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.

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.

Iranian club Mahram defeated Zain 78-68 in the 20th FIBA Asia Cup Championship (Discuss).

With two dominant scorers in Jackson Vroman and Samad Nikkah Bahrami, Mahram overwhelmed their Jordanian opponents beginning in the second quarter.

Vroman led Mahram with 19 points and 10 rebounds and was named MVP.

“I’m happier for the win than the MVP,” said Vroman. “All those points would have gone waste if not for the win.”

Mahram’s 5-11  guard Mahdi Kamrani put together a fantastic all-around game; he recorded 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks.   Bahrami added 18 points, with eights points in the final quarter to keep Zain at bay.

“This is the happiest moment of my life,” said Mahram coach Mostafa Hashemi. “It’s a tribute to our teamwork.”

The club from Tehran went undefeated in their seven tournament games and defeated each team by at least 10+ in each game. Mahram’s road to the championship went through several Asian clubs: Republic of the Philippine’s Smart Gilas, Lebanon’s Al-Riyadhi (two times), Kuwait’s Al-Qadsia, South Korea’s Sangmoo Army Club, India’s Young Cagers and finally Jordan’s Zain.

Ayman Idais led Zain with 22 points.  Jackson Vroman is a former NBA player born in California and played college ball in Iowa State.  Mahram borrowed the 6-10 center from another Iranian Super League club, Saba Mehr, for the sake of this tournament.

Mahram also features 7-4 former NBA center Priest Lauderdale.

With Mahram’s 2009 win, Iran has now won the last three Asia Cup Championships. Iran’s Saba Battery had won the two previous Asia Champions Cup in 2007 and 2008.

These last few years have been unprecedented for Persian basketball.  In addition to the Asia Cup titles, Iran also won the 2007 Asia Championships that earned a berth to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, their first Olympic basketball appearance in exactly 60 years.

Following the Olympics, Iran sent over their first NBA player Hamed Haddadi.

Links and Resources: Samad, Jackson power Mahram to Title (Iran Sports Press), Asia Champions Cup: It’s Mahram vs. Zain (Interbasket), Discuss: 20th FIBA Asia Champions Cup (Interbasket Forum)