The Rise of Iranian Basketball

[Bury Please]

How can we stop iranian basketball ? they are becoming so annoying for us lebanese. They won last 2 ASIA Nations cup. And on Club level they are totally dominating us.


2007 WABA Super league, Iranian teams finished 1st and fourth in the tournament. While syrian team finished second, and lebanese team third.
2008 WABA Super league, Lebanese team finished first. Iranian teams finished second and third, while Jordanian team fourth.
2009 WABA Super league, Iranian teams finished first and third. Jordanian team second, Lebanese team fourth.
2010 WABA SUPER LEAGUE, Iranian teams finished first and third. Syrian team second, and lebanese team fourth.

One more time in 2011, There are two Iranian teams in semifinals of WABA Superleague.One lebanese team, and one syrian. ZOB AHAN defeated Lebanese leaders champville 2 - 0.


The last four years, 2007 /2008/2009/2010 the asia champions for teams been iranian teams. They are dominating ASIA ON Both club level and national team level. Are they so much better then there rivals, do u guys think they can be stopped anytime soon?

[rocketstar47]

How can we stop iranian basketball ? they are becoming so annoying for us lebanese. They won last 2 ASIA Nations cup. And on Club level they are totally dominating us.


2007 WABA Super league, Iranian teams finished 1st and fourth in the tournament. While syrian team finished second, and lebanese team third.
2008 WABA Super league, Lebanese team finished first. Iranian teams finished second and third, while Jordanian team fourth.
2009 WABA Super league, Iranian teams finished first and third. Jordanian team second, Lebanese team fourth.
2010 WABA SUPER LEAGUE, Iranian teams finished first and third. Syrian team second, and lebanese team fourth.

One more time in 2011, There are two Iranian teams in semifinals of WABA Superleague.One lebanese team, and one syrian. ZOB AHAN defeated Lebanese leaders champville 2 - 0.


The last four years, 2007 /2008/2009/2010 the asia champions for teams been iranian teams. They are dominating ASIA ON Both club level and national team level. Are they so much better then there rivals, do u guys think they can be stopped anytime soon?

I Agree Iranian basketball is better than their rivals

[dxjayrock2008]

They have the height, size, skill and good coaching system. How can we stop the Lions of Persia? Lol.

[Saskibaloia]

Where did this rise begin?

10 years ago I remember the rise of Lebanese basketball and how they became the "challengers" for the ever dominating Chinese teams.

However, the Iranians have really showed their rise and possible dominance on the whole of Asia.

Was it the foreign coaches?
Was it the junior programs?
Was it the senior national team's achievements?
Was it financial funding that got the ball rolling?

[rocketstar47]

Where did this rise begin?

10 years ago I remember the rise of Lebanese basketball and how they became the "challengers" for the ever dominating Chinese teams.

However, the Iranians have really showed their rise and possible dominance on the whole of Asia.

Was it the foreign coaches?
Was it the junior programs?
Was it the senior national team's achievements?
Was it financial funding that got the ball rolling?

Because of The Nuclear project of ahmadinejad their players are
boosted by Nuclear powers.... ....

[dxjayrock2008]

Because of The Nuclear project of ahmadinejad their players are
boosted by Nuclear powers.... ....

Lol.

[Khalid80]

Where did this rise begin?

10 years ago I remember the rise of Lebanese basketball and how they became the "challengers" for the ever dominating Chinese teams.

However, the Iranians have really showed their rise and possible dominance on the whole of Asia.

Was it the foreign coaches?
Was it the junior programs?
Was it the senior national team's achievements?
Was it financial funding that got the ball rolling?

Yeah for Lebanon it was our 2001 result in the Asian Championship where we ended up in 2nd place behind China and qualifying to the 2002 World Championships where it all started.

For Iran you could say that it all started with their preparation for the 2007 Asian Championships after they placed in 3rd place in the 2006 Asian games.

Iran hired Rajko Toroman in 2007 to help them prepare for the Asian Championships.... Back then they had a really young team whose oldest members were Kamrani and Aidin (RIP) who were both still just 25 years old!!

Toroman provided them with discipline and strong team play similar to the European bball school (more likely the Serbian style).
It was in that tournament that the name of Haddadi shined especially in the final game against Lebanon where he had 31 points and 10 rebounds in that game and later went on to play with the Grizzlies in the NBA.

The Iranian NT and Iranian basketball has been continuously on the rise ever since and when they beat the Chinese NT in Tianjin in China (2009) this further showed that their win in 2007 wasn't just by chance and that they are one of the best in Asia.

Also after Toroman left in 2008 and was replaced by Matic this didn't affect the Iranian bball program as Matic also came from the Serbian European school of bball.

The questions that you ask are all valid and the answer to them imo is "all of the above" ....

Foreign European coaches have positively affected bball in Iran most notably on the NT.

Iran's junior teams are always challenging the best teams in Asia and have qualified to the U19 World Championship in 2009 were Kazemi showcased some brilliant performances and his name started to rise on the international scene...

Some good money has been invested in the Iranian bball league and this can be noticed in the names of the foreign bball players that came to play in the Iranian league over the last few years such as Loren Woods, Jackson Vroman, Cheikh Samb, Ansu Sesay, Soumaila Samake, Gabe Muoneke, Garth Joseph, Priest Lauderdale, Kevin Sheppard, Tony Madison and many many others....

This is why I don't think Iran's basketball will have a setback as they still have the majority of their team from 2007 (no one is above 30) and with the addition of young new blood on the NT with the addition of Arsalan Kazemi and Saeid Davarpanah. Also some names who will be making some noise and joining the Senior NT in the future will be those of Amir Sedighi and Saimek Torabikhah.

Maybe after Haddadi decides to retire Iran will have a slight problem in finding a replacement of such a high caliber center but i'm sure some new name will come up....

[lebanese phoenix]

you always like to dramatise things Bury,you forgot that this year champville easily beat mahram in the 1st round this year,and that riyadi easily beat zob ahan as well, not to forget that champville was leading by 11 pts by the end of the 3rd quarter against zob ahan in the 1st match.
So i think that iranian basketball is still a long way from Dominating asian basketball,they may have an edge,but they arent dominating,and they are very beatable,the main reason why they have such an edge is probably bcs they invest in very high caliber foreigners.
also note that all the iranian super league revolves around 2 to 4 teams max,unlike the lebanese league and specially the CBA.
I still think that china is still the nb1 basketball power in asia.
I would say philipines is also slowly rising in basketball,you got be careful for those pinoys,i see em as contending for the asian title in 2 years

[Mr. Basketball]

I think WABA Super League success has alot to do with the high quality foreigners who come to anchor the teams such as Zob Ahan.

Within FIBA Asia, Iran is at or near the top, but the separation isnt so great between them and countries like Korea, Japan, and of course China, who is still probably first.

Internationally, Iran hasnt done anything outside of Asia, at World Championships for example. Theres a host of teams from Europe and South America who've fared better.

The prospects that they have coming up, such as Kazemi, are nice players, but I dont see them raising Iran basketball above their current standing, which is a team in the mix at the top of FIBA Asia, but far away from competing with the upper tier nations in the WC's and Olympic Games.

[Khalid80]

The prospects that they have coming up, such as Kazemi, are nice players, but I dont see them raising Iran basketball above their current standing, which is a team in the mix at the top of FIBA Asia, but far away from competing with the upper tier nations in the WC's and Olympic Games.

I respectfully disagree regarding Kazemi. I think he's the type of player that will have a big impact on Iranian basketball and if he gets drafted in the NBA he will be more successful than Haddadi in my honest opinion.

[Mr. Basketball]

I respectfully disagree regarding Kazemi. I think he's the type of player that will have a big impact on Iranian basketball and if he gets drafted in the NBA he will be more successful than Haddadi in my honest opinion.

I agree he'll have an impact on Iranian basketball, but do you think they can compete with the big boys at WC's and Olympics with Kazemi as their number 1 player? When spain, serbia, france, germany, argentina, etc ... can send teams with an NBA superstar, and have enough depth of talent to have muiltiple nba caliber players as a supporting cast?

[Khalid80]

I agree he'll have an impact on Iranian basketball, but do you think they can compete with the big boys at WC's and Olympics with Kazemi as their number 1 player? When spain, serbia, france, germany, argentina, etc ... can send teams with an NBA superstar, and have enough depth of talent to have muiltiple nba caliber players as a supporting cast?

Let's be realistic Iran won't be able to compete with the big teams you mentioned at the WC's and Olympics...But Kazemis' presence on the Iranian NT will help maintain Iran as one of the strongest teams in Asia