Yi, the Nets weren’t able to pull out their third win this season, ultimately losing their 27th game to Minnesota 103-99.

• Is the Jordanian basketball league going to be cancelled? The Premier league may be cancelled so as Jordan can properly prepare their National Team for the 2010 World Championships (discuss).

• Pau Gasol agreed to a three-year extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. No doubt the league-leading Lakers understand the importance of the 7-0, 29-year old Spanish superstar. The Lakers started out 8-3 without Gasol, and are 15-1 since Gasol returned to the lineup. For the season, he is averaging 17 points and a career-high 12.6 rebounds per game.

• Joakim Noah grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds against the New York Knicks, unfortuanately the Bulls lost their second straight 88-81.

• In the last five games Luol Deng has averaged 23 points on 51% shooting, almost 9 rebounds, and 3 assists, all are above his career averages. Deng scored 21 or more points in each contest. The Bulls are 2-3 in the last five.

• Iranian Superlague club Pasargad Shiraz hired Hossein Owji as their new coach (via Basket-Spot).

• José Juan Barea is having a career year for the Dallas Mavericks. The 6-0 guard from Puerto Rico is averaging 9.9 points, 4.0 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and shooting 44.6% from three. Barea has started the last 8 games and the Mavs have won six of those games.

• Žalgiris Kaunas filled the open head coach position left by Gintaras Krapikas with former Lithuanian national team coach Ramūnas Butautas. The 45-year old Lithuanian is the son of Stepas Butautas, former Soviet player that won silver in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.

It’s been a busy week for FIBA as they announced the four wild cards on Saturday, and determined the top four seeds for the World Championships of Basketball on Sunday.

Now the federation that overseas international basketball has announced the draw results that will determine the groupings for the 2010 world basketball event in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 24 participating nations were drawn into four groups of six teams each:

• Group A: Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
• Group B: Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
• Group C: China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
• Group D: Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

(Discuss the draw results in our forum)

The draw was held at the the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, on 15th December 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM local time.

The draw was conducted jointly by FIBA and the LOC in the presence of participating nations’ representatives, “National Federation members, prominent public figures and members of the international media.”

The FIBA World Championships are held every four years and determines the world’s top country in basketball.

Just two seasons ago, Hamed Haddadi became the first Iranian player to play in the NBA.

This year, Arsalan Kazemi became the first Iranian to play Division I men’s basketball in the U.S. and CNN/Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn has written a lengthy article about the young man’s experiences, both on and off the court.

(Discuss Arsalan Kazemi, Hamed Haddadi in our Iranian basketball forum)

On the court, the 19 year old Kazemi is a 6-7, 225lb high-flying forward for the Rice Owls.

Born in Esfahan, Iran, Kazemi is averaging 8.0 points per game, a team-leading 7.7 rebounds in just 21 minutes per game off the bench. The Rice Owls are 4-4.

Off the court, Winn details out Kazemi’s life as he adjusts to American culture, not the least of which is his experiences as an Iranian in a country that doesn’t understand him, such as Kazemi being detained in an airport and how the American media views his home country. See some of the excerpts below:

“...Kazemi quietly made his mark in the history between the U.S. and Iran, when Rice coach Ben Braun put the 6-foot-7 freshman into the Owls’ home opener against Sacramento State with 15:52 left in the first half and Rice leading 13-0.

The scoreboard made no acknowledgement of the event, and the crowd of 1,631 was mostly silent. But looking on with cautious optimism were a handful of Kazemi’s countrymen: one of his former junior national team coaches, who has an auto-parts business in Houston; an electrical engineering professor at Rice; and two brothers who own an upscale men’s clothing store in Houston. (One of the brothers walked up to Kazemi in the pregame layup line to tell him, “Best of luck in the game. The reason we are here is to support you.”)

Arsalan is a Turkish name that means lion, and Kazemi can sometimes appear sleepy on the floor, his expression blank and his head lolling — then roar to life with a surprising aerial burst that nets him a rebound or dunk, or make a quick step into a passing lane for a steal.

At July’s FIBA Under-19 Championships in New Zealand (where the U.S. won gold and Iran went 1-4), Kazemi ranked first in steals (4.0 per game), second in rebounding (12.2) and eighth in points (16.6).”

Check out the well-detailed story of Arsalan Kazemi at CNN/Sports Illutrated. Also see our forum thread, Kazemi plans to be first Iranian to receive U.S. hoops scholarship.

Iran Super League: 9th week results
The last week before mid season ends with wins by Mahram Tehran, Saba Qazvin, Petro Bnader Emam, Gorgan and Shahrekord.

(Discuss the 2009-10 Iranian Basketball season)

In the most exciting match between Zob Ahan and 2008 Asia champion Mahram. Mahram won the match 81-73 and were named midseason champions of the league.

Trust Pasargad Shiraz with their new Serbian players Dejan Miskovic
(210-C-77) and Bojan Barjaktarevic (208-F/C-77)” and their star Ehsan Farjam did  not compete against Saba Mehr, they were defeated by 18 points 67-85 in Shiraz. Terrence Shannon was the star of game and scored 25 points, 12 assists and 6 steals.

Shahrekord celebrates his first win in the season v.s AS Pipe Shiraz 95-87.

Iran Super League Midseason Ranking:
1- Zobe Ahan Esfahan: 17 points (9 games)
2. Mahram Tehran: 16 points (8)
3. Saba Mehr 15 points (9)
4. Petro bandar Emam 15 points (9)
5. Gorgan 13 points (8)
6. Azad Uni. 13 points (9)
7. A.S Pipe 12 points (9)
8. Tozin Electric. 11 points (9)
9. Trust Pasargad 10 points (9)
10. Share Kord. 10 points (9)

For more about Iranian basketball and the Iran Super League, please visit our Middle Eastern basketball forum

7th week results in Iran Super League
After the 7th week in Iranian Super League, it seems Mahram Tehran and Zob Ahan Esfahan are the two main candidates for the championship in the Iran Super League.

Both teams remained undefeated after the league’s seventh week of play.

Mahram won a out of home match against Saba Mehr 77-66 with their best player Samad Nikkhah Bahrami leading the way. Bahrami scored 28 points for Mahram. Zob Ahan won a very close match vs. Petrochimi Bandar Imam 83-80 in their own gym.

The Shiraz derby between A.S. Pipe and Trust Pasargad goes to A.S pipe by 30 points. The full results from week seven are as follows:

• Saba mehr 66 – Mahram 77
• Gorgan 79 – Tozin electric 62
• Azad Uni. 91- Sharekord 88
• Zobe Ahan 83 – Petro 80
• A.S. Pipe 99- Trust Pasargad 63

For more about Iranian basketball and the Iran Super League, please visit our Middle Eastern basketball forum.

It didn’t happen the first time around as Hamed Haddadi was deactivated before the game.However, when the Sacramento Kings visited the Memphis Grizzlies last night, Omri Casspi, the first Israeli NBA player met up with Hamed Haddadi, the NBA’s first Iranian player.

Below is a pic of their meeting before the game.

Why is this such a big deal? Check out our previous posting about Iran and Israel or talk about the historic moment in our forum.

The Memphis Grizzlies pulled out a 116-105 win over the Kings. Rookie Casspi scored 15 points off the bench, and recorded 3 rebounds and 2 steals, but the 21-year old from Yavne, Israel was ejected from the game after receiving two technical fouls (both techs are nothing to talk about).

The 7-2 Haddadi was active on the roster this time around, but saw no playing time in the game.

• So much for the gesture of international peace, after playing in each of the three previous games, Hamed Haddadi of Iran registered his first DNP of the season, in a game against the first Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi. Read into that how you will. Haddadi had previously mentioned that he was open to reaching out to Casspi before the game to shake his hand; I’m not sure if that happened.

• Despite that, Casspi and the Sacramento Kings pull out their first win. In supporting roles to Kevin Martin‘s season-high and NBA-high 48 points, international bench players Casspi (15 pts, 4 rebs, 2blks), Beno Udrih (16 pts, 6 assts), and Andrés Nocioni (13 pts) contribute greatly to the Kings overtime win 127-116.

• On the other side, Grizzly reserve Allen Iverson was productive in his first game with Memphis, recording 11 points on 5-9 shooting in 18 minutes, but was far from relishing his bench role, “I had a problem with my butt sitting on that bench for so long,” Iverson said after the game. I’m not a bench player. I’m not a sixth man,” Iverson said. “Look at my resume and that’ll show I’m not a sixth man. I don’t think it has anything to do with me being selfish. It’s just who I am. I don’t want to change what gave me all the success that I’ve had since I’ve been in this league. I’m not a sixth man. And that’s that.” Geesh. This is after AI missed the entire preseason and the first three regular-season games.

• Memphis Head Coach Lionel Hollins responds: “(Allen Iverson) hasn’t even been with the team until just a couple of days ago. He’s going to come off the bench. He hasn’t played all preseason, hasn’t played the three regular-season games (leading up to Monday’s loss).” said Hollins. “He only practiced three days in training camp before he got hurt so there’s no way I would trot him out there in a starting role.”

• Rudy Gay will become an unrestricted free-agent after Memphis didn’t come up with an offer that Gay was looking for, a contract worth roughly $50 million over 5 years. “We’ve agreed to not agree,” Gay’s agent, Jeff Austin, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “We looked at different ways we might try to get something done and we weren’t able to agree.” Gay will join a crazy free agent class that can include players like LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O’Neal, Manu Ginobili, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Yao Ming.

• Pau who now? With the loss, the Grizzlies drop to 1-3, but Marc Gasol continues his strong interior play with 16 points and tying a career-high with 16 rebounds. For the season, the 24-year old, 7-0 center from Spain is averging 19.0 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.5 blocks.

When the Sacramento Kings meet the Memphis Grizzlies tonight, it will mark the first time an Israeli player faces a player from a rival Middle East Muslim nation in the NBA.

NBA rookie Omri Casspi is from Israel and plays for the Sacremento Kings, while Iranian center Hamed Haddadi plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Both players come off the bench and were the first players from their countries to play in the NBA

So, what does this all mean?

Well, if you are familiar with international basketball, you know that many Muslim teams generally refuse to play against teams from Israel because of the politics between the two countries.

Most recently, in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Arash Miresmaeili, a gold medal favorite in Judo, withdrew from a match when his opponent turned out to be Israeli Ehud Vaks.

Vaks would win by forfeit, while Arash would be praised by his country’s leaders.

Situations like this is the reason why Israeli clubs and national teams currently compete in European leagues (Euroleague) and tournaments (Eurobasket), instead of in Asia where Israel would run into a many forfeit matches or contentious opponents.

According to AOL Fanhouse:  Before his Grizzlies met Denver on Sunday night, Haddadi told FanHouse he never has faced an Israeli player on the court because teams from his Iran, which does not recognize the Jewish nation, are not allowed to play Israel. In 2005, Haddadi said his Iranian team was not allowed to go to Argentina for the 2005 FIBA World Championship for Young Men because of the possibility of Israel being an opponent.

“We don’t go to Argentina because (Israel was playing),’‘ Haddadi said. “I was young. I was (20). I didn’t know about politics or anything. I can’t say, ‘I want to go to Argentina.”

However, don’t expect Haddadi, or Casspi for that matter, to sit this one out because of politics.

“It is just a sport,” Haddadi said. “I don’t know what happened with the two countries. I don’t care. I just do my job. I don’t think about politics … I do not think what the two positions of Iran and Israel is.”

“It’s not a problem for me,” said Casspi.

“I don’t want politics into sports,” said Haddadi. “I think it should be separated.”

Despite that, Haddadi was asked whether there was a chance that he would shake hands with Casspi before the game, in order to make a statement and instill international goodwill?

“Why not? Haddadi said. “Which is his number? I think it could be good (to make a positive statement).”

The two teams will meet again Nov. 23 in Memphis and March 22 in Sacramento.

The last couple of years has really been great for Hamed Haddadi, the 7-2 center from Iran.

First Iran won the 2007 Asiabasket with Haddadi in the middle. It was Iran’s first ever medal in the tournament.

The win qualified the Iranian basketball team to play in their first Olympic games in 60 years. Though the team would lose all five of their matches, Haddadi led the Beijing Olympics in both rebounding and blocked shots.

Thereafter, he was signed to an NBA contract and became the first Iranian NBA player.

In 2009, he helped lead Iran to the Jones Cup Championship and recently won the Asia Championships, in which he was named tournament MVP and again led the field in rebounding and blocked shots.

With all his success in international competition, Haddadi opened up to the Mehr News Agency about his experience in the recent Asia Championships and his frustrations during his NBA rookie season.

Confidence in Asia and in the NBA
During his interview with Mehr News, Haddadi insisted that even had Yao Ming been present, Iran would have still defeated China. “I played well against China in the final.” said Haddadi. “We could have won the match even if Yao Ming would have played against us.”

Haddadi moved on to talk at length about his debut season with the Memphis Grizzlies, which has been misquoted and mistranslated across the web as his being arrogant and egotistical, which is not the case.

The quote being circulated is that Haddadi said that he “is the star of the Memphis Grizzlies, but he is sittng on the bench.” When actually Haddadi was responding to the question “Will Hamed Haddadi become a star in NBA one day?”

According to Interbasket’s Iranian members, Haddadi answered in a joking manner, not a serious one, saying that he is a star, but a  “bench star” at that.  So if our re-translation is correct, Haddadi is just having fun and making light of his situation last year.

But the interview does get a little deeper into the subject of his playing time.

“The Memphis head coach does not have any faith in me. I think I have played okay whenever I got the chance to play.” Haddadi said. “If their lack of trust continues I will change my team, I’m even willing to come back to Iran. After all, we are the Asian champions and we do have a decent league.”

Haddadi averaged six minutes a game last season to the tune of 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds.

“I don’t claim that I’m among the best players in NBA, but I think I’m at least a third tier player.  If I’m on bench due to lack of capability I would not complain,” added Haddadi, “but if I feel that I can’t get my right, I would prefer to leave the NBA.”

The Grizzlies started Marc Gasol ahead of Haddadi last year, and they went on to draft UCONN center Hasheem Thabeet with the #2 pick this year.

With the recent successes of Iran, Jordan, and Lebanon, should FIBA create Middle East region?

That’s currently what is being proposed in our forum (discuss).

The proposal is to move four current European basketball nations, Israel, Turkey, Azerbijan, and Armenia, out from FIBA Europe and combine them with the three current Asian subregions – West Asia, the Gulf, and Middle-Asia.

FIBA Mideast would consist of the following 21 national teams: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

From there, Oceania and Asia would be combined so that Australia and New Zealand no longer had automatic bids to every major international tournament.

The Boomers and Tall Blacks would then have to duke it out with China, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and the remaining East Asian teams.

What do you think? Join the discussion: Hey FIBA, houldn’t there be a Middle East Basketball Region?

Tianjin, China - The 2009 Asiabasket All-Tournament team was named yesterday amidst a little controversy over one of the selections.

(edit: this was an unofficial selection from sports.cn – we apologize for the inconvenience)

The team was led by Asia Championships MVP Hamed Haddadi of Iran, followed by Chinese veteran Wang Zhizhi, do-it-all Iranian swingman Samad Nikkhah Bahrami,

Asiabasket’s top scorer Rasheim Wright of Jordan, and Lee Hsueh Lin of Taiwan.

C: Hamed Haddadi (Iran)
F: Wang Zhizhi (China)
F: Samad Nikkhah Bahrami (Iran)
G: Rasheim Wright (Jordan)
G: Lee Hsueh Lin (Chinese Taipei)

The inclusion of Lee Hsueh Lin is a head-scratcher.  Lin is not a bad player, but is his 8.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.3 steals a game for the fifth place Taiwan squad really that impressive to the panel?

To many of our forum members, it was certainly a shock to find the 5-9 point guard on the star-studded first team.

Especially when there were other play makers that not only had better numbers, but also played larger roles for better teams. Players that we feel got snubbed were Rony Fahed (Lebanon), Sam Daghles (Jordan), Mahdi Kamrani (Iran), and Qatar’s leading scorer Saad Abdulrahman Ali.

Discuss the selections in our forum.

Iran successfully defended their Asia Champions crown last night, dropping favored-China in a laughable 70-52 win.

Led by Memphis Grizzly center Hamed Haddadi‘s 19 points and 17 rebounds, Iran dominated the Chinese in the first two quarters; outscoring their opponents by 11 in the first quarter and by six in the second.

The Iranians took a 17-point lead into halftime, see the lead balloon up to 25, and would never look back.  This was China‘s first ever loss in an Asiabasket gold medal match.

This year’s win is significant because it signals a new age in which Middle-Asia teams, namely Iran, Jordan and Lebanon,  may have finally caught up with their East Asian brothers.

Up until 2007, China had won 14 of 16 Asia Championships.  And East Asian teams, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan, have taken the title in every other year previous to 2007.

Iran’s win is much more significant this year because they went against a Chinese team,  even without Yao Ming, that was still favored to win the tournament.

In Iran’s win in the 2007 Asiabasket, the Chinese fielded their junior team, having already automatically qualified as the hosts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Now Iran can be truly crowned the Kings of Asia, having won the 2007 and 2009 FIBA Asia Championships, the 2009 Asia Cup, and the 2009 Williams Jones Cup.

Hamed Haddadi, who was named MVP of the tournament, shot 9-17 from the field, shredding the Chinese interior and scoring 9 points in 12-4 run in the fourth quarter that slammed the door shut on any thoughts of a Chinese comeback.

Oshin Sahakian was the only other Iranian to reach double-figures with 10 points.  Javad Davari added 9 points and 6 rebounds.

Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, who came in averaging over 18 points, failed to reach double-figures for the first time in the tournament, finishing with just 8 points.  The star guard did pass out 6 assists.

The Iranian defense held Yi Jianlian to just 11 points on 5-17 shooting, while Sun Yue, Shipeng Wang, and Liu Wei combined to shoot just 3-15.

Wang Zhizhi was China’s only consistent threat, the former NBA player shot 10-16 from the field, and scored a game-hih 24 points and added 8 rebounds.

In the third place game, Jordan took the final berth to the World Championships by defeating Lebanon for the second time this tournament, 80-66.

Lebanon finished without a medal for the first time in three championships, having earned a silver in the 2005 and 2007 FIBA Asia Championships.

In the classification rounds, Chinese-Taipei took fifth place over Qatar 87-79, while Korea edged the Philippines, 82-80 on Donggeun Yang’s jumper with one second remaninig.

RP’s James Yap’s missed a three at the buzzer that would give Korea seventh place, and the Philippines would finish eighth.

Yi Jianlian and Hamed Haddadi came up big for their respective national teams last night, propelling each squad to an unblemished 5-0 record in the 2009 Asia Basketaball Championships.

With the two NBA big men leading their teams over Jordan and Korea, China and Iran are now the remaining teams without a loss.

China to the quarterfinals undefeated
Yi wasn’t just big, he was huge as he scored 29 points, pulled down 18 rebounds, passed for 4 assists, and blocked 2 shots, all game-highs, against Jordan, who was also 4-0 coming into the game.  China won the game 89-83 in what was the closest challenge to China in the tournament.

Wang Zhizhi added 23 points and 8 rebounds for the victors.  Rasheim Wright led Jordan with 28 points, but the 6-3 Jordanian guard needed 22 shots to achieve his total.

Iran also undefeated going into quarterfinals
Hamed Haddadi was strong in the middle for Asiabasket defending champions Iran. The 7-2 Haddadi put up 21 points, 16 rebounds, 6 blocked shots, and 4 assists in pushing Iran over east Asian squad Korea, 82-66.

Haddadi completely dominated Ha Seung-Jin, formerly of Portland Trailblazers, as the 7-3 Korean center managed just 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 turnovers in 25 minutes of play.

Iran was led in scoring by Hamed Afagh’s 24 points.  Donggeun Yang led Korea with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Asiabasket Quarterfinals
After the fifth day of games, the Asiabasket quarterfinals are set for August 14, 2009:

• Jordan vs. Philippines, 14h00 (GMT+8)
• Qatar vs. Iran, 16h00 (GMT+8)
• Chinese-Taipei vs. China, 19h00 (GMT+8)
• Korea vs. Lebanon, 21h00 (GMT+8)

For the entire Asia Basket schedule, click here.

Two regional basketball championships are going into their third, and final day, of preliminary games today.

The 2009 Africa Nations and the Asia Championships are finishing up their round robin play.After day 2, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon have advanced into the quarterfinals of the 2009 Africa Nations Championships of Basketball

The top three teams in each of the four groups will move onto the quarterfinals to be played on Saturday, August 8th local time.

National Teams that are promised a berth in the quarterfinals for Afrobasket are defending champions Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon, all four of these teams went undefeated in their first two days of pool play. Follow the African Nations Basketball Championships in our Afrobasket forum.

On the Asian side, 2007 Asiabasket champions Iran, China, Jordan, Korea, and the Philippines have started 2-0 going into their third games today.  After winning their first two games, these five teams will move onto the quarterfinals even if they lose today.  For more about the Asia Basketball Championships, visit our Asiabasket forum.

The final goal of the gathered national teams is to grab one of three available berths to the World Championships in 2010.  Both Africa and Asia will send the top three finishers from the tournament to the 2010 global basketball tournament.

Links and Resources: 2009 Afrobasket Schedule (Fiba.com),  2009 Asiabasket Schedule (Fiba.com)

Title: Asia Championships of Basketball
Location: Tianjin, China
Official Website: http://china2009.fiba.com/
Description: The 2009 FIBA Asia Championships of basketball (discuss) will be held in Tianjin, China from August 6-16, 2009 with 16 teams divided into four groups.

The sixteen teams competing for the gold and a spot in the 2010 World Championships are hosts China, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

Discuss the 2009 Asia Championships of Basketball in our forum.

Despite the absence of Yao Ming, the tournament still features many national stars in Yi Jianlian (China), Hamed Haddadi (Iran), Kim Min-Soo (Korea), Rony Fahed (Lebanon), Zaid Abbas (Jordan), Sun Yue (China), Lin Chih-chieh (Chinese-Taipei), Samad Nikkah (Iran), Fadi El-Khatib (Lebanon), Wang Zhizhi (China), Yuta Tabuse (Japan), and Tien Lei (Chinese-Taipei).

The top three teams from the four groups advance to the second round of the championship.

* Group A: Japan, Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka.
* Group B: Chinese Taipei, Iran, Kuwait, Uzbekistan.
* Group C: China, India, Kazakhstan, Qatar.
* Group D: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE.

The top three overall teams will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.  Even without finishing in the top three, there is still a chance to qualify for the WBC as 3-4 more teams can be selected as wild cards by FIBA to complete the 24-team field.