Exactly one week tonight (I wrote it on the one week anniversary of the loss), Lebanon got kicked out of the FIBA Asia Cup by none other than Iran! As if losing the quarter finals despite home court advantage and a stadium filled with Lebanese fans wasn’t enough, it had to be against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
While the Lebanese team’s overall performance and the lack of fighting spirit raise some suspicious questions, I will rise above the conspiracy theories and stick to proven facts.
It’s true that the Lebanese selection had the home court advantage but the Iranian one had the advantage of being purely Iranian. Indeed, all of the players and their coach are Iranians who wanted a victory for their nation. On the other hand, one of the main players of the Lebanese team is actually a 24-year-old naturalized Antiguan (and American) who spent the championship proving that you don’t have to be relevant to retain a place among the starting five. This leads us to the recently appointed team manager, Ramunas Butautas, the man who pictures himself as smarter than Mourinho but made Benitez look like a decent coach.
The Iranian team managed to waltz their way to the finals but adapting basketball to their rather poorly talented players. The whole team completely relied on a giant in a bad physical condition, there were times he could barely walk, and who would get physical even if isn’t needed, betting on some of the referees’ tendency to turn a blind eye when certain players inject their game with some WWE moves. They also relied on two truly talented three-point snipers who can score from almost any position on the court. One beautiful play they mastered include three players, most of the times the ones I already mentioned: under the basket, one player would hide behind the Giant, while another brings all the attention on himself and shoots. If he fails to score and the Giant had been too slow to rescue him, the hiding one would just appear, make a rebound and score. Another of their good plays is having the opposite team try to block the Giant for 20 seconds before he passes the ball to a forgotten player standing by the three-point line who will shoot, score before anyone has the opportunity to relocate the defense. The Iranian team’s transparency raises important questions when it comes to the Lebanese team’s inability to win.
Up until Sunday night, it was possible to explain the loss by saying the Iranians can’t be defeated for one or more sounding plausible reasons. But on Sunday night, the Australian team beat the Iranians at their own game. They alienated them, drove them crazy! The players were shocked, looking around in disbelief, not understanding how a Giant and two sidekicks weren’t enough to break a real, strong team determined to win.
See, the problem was never the Iranian team. They might not play the most ethical basketball in the world, but that is their choice and eventually the way they made it to the finals.
The Iranians beat us because they knew not only their strengths but also their weaknesses.
We thought Pelle was going to catapult us to the gold while he only managed to keep himself injury free to not lose some new contract. Hell, he didn’t even break a nail.
We thought appointing a foreign team manager would be a good idea and it proved one of the worst decisions any Lebanese had made in ages. He warmed the bench with the wrong players, played the wrong ones at the wrong time, and subbed the wrong ones at the wrong time. Too many wrongs to assume he did any right.
Our players didn’t seem aware of their weaknesses. On the contrary, most of them seemed to see themselves as God’s gift to basketball. Their behavior showed crackles within the team spirit and obvious jalousies the coach either didn’t seem to catch on or didn't think were his problem. Here I have a direct recommendation to whoever will inherit of the National team: your star player is your youngest player, and this isn’t easy! You can’t expect the veteran players or the ones in their mid to late twenties to accept that the twenty-one year old is actually one of those very few wonder boys. Have a clear rule stating that “if Arakji can do it, it doesn’t mean you can do it”. If your players can’t cope, make them warm the bench. Nothing ever motivated a player to stay in line and respect orders as much as the perspective of spending playing time watching from the bench. But also, one can’t forget that to expect players to respect orders, their coach must be at least worthy of respect.
Denial won’t change the loss into a victory. The National Commission or whatever its name is needs to wake up quickly! They aren’t as good at their job as they thought they are. They made huge mistakes and failed to win against Iran, when all they had to do was forcing the Giant to run, he can’t run, push him into foul trouble and alienate the snipers with aggressive defense. Yes, that Giant isn’t that important if you just ignore the myths and send a short player to run around him in circles and show him that physical condition still matters in sports.
Finally, the Iranian meltdown in front of Australia is just another proof of our national team’s weakness and hopefully those in charge will soon come to realize that it’s time to update and upgrade!
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