karim said:
hey mohsena can u plz tell me the difference between the Iran NT of 2003-2005 and the one of last year ...a few years ago Iran used to always be consistent and come in 5th or 6th behind teams like japan,korea,qatar and definitely lebanon ....what changed last year ? im curious to know because i looked at the roster the players stayed the same including 3 players which didnt play last year and ur coach keeps saying their from the best ...its kind of weird Iran always comes in 5th or 6th but when its key players got injured , they came in 1st ?(2nd if china was playing) so what are the differences beween the team of 2005 which lost to qatar by 22 and to korea by 12 in the semi final clinching game and even to japan on 5th-6th position game and the one of last year ? and i saw haddadi on the 2005 roster but did he used to play back than ? and was he good a the age of 20 ?
Iran is growing up in many sports and Basketball is one of them. in general because government take it serious.
but in Basketball it is all about Mash'houn brothers. (Mahmoud Mash'houn is head of iranian federation and Reza Mash'houn is manager of national teams)
before 2002 (when Ghazanfari was head of federation) Basketball was a 4th class sport in Iran with no achievement (except 1951 Asian Games bronze and 4th place in 1993 Asian champs) but now basketball is a 2nd class sport with a better budget !
Iran always has decent teams but i believe the biggest problem was lack of reliance, Asian Games bronze medal changed the mind of iranian players. they believe what they can do !
even in Asian Games in quarterfinal match, Japan was really close to beat (and eliminate) Iran but Kamrani (reserve PG at that moment) saved Iran with his unbelievable 3 pts shoot in last minute.
in 2005, Iran has a strong team (Iran won WABA title in 2004 and 2005 in Beirut and Tehran) but Bosnjak destroyed the team when he leaved iran just few days before the tournament. Iran played in Qatar without head coach ! Iran had mentally problems against Qatar and Korea (they already eliminate Iran in 2003 edition) but everybody think if we had a coach we could beat Korea in last quarterfinal match.
in DOHA 2006, we had our best team. but Toroman missed 6 (not 3) of these players !
3 injury, 2 suspension and 1 retirement. he forced to use younger players (the core of junior team at 2002 and 2004) like Sahakian and Davari. they played their first national matches in Tokushima !
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consider Haddadi, he was a bad boy ! he missed two years of his career beacause of that ! but after his second return, he changed his personality, and now he is not a bad boy ! he changed his way of thinking and trained very well for Asian 2007.