FIBA Asia Cup 2012 Tokyo

[Raptor]

It was a sweet win considering the fact that Iran was trailing by 4 points with 90 seconds left. Quite an exciting finish, Japan played good in second half and fought well.

The best part about this is that Iran managed to win it all even without a proper precamp under the new Slovenian coach and also without players like Haddadi, Kamrani and A.Kazemi.

FIBA Asian Championship is up next in 2013. Some days ago it was confirmed that Lebanon will host the games and top 3 teams will qualify for the World Cup in 2014. Unless we pull a "Jordan" again, we definitely should be one of those teams.

[Essi]

I saw every single game actually and was very proud of this team even though in the final they played a crappy game. Congrats to them. Well done considering that they are missing 4 key players.

[EKBATAN]

great job boys! i hope to see them in the world cup again

[Shamim]

great job boys! i hope to see them in the world cup again

The only serious rival we have is China,i wonder how they did in this tournement.

[Raptor]

The only serious rival we have is China,i wonder how they did in this tournement.

China was eliminated in the quarterfinals (by Japan with a score line of 50-60) and would later on finish 5th. Apparently, they didn't send all their main players to this tournament.

HOWEVER, it doesn't mean that they would have won the cup if all their stars were present, and even if they would that would not really indicate that they are the best team of Asia.

I'm not exaggerating (nor am I biased) when I say that Iran is the best team right now in Asia.

In my opinion, China is and has been on decline ever since Yao Ming was injured/forced to retire from NT (meaning after the Olympics 2008). Even in the latest Asian Championship (2010) they were very lucky to win it all:

• Firstly, the tournament was initially going to be held in Lebanon but FIBA would later decide to move it to China because the Lebanese wasn't able to meet the criteria. Not many nations in Asia have been able to do so and those who could (like Japan or S.Korea) have shown none or little interest to host this tournament. Thus, it left China as the only candidate to host and as a matter of fact they have been hosting four of the last five Asian championships, meaning they have been given a huge advantage for winning the tournament in this span (and thus qualifying for the Olympics and the WC).
• Secondly, Iran looked very impressive in these games until they choked against Jordan in the quarterfinals by underestimating them and eventually losing the game by 2 points. The Jordanians played their hearts out and were able to make most of their shots (they had a very good 3-point game) while Iran played a little bit too relaxed and would make some very costly mistakes at the end of the game which made the lead to big to catch. Credits should be given to the Jordanians for beating us, although there were some reports about 2-3 of their players being doped, but nothing is certain and we will probably never find out the truth. They would later go all the way to final and face the hosts China. The Chinese were very lucky to come out of this game with a win, as Jordan missed a couple of big shots at the end and would lose the game only by a single point. The Chinese looked extremely nervous during the second half and was lucky that Jordan did not have a good shooting day (like they did against Iran).

China would thus qualify for the Olympics - but they made an embarrassment out of themselves and Asia by losing all games by huge margins (even against a team like GB that isn't among the best teams in the world). Iran would have done a better job, trust me.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. China will be the main opponent for Iran to beat, but they aren't that good as they used to be. Iran with Haddadi, Kazemi and Kamrani is way better.

The teams that we usually should look out for are S.Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Japan, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan. All these teams can cause trouble on a bad day for Iran, but it would mean a really bad day if we were to lose. The teams that Iran always seem to have problem with is Lebanon and Jordan for some reason, especially the later one. But their team is going through a phase of change and they might not be so strong in near future. Lebanon is kind of same and they have been struggling lately, but they will still be a team to beat as they will be hosting the games in 2013.

One thing that might give Iran some more competition in future is if Jeremy Lin decides to play for the Chinese Taipei (although I think he is overrated he would still be a star in Asian basketball), but he has yet to decide if he wants to represent them or the US (I think he participated in a youth team with US recently). Also, Javalee McGee (by some referred to as the bonehead of the NBA) might not be the greatest player on the planet, but he has shown interest to represent the Philippines. The reason for that I don't know, but Philippines have been on a rise lately and they would possibly become a threat with the addition of McGee. And of course you have a team like Qatar that could go and naturalize any given player. Good thing is that you can't have more than one naturalized player on your team, so it will not be like their national football team.

As for qualifying for the WC in 2014, top 3 in the Asian Championship 2013 will do (even the 4th team might receive a wild card). I would rather win the 2015 Asian Championship so we can see Iran in the Olympics 2016, while taking a silver or bronze in 2013, although I hope we can win both.

[arash123]

^Great analysis Raptor jan.

[babak_iran]

how important of a weight factor is this tournament compared to the fiba asian championships? whats the difference? why is there 2 cups?