Welcome Iran’s next generation of stars

All images are from FIBA.com.

This first appeared on my weekly column on FIBA.com.

In 2015, for only the second time in the past 10 years, Iran wasn’t able to hoist the FIBA Asia Championship. Even with stalwarts Hamed Haddadi, Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and Mahdi Kamrani — all of whom have earned their places in the annals of Asian basketball’s icons — Team Melli wasn’t able to repeat the feat they achieved in 2013. The West Asian powerhouse suffered a loss in the second round to the Philippines that eventually led to their Semifinals match-up with home team China. The Chinese proceeded to knock Iran off from contention and eventually upended the Philippines in a hotly-contested Final.

With that result, Iran failed to qualify directly to the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics, repeating their shortcoming in 2011, when they also fell short of winning the Asian diadem and, consequently, didn’t qualify to the 2012 London Olympics.

FIBA Asia stars bannering their pro clubs in the 2015-2016 season!

*This first appeared on my weekly column on FIBA.com.

The calendar of FIBA Asia competitions for 2015 is done, which means that the stars of the different national teams have returned to their respective pro teams in the hopes of pocketing club championships. Let’s take a look at some of these leading players who have been spearheading their respective teams’ chances in the 2015-2016 season.

Potential breakout players of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship - Part 1

*This post originally appeared on my column on FIBA.com.

The biggest continental tournament in this corner of the basketball world, the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship, will unfold in about two months. This will determine the Asian team to qualify automatically for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Needless to say, this tournament is going to be big, so I have taken it upon myself to shortlist some of the players to watch out for. In the first of a two-part series, I take a look at some of the in-betweeners, the guys who are not yet too old, but not quite so raw. These are the guys who might inherit the leadership roles and scoring cudgels of their respective teams as early as this year. These aren’t the guys who are up-and-coming, these are the guys who should break out now.