July 31, 2008 1:24 PM
Theocracy on the Hardwood
Still worried about the status of LeBron's ankle? Trying to figure out how Coach K is going to rotate Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Deron Williams? Wondering whether Kobe's ready to be an MVP on the international stage?Forget about all of that for a second. The Iranians are coming.
NANJING - Iran shook up the basketball world on Wednesday night in Nanjing by stunning Serbia 72-70 in arguably the most famous win in the country's sporting history.
"This is the biggest win in Iranian basketball history," Iran's Serbian coach Rajko Toroman said.
Just from the standings alone -- Serbia is ranked 4th in the latest FIBA standings, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is ranked 33rd -- this is an impressive win. It's also landed Iran on the Rocky's Olympic blog radar, which means that it's time for the first installment of what I've hastily titled "Getting to Know an Obscure Olympic Team."
>There are 73 national teams recognized by FIBA, basketball's governing body. Included are countries with multiparty presidential regimes, constitutional emirates and even those parliamentary democracies I've heard so much about. But Iran is the only one that's a theocratic republic.
>Iran's last Olympic appearance: 1948. The year that the country changed its name from Persia to Iran: 1935.
>Head coach Rajko Toroman is from Serbia. He's previously coached teams in Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia and Yugoslavia. But he'd only seen the Iranian team play once before taking his current job.
>The Iranians won the 2007 Asian Basketball Championship, defeating Kazakhstan in the semifinals and Lebanon in the championship game. Two thoughts about the post-game celebration: Queen's "We are the Champions" probably shouldn't be the anthem for all title games, and can't someone get these guys a ladder the next time they're cutting down the nets to the tune of awkward FIBA-approved theme music?
>Mohammad Samad Nikkhah Bahrami is the captain of the team. His brother and national team teammate, Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami, died in a car crash last December. In an interview yesterday, he spoke about dedicating these Olympics to his brother.
>Hamed Hadadi, a 7'2'', 23-year-old center, has rejected previous offers to play in Europe, but has said that he would consider a move to the NBA after the Olympics. Against Serbia, he had 20 points, 20 rebounds and 6 blocks.
>Hadadi is most famous, however, for hitting a buzzer beater from half court in the first half of Iran's Asian Championship victory over Lebanon. Iran won the game by five points.
-Jaber Rouzbahani, Iran's other center, is 7'5'' and 22 years old. He came to the United States in 2004, hoping to be drafted. He soon learned that, no, there is not "a nightclub on every street and everybody was rich and had a Benz." He ultimately went undrafted.
>The roster includes no players between the height of 6'3'' and 6'7''. However, four players stand 6'11'' or taller.
>Arsalan Kazemi -- expected to be the first Iranian to play American college basketball -- is not on the roster for the team.
>Despite the nature of current relations between the U.S. and Iran, many of the players on the team have been to America. They've only visited one state, though, and it's a logical choice if you're only going to visit one state: Utah.
One more thought, related to yesterday's game: where else in the world can three countries with political histories like China's, Iran's and Serbia's come together? Only at the Olympics.
The Iranians have been placed in Group A for the Games. Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Lithuania and Russia are also in their group.
July 30, 2010
12:38 PM
Misha Luton writes:
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