Basketball / Lebanon battles bombs and bad luck
As if the war wasn't enough, trouble seems to follow the Lebanese hoops team wherever it goes.
By Ofer MatanBad luck is chasing Lebanon's basketball team. The bombing of Beirut over the past month has completely disrupted its preparations for the World Cup in Japan, turning most of the sports arenas in the country into impromptu refugee camps. But as if that wasn't enough, trouble seems to follow the Lebanese hoops wherever it goes.
Last week as the team headed to the Philippines for a series of warm-up matches in Manila, their flight from Amman headed back to the Jordanian capital after only 15 minutes after a passenger was spotted holding a suspicious vial. The incident turned out to be much ado about nothing when it transpired the suspect passenger had merely wanted to take his medication.
Only a year ago, Lebanon finished second at the Asian Championship behind China with Yao Ming. The team felt it was on a roll and after finishing last at its only other World Championship outing, four years ago in Indianapolis it was looking to improve its standing.
While the war has severly disrupted its preparations, the team decided that come what may it would take part in this year's tournament, which begins Saturday in Saitama, Japan. The same cannot be said for other sports. The country's football team has already had to pull out of the Asian Cup qualifying tournament, while its club sides face an uncertain future in the Asian Champions League and Federation Cup.
"This adventure is difficult for all the players but we all agreed that we had to take part in the world festival of basketball," the Lebanese Federation general secretary Ghassan Fares said. "We have to show the whole world this message that the Lebanese people won't buckle, no matter the obstacles."
Ten days ago the hoops squad took part in a tournament in Slovenia. In its first game, events at home were clearly on Lebanon's mind as it slumped to a 63-point defeat to the hosts but then bounced back to stun Canada - all-be-it without Steve Nash - 83-80, before polishing off with an impressive 81-70 win over Venezuela.
Next stop on the Lebanese pre-championship tour was the Philippines, where it began its series with a 94-75 defeat to a Philippine select squad.
High standards
The Lebanese league is of a high standard with each team featuring two foreign players, mostly Americans. Among them players like Todd Day, a guard with an NBA resume that includes the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons. Some of the Americans who have played in Lebanon have even made the trip down south to the Israeli league. Steven Howard landed at Hapoel Jerusalem four years ago after having played for Ein Zahlata, while three seasons ago Petit Cissomes landed from Sagesse to become top scorer at Kiryat Ata.
The biggest name to have come out of Lebanese basketball is Rony Seikaly, who starred in the '90s for the Phoenix Suns and the Orlando Magic, and who holds a record of 47 rebounds for the Suns.
The present and future of Lebanese basketball, however, belongs to Fadi El-Khatib, a forward who plays for Club Sagesse. Khatib helped Sagesse to second place in the league last season with an average of 26.7 points per game and was voted to the All Star team at last year's Asian Championship along with Yao Ming.
The other star on the national team is the veteran Lebanese-American center Joseph Vogel who plays for the league champion Al Riyadi.
The team is coached by Paul Coughter an American who has also coached in Australia and New Zealand and at club level led Blue Stars to third place in the Lebanese league last season.
Lebanon's first match will be against Venezuela before it tackles far harder obstacles in Argentina, Serbia and France before finishing the group stage with a match against Nigeria. The top four teams in the group qualify for the round of 16.
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How Great a historical victory over France, the third team in Europe. Now I hope we beat Nigeria but I think we are through to the second round. Everything that is happening arround me tend to increase my patriotism more and more. A fighting small Nation , what s better than that ?
First Venzuela and now France ,wooooo gr8 start Lebanon .Let's show them who we really are .... Finally sth good after all this s*** .... we want peace Now Now Now Now ........ Good luck Lebnen. yalla kellna Ma3kon .10x Haaretz
I pray the day when peace will reign, it's a good start from Haaretz, I hope that one day Lebanese vs. Israel in basketball after a long term peace commitment. Thanks for all who support Lebanon in the Finals.
Leila, i send you my respect for your reply!!! ....all the best for our team... we've beaten the Israeli?s and now the French!!! hola...
fromisraeltolebanon.info
Lebanon is the only democratic country in the Middle East besides Israel, and hence the press and the media are freer than you think they are. In fact they were not hindered duirng the war although in Israel the army had to temper with some media and did not allow reporters to access certain areas etc...
Ramzy, Haaretz is a private newspaper and does not print out of jealousy or out of reasons such as jealousy, disdaine or anything else. I am not sure everything in the newsaper you mentioned is based on freedom of press, expression and pluralism. With Haaretz, it is. We can lean to connect and network though sport. Those of us who love sports, realize the need for future peaceful co-existence. If we can stamp out extremism and fundementalism, and if we can find honest solutions to the problems surrounding us, we might succeed.
Love u Lebanon!!!
This Palestinian-Canadian born in Lebanon says THANK YOU Haaretz. It's been an extremely hard month for us Israelis, Lebanese and Palestinians. We need to get out of this culture of war. Reading the article was uplifiting and especially reading those nice comments from Israelis afterwards. Keep believing in peace! Now let's go LEBANON!
Nice artincule Ofer. Thanks for looking at the bright side of things, eventhough our people just stopped killing each other. It is sad that many innocent people have to die before our leaders come to their senses and realise that war is not the solution. I dream of a day where the Isreali's and the lebanese/arabs can be true friends and live a normal life. I am sure that most Israeli's are against the war and same with lebanese. We just have to respect each other and do whats right and fair. Enough bloodshed, let the children live in peace and happiness. There is no justification to war, and Israel must give the people of Palestine their rights and freedom. The problem started with them, and should be resolved with them, so everyone in the arab world can rest in peace side by side with israel. We all had enough of ~ 60 years of war. Thanks again Ofer, stay safe from the extremist. Cheers,
I just hope that the lebanese national team plays well and remembers how important a win is for all the Lebanese. If the team wins one game, that will be enough to make us proud!! yalla Fadi!! yalla Rony!! it's weird that i found news about the lebanese national team on an israeli newspaper, not a lebanese.. obviously israelis know more about us that we do about ourselves!! u live, u learn!! Also, to Olmert, stop the killing you terrorist!! Your lies don't work on us!!
thanks and no thanks haaretz. we dont need any attention from you concerning any field in lebanon. you wont trick us. you are just trying to show us that you are nice..that you care and you are worried about our basketball team. I guess u had to give more attention to the children women and eldery people who were slaughtered everyday by IDF soldiers. so haaretz give us a break and stop playing this game.
Ummm... I See . Its a shame ,that in the 21st century ,two countries don't even communicate in Basketball. Hope 4 peace .
I was very impressed when i read this article on Haaretz. I wish that the arab media will write and talk about the sports in Israel. May God bring peace to Mideast
Allah ,Lebnen ,7ekme w Bass . thank you 4 ur support.
Thank you Haaretz and open minded folks like Ofer, it's great start for healing, a dialoge among the people, which I hope the decision makers can read and learn a thing or two from.
Thank you Haaretz and everybody that's supporting the Lebanese team.. And thanks to the IDF for their lethal leftovers that meant to kill the children at the beach http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/16082006/6/n-world-south-lebanon-littered-war-s-lethal-leftovers.html
I think Israel plays in the Europe league because teams from some Arab countries refuse to play Israel if Israel was to play in the Asian league.
They play Israel :) B'hatzlaha, Levanon Good Luck, Lebanon
Quote:"We need more Sadats and Rabins in this world" You mean "the Sadat" who left the Palestinians alone with the Israeli occupation? You mean "the Rabin" who encouraged Jewish settlments in the Palestinian occupied territories after the so-called "Oslo peace agreement" Quote:"let us hope the region`s problems can be resolved and our kids can spend their time at the beach instead of shelters." When Palestinian kids go to the Gaza beach, they and their family are annhilated by Israeli bombs. Quote:"Maybe a day will come. :)"... when the voice of Lebanese like you won't be heard anymore.
VICTORIOUS IN THE BASKETBALL TOOOOOOO (if you know what i mean) ;).. please guy dont want anyone taking it in a bad way.. it is just that we are happy to win r land back..
Just shut up and read.
First i wana thank haartz for its positive side that supports lebanon in some points . i hope that the other media read the real truth about the state in lebanon. 2nd i wana thank the lebanese for cooperating 2gether and all the cheraties and donations thank u . wli fadi baddak etkaserlon rason. Good luck everyone
There should be a Sagesse vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv game... BTW: Many Beirut Jews support(ed) Nejmeh Football Club!
Too bad Ramzi cannot look at it at the positive side, like all the other comments until now. Anyway, good luck to Libanon and hope I can watch one of their games in the future, heard they are fun to watch. Go go Libanon !
one thing about the national team is that it is a national one ie from different region and religion Go Lebanon
To the Lebanese Abroad, instead of preaching & wishing and hoping, just log in to annahar.com.lb, and there you can read many daily articles extracted from Israeli news papers. And btw, you think Haaretz mentioned our Bball team for the love of the team? or for their jealousy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_national_basketball_team
Great article, just to make a slight correction, Rony Seikaly played for the Miami Heat,the Golden State Wariors, The Orlando Magic, and the New Jersey Nets. His career spanned ten Years in the NBA. He is of Palestinian background as well as Lebanese, our grandparents were from Haifa and left for Beirut in 1938. There is an Orthodox church in Haifa that was built by our granfather there, I dont know the name of it, but if someone does live there it would be great to let me know if it's still around if they could find out the name. Anyway I agree on the comment that it's great to see an Israeli paper writing about positive things in Lebanon. Let's hope the silver lining will bring peace to all. GO LEBANON
Nice article in the Israeli press.I wish that everything could be positive. War has brought us nothing apart from killing,hatered and destruction
I dream of the day that Israeli flags will be waved on one side of the court and Lebanese flags on the other side. I long for the day when my grandchildren and Lebanese grandchildren will argue with each other as to which team has the better center. I pray for the day when Israelis and Lebanese will agree on the most essential factor of all; the referee is blind and has no idea how to control a game. Until that day: GO LEBANON GO Best of Luck!!!!!!
Why Israel plays in Europe instead of Asia???
i wish u guys the all luck cause lebannese people want something to salabrate for we are all behind you guys good be with you.gooooooooooooooooooo lebanon
Yalla let's all wish the best of luck to the Lebanese National Team . .Thank you Haaretz.
Thank you Haaretz for posting this article on your web site, such a shame that we can't read similar moderate articles about Israel in the arabic media. Maybe a day will come. :) let us hope the region's problems can be resolved and our kids can spend their time at the beach instead of shelters. We need more Sadats and Rabins in this world.
When it comes to basketball, Lebanese are so united and for that, we should encourage the sports that unites the Lebanese against the Assad plan of separating them!
i know a basketball player there, and i wish the team the best of luck!!!
Fadi El-Khatib is also on many NBA teams' radars. The Maloof brothers (Sacramento Kings owners) are of Lebanese background and tried to get him, same with the L.A. Clippers. It would be nice to see Israeli teams play in Asia (where they are supposed to be) instead of Europe. Good luck to Lebanon. Hopefully Israel can make it for the Olympics.
Its nice to see Lebanon involved in something constructive. I wish the team the best of luck. Given the size of the talent pool, it should be proud of its accomplishments.
Basketball has beaten Soccer in becoming Lebanon's National Sport. It has made great achievements on the regional and international scene. It's like a shining light in a dark tunnel.