Lebanon national basketball team
Lebanon  لبنان |
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| FIBA Ranking | 25  2 |
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| Joined FIBA | 1947 | ||
| FIBA Zone | FIBA Asia | ||
| National Federation | Federation Libanaise de Basketball FLB | ||
| Coach | Ghassan Sarkis |
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| Nickname(s) | The Cedars | ||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Appearances | None | ||
| Medals | None | ||
| FIBA World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 3 (2002, 2006, 2010) | ||
| Medals | None | ||
| Asian Championship | |||
| Appearances | 7 | ||
| Medals |  Silver: 2001, 2005, 2007 |
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| Asia Cup | |||
| Appearances | 2 | ||
| Medals |  Gold: 2010 |
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| Uniforms | |||
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The Lebanon national basketball team is the basketball team representing Lebanon in international competitions.
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History [edit]
The first time basketball was ever played in Lebanon was in the mid-1920s in the American University of Beirut. Gabi Arbaji was the first to prepare a basketball playground in Tabaris area, where the early college competitions were held.
In 1939 the first college championship was organized and the finals opposed the Makassed team to the AUB and ended with a major victory to Makassed with a score of (33–11). The Lebanese Basketball Federation was jointly founded later in 1949 along with the Lebanese Volleyball Federation. The Lebanese made their debut in the European championship tournaments with Eurobasket 1949, held in Cairo, Egypt. They lost all six of their games in the seven team round robin tournament, finishing in 7th and last place.
The refusal of the Soviet Union to host the competition and FIBA Europe's unwillingness to ask Czechoslovakia to host consecutive tournaments meant that 1947 bronze medallist Egypt hosted the competition. Due to travel difficulties and fears, few European teams would travel to the African country to compete. Lebanon, as well as Syria, were asked to compete in the European championship despite being Asian countries.
Lebanon played in the European competition again at Eurobasket 1953 in Moscow. They lost all four of their preliminary round, including one by forfeit as the team refused to play against Israel. The team was able to defeat Sweden in the first classification round, giving them their first Eurobasket win. They placed 4th in their five-team group, advancing to the 13–16 classification games. They lost the first 58–56 to West Germany, but won against Denmark 74–40 to take 15th place of the 17 teams.
The two federations broke up and the first independent Lebanese Basketball Federation was founded in 1955. This plan was already organized by the year 1951. The Lebanese Basketball Championship was formed back then, and went into action till Lebanese civil war. In this period before the war, Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut team had the biggest number of trophies.
After the war in 1993, the 1st championship was organized under the era of Tony Khoury who stood in the Federation for many years; from that time the media started to have a bigger interest in this game. In late 1996, a new Federation was formed with Antoin Chartier as a president, at that time the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation sponsored the game and is still till nowadays.
In Late 1999, new Elections were made and a new group came to the federation on their head Jean Hammam with a big target in his mind to reach to higher levels on the clubs and national teams competitions. The new federation started to work on the national teams for men, women, junior Men.
Stanković Cup [edit]
See Article: 2010 FIBA Asia Stanković Cup
Lebanon hosted the all-new Stanković Cup in 2010 from the 7 to 15 August. Ghazir Club Court welcomed 10 national teams from Asia. The tournament was concluded with the victory of the Lebanese basketball team over the Japanese side with 38 points difference and a 7–0 run. The victory is the first for the Lebanese side.
FIBA championships [edit]
In the FIBA Asia Championship, Lebanon finished 2nd three times (2001, 2005 and 2007), losing twice in the final to China and once to Iran, respectively. They participated in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, the second time they qualified for the tournament (First was in 2002). During that tournament, they managed to beat France and Venezuela but lost to Serbia and Montenegro, Nigeria and Argentina in the first round, finishing in 5th place out of the six to be eliminated.
The 2006 tournament was considered a success mainly because of the political problems Lebanon is having lately. Lebanon's 74–73 victory over France was considered one of the upsets of the tournament.[1] Fadi El Khatib was the 7th best scorer in the tournament, averaging 18 points per game. His performances in the World Championship affected his team's status because in Lebanon's victories El Khatib averaged 32 points per game, but in Lebanon's defeats El Khatib averaged 10 points per game.
Lebanon participated in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and managed to beat Canada 81–71[2] before losing the remaining of his group games.
In the William Jones Cup Lebanon finished 2nd two times (2007, 2010) and 3rd one time (2009).
FIBA World Championship records [edit]
- 2002 FIBA World Championship: 16th/16
- 2006 FIBA World Championship: 18th/24
- 2010 FIBA World Championship: 21st/24
FIBA Asia championship [edit]
| Year | Position | Tournament | Host |
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| 1999 | 7th | 1999 ABC Championship | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 2001 |  |
2001 ABC Championship | Shanghai, China |
| 2003 | 4th | 2003 ABC Championship | Harbin, China |
| 2005 | |
2005 FIBA Asia Championship | Doha, Qatar |
| 2007 | |
2007 FIBA Asia Championship | Tokushima, Japan |
| 2009 | 4th | 2009 FIBA Asia Championship | Tianjin, China |
| 2011 | 6th | 2011 FIBA Asia Championship | Wuhan, China |
Current Roster [edit]
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Lebanon National Basketball Team roster
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| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Depth Chart [edit]
| Pos. | Starter | Bench | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve | |
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| C | Julian Khazzouh | Ali Kanaan | Roy Samaha | |||
| PF | --- | Matt Freije | Ali Haidar | Bassel Bawji | Charles Tabet | |
| SF | Fadi El Khatib | Ghaleb Rida' | Elie Stephan | Mazen Mneimneh | Ahmad Ibrahim | |
| SG | Jean Abdelnour | Elie Rustom | Hussein el Khatib | Omar El Turk | Nadim Souaid | |
| PG | Ali Mahmoud | Rodrigue Akl | Sevag Ketendjian | Ali Barada | Carl Sarkis |
- ' Player out due to injury.
- " Player on national pool.
Notable players [edit]
- Fadi El Khatib
- Elie rustoum
- Jean Abdel-Nour
- Jackson Vroman (retired from the national team)
- Matt Freije
- Ali Mahmoud
- Sam Hoskin (retired from the national team)
- Joe Vogel (retired from the national team)
- Rony Seikaly (retired)
- Elie Mechantaf (retired)
- Walid Doumiati (retired)
- Brian Beshara (retired)
- Paul A. Khoury (retired)
- Yasser El Hajj (retired)
Previous rosters [edit]
- 1949 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 7 teams
- 1953 EuroBasket: finished 15th among 17 teams
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- Ahmed Idlibi
- Christos Georgio
- Maurice Nasr
- Elie Homsi
- Shawki Rababeh
- Naim Barakat
- Saadeddine Itani
- Vartkes Alahaidoian
- Jean Diarbekirian
- Khalil Mekkawi
- Georges Estephan
- Edouard Karam
- Coach: Ahon Kadian
- 2002 World Championship: finished 16th among 16 teams
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- Fadi El Khatib
- Joe Vogel
- Roy Samaha
- Ghazi el-Boustani
- Elie Mechantaf(C)
- Paul Khouri
- Rony Fahed
- Georges Chibani
- Charles Bardawil
- Yasser el-Hajj
- Walid Doumiati
- Bader Makki
- Coach: John Neumann
- 2006 World Championship: finished 18th among 24 teams
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- Coach: Paul Caughter
- 2010 World Championship: finished 20th among 24 teams
External links [edit]
References [edit]
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