FIBA-Asia Update: Lebanon and Iran Earn 2012 FIBA Asia Cup Berths

Fadi El-Khatib returned to the Lebanese National Team as
the Cedars booked a ticket to the 2012 Tokyo FIBA Asia Cup.

Lebanon and Iran each earned a slot in the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup (formerly known as the Stankovic Cup) that will be held in Tokyo, Japan. This tournament serves as one of the qualifying legs for the 2013 FIBA-Asia Championships, which, hopefully, will be held here in Manila.

Lebanon and Iran will both represent the WABA (West Asian Basketball Association) sub-group in Tokyo. They are the fifth and sixth teams, respectively, to have qualified, following the automatic berths of Japan (as host) and China (as 2011 FIBA-Asia Champion), and the slots earned by South Korea and Taiwan.

Lebanon finished the 5-day WABA Qualifying leg with a 4-1 record, beating all the teams except for Palestine on the last day (mainly because star player Fadi El-Khatib didn’t play, and it was a no-bearing game anyway). Iran also finished at 4-1, defeating all the teams save for the Lebanese. Iran was almost at full-strength here, with Memphis Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi the only one missing.

Jordan, the second-placers in the 2011 FIBA-Asia joust, failed to qualify after losing on the last day to Iran. Coach Tab Baldwin’s crew is obviously disappointed, but given that their top three players, Sam Dahglas, Rasheim Wright, and Zaid Abbas, weren’t around, the result wasn’t much of a surprise.