Lebanon out of the asian championship

Lebanon is now out of the asian championship.

Eliminated in the quarter-final by an impressive Iran team , the Lebanese NT team have lost the chance to qualify to the Olympic games and win the Asian cup for the first time of their history.

The lack of experience of this young team, a Sam Hoskin "out of shape", and Fadi El Khatib's abscense

 are the main reason of Lebanon's defeat.

OFFICIAL : Sam Hoskin is the new naturalized player

Sam Hoskin signed , few minutes ago , a contract with the lebanese NT . He'll be with the NT in Qatar from the24 to 29th of August and he'll play the Asian Championship in Wuhan from the 15 to 25th of September .
Sam Hoskin is born on the 29th of December 1979 ( 206 cm , 260 pounds) plays on the position 4 and 5 .
He played in Israel (Bnei HaSharon), Russia(PBC Ural Great), Greece, Croatia(Cibona VIP),China and Iran( Bnei Hasharon).
in China he recorded 26 pts per game and in Iran he recorded 26 pts per game and 14 rebounds per game.
Hoskin is known to be one of the best players in his position in Europe.
And Hoskin signed contract with Champville , Ghassan Sarkis's team , as the foreign player .

News about Elie Restom

Elie Restom has not fully recovered from his back injury , so he'll leave the NT and he won't play in the Asian Championship (15 to 25 september )
This is very bad news for Ghassan Sarkis who lost a very important player .

Darryl Watkins will not join the NT !

While his signature was almost on the paper , and while the team , the staff and the fans were waiting for him , Darryl Watkins will. not join the NT.
His agent has sent a message to the federation stating that "the player will not join the team " without giving any reason.
So is it only a pure coincidence or it's a curse that strikes the team of Ghassan Sarkis since the early summer?

Qatar 68-72 Lebanon

Starting 5 against Qatar : Rodrigue Akl , Elie Restom , Jean Abd El Nour , Ali Kenaan , Thomas Coleman.
It was the last game in Turkey for the NT .
At the half-time Lebanon was behind Qatar by 11pts (24-35) but the second part of the game was the opposite of the first , the NT have finally won this game and the players will be back to Lebanon on Sunday at 3pm .

News about the Naturalized Player

We talked about all summer, and until now this story is not yet settled. But these days the situation cleared a bit ... after the big scare caused by Ghassan Sarkis's declaration reffering to his departure, everything is back to normal and the federation has returned to work to find the naturalized player . And that's what happened, Darryl Watkins is now on his way to sign a contract of 35,000 dollars for 35 days with the NT .

Ukraine vs Lebanon

A strange game ended between Lebanon and Ukraine ...
Well , at half-time the two coaches decided to bring the score back to 0-0  , at this moment the ukranian team was leading 39-18 .
And after this " reset " of the score , the game ended  33-35 for Ukraine.
The team that started the game is : Rodrigue Akl , Mohamad Ibrahim , Ghaleb Reda , Bassel Bawji , Thomas Coleman .
Note that Ukraine is playing with their best player ( + an american  naturalized player ) as they are preparing the european cup .

Algeria 67-78 Lebanon

1st quarter : 19-22
2nd quarter : 15-13
3rd quarter : 18-19
4th quarter : 15-24
Despite having 4 important players injured (Jean Abd EL Nour , Elie Restom , Charles Tabet , Elie Stephan ) the lebanese team played a good game beating an athletic Algeria team .
Thomas Coleman played 19 minutes , recording 9pts , 2 rebound , 3 blocks and 2 assist .

Coleman in the starting 5

For this first game , against Algeria , Coleman will play from the start along with Rodrigue Akl (PG) Mohamad Ibrahim (SG) Ghaleb Reda (SF) and Bassel Bawji (PF).

Coleman will probably stay in Turkey

Thomas Coleman is staying in Turkey because there is actually 4 players injured in the NT .
And if Darryl Watkins will come it won't be before the 24th of August ...

Coleman asked to leave ?

According to the latest news coming from Turkey , Thomas Coleman will be under his way to the USA very soon . When Coleman arrived to Turkey , and after participating in one traning session , the coach and the staff decided that he isn't the player that the NT needs because he's only 202cm , and for a starting center it may not be the best choice.
But Coleman may stay till the end of the camp . But he leaves , Darryl Watkins is the favorite player to replace him .

The NT is in Turkey

The lebanese NT is now in Turkey untill the 29th of August .
Coleman will join the team , and the practices will now be twice a day .
And three games will be played in Istambul : aginst Algeria on the 17th , Ukraine on 18th and Qatar on 20th .

Ali Haidar's Departure

Ali Haidar left to USA yesterday at 5 a.m so he's going to miss the Asian Championship in Wuhan (15 to 25 September) because of his High School which starts on 1st of September.

Ghassan Sarkis admitted that Ali is a great lebanese talent and that he'll have a bright future with the NT .

Hope he'll be back soon ...

Joey Akkawi joins Sagesse

Joey Akkawi (21 years old , 178 cm) is a Lebanese-American player (point guard).
He played 4 years in the NCAA with the University of Velmont .
He signed a 1 year contract for Sagesse earlier this week .

Ghassan Sarkis's interview

Ghassan Sarkis accorded an interview to "Jaras Scoop" today.
That's what he said :
-Ali Haidar will not participate in the Asian Championship , because he need to go back to his college .
-The camp in Turkey has been postponed to this Saturday , and the players are supposed to return to Lebanon on the 22th of July .
-Thomas Coleman will travel with the team to Turkey , and he will be , like Southall before him , tested before the coach decides if he will be in China with the NT.
-New players have joined the practices : Jean Abd El Nour , Charles Tabet , Bassel Bawji

Thomas Coleman

Birth Place : Louisville , KY
Height : 6-9 / 205 cm
Weight : 235 lbs / 106 Kg
Position : Center
Team : North Carolina ( 4 years )
Number : 23

2010-11 Stats :
PPG 17
APG 1.4
RPG 10.5
BPG 2.7
SPG 1.2

News about the Naturalized Player

Ghassan Sarkis's list is getting shorter and shorter after Woods and Watkins's refusal.
There is now a list of three american players , and Ghassan Sarkis will have to make his choice very quickly because the Asian Champonship is arriving !

Darryl Watkins rejects lebanese offer

The former Sagesse player , Darryl Watkins , doesn't want to join the lebanese NT because he won't be able to play for an european team (if he play in the asian championship he won't be able participate to any try out)

Ghassan Sarkis on Mahmoud , El-Khatib and Haidar

The lebanese NT head coach confirmed that Ali Mahmoud and Fadi El-Khatib will miss the Asian Championship.

The first has not recovered from his back injury, and the second repeated that he would like to rest.
Ali Haidar told the coach that he must return to college, but he will try to convince his manager in the United States to stay here.

Elie Estephan joins Champville

After Mohamad Ibrahim , Elie Stephan joined Ghassan Sarkis at Campville .

Fadi El-Khatib will not play the Asian Championship

The lebanese NT captain has confirmed that he'll miss the Asian Championship .
Fadi explained that he need to rest after 13 years playing for the the NT , and he promise the lebanese fans that he'll play the world cup qualification .

The NT camp in Turkey

The lebanese NT is in Turkey from August 9 to 20 (for a camp). And the NT will play through this camp, several games, including : one against the University of Miami and two with the national team of Ukraine.

Mohamad Ibrahim joined Champville

After impressing in the King Abdullah Tournament , Mo Ibrahim received (and accepted )a contract from Ghassan Sarkis to join Champville.

Loren Woods has rejected his contract

Bad news for the NT , Loren Woods , the american basketball player , has rejected his contract due to a finacial problem . Even if the federation raised the budget allocated to attract the player recently , they were not enough for Woods .

Loren Woods Will Play With The NT

Loren Woods will be the new naturalized player .
After an impressing season with Al Riyadi (Helping them wining the Lebanese league and the Asian Club Championship) the lebanese basketball federation decided that Loren Woods will be the perfect man to replace Jackson Vroman (Vroman might never come back to the NT again).
He'll arrive to Beirut on August 15.

Loren Woods's factfile :
Position : Center
Height : 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m)
Weight : 260 lb (120 kg)
League : Lebanese Basketball League
Team : Al Riyadi Beirut
Born : June 21, 1978
St. Louis, Missouri
Nationality : American
College : Wake Forest, Arizona
Draft : 2nd round, 45th overall, 2001 Minnesota Timberwolves
Loren woods played 2 seasons at Toronto recording an incredible record of 9 blocks per game.
(2004/2005 - 2005/2006)
When Woods was in the NCAA league (2000) with Arizona he recorded 14 blocks in one game (against Oregon)
In 2001 he was drafted with guys like Tyson Chandler-Pau Gasol-Shane Battier-Joe Johnson-Zach Randolph-Gerald Wallace-Tony Parker !

Naturalized Player

According to the latest news , Loren Woods will probably be the new naturalized player and he'll play with the national team in China (Asian Championship)

The Future Of Mike Southall

Mike Southall failed to show his potential in the King Abdullah Tournament because of his health (he was taken to the hospital the first day of his arrival in Jordan) . Consequently Ghassan Sarkis will have to choose before the end of the week if he want to keep Mike Southall in the group or not  , if he refuse to give him a new chance Loren  Woods (Al Riyadi) will be the naturalized player (a contract was sent by the federation and he'll arrive in Beirut on August 15

Belarus vs Lebanon

Belarus 70-63 Lebanon
Lebanon is now elimimated from this tournament .
After a very bad debut , this young lebanese team returned in the game , especialy in the last quarter , but unfortunatly the difference between the two teams was too big .

Lebanon vs Algeria

Lebanon 79–63 Algeria   
Scoring by quarter: 21-14, 21-20, 20-11, 17-18

The second win in a row for the NT ! This match was a real test for the team but we played a game
Today Ghaleb Reda scored 16 pts (best scorer) and Mike Southall played a fine game , grabbing his first 2 pts under the Lebanese shirt .
Tomorrow , Lebanon will face Belarus in the quarter final at 8 pm (jordan)

Lebanon vs Kuwait

The second game is just finished , Lebanon has shown a good state of mind against Kuwait after the loss against Jordan : Lebanon 84-74 Kuwait
Mohamad Ibrahim has delivered a fine performance, after missing his first game (17pts) , Ali Haidar added 7 rebounds to his 13 pts .
Mike Southall played 1~2 minutes ( recording only 1 rebound ) while Nadim Hawi didn't play any minute.

Lebanon vs Algerie will be on sunday at 8pm (jordan)

Jordan vs Lebanon

The first game has been played : Jordan 80-61 Lebanon
It was a poor performance by the NT today against Jordan . After leading 21-25 in the 1st quarter , Lebanon has allowed Jordan to return to the game because of a very a bad 2nd quarter.
Rodrique Akl was the lebanese captain for this game . He scored only 4pts while Ghaleb Reda , the best lebanese scorer in the game , scored 19pts .
The main problem today was the inside game , the majority of our points were scored from outside or from mid-range . Nadim Hawi (2 pts) and Roy Samaha (7pts but played the majority of the game with 3 fouls behind him) weren't in a good form .
Mike Southall did not play because he was " sick " (He did not participate in the training of 19 and 20 July)

But there is no reason to panic we played with a young (and talented) team that lacks a little bit of experience .

The second game will be tomorow at 8pm(Jordan) Lebanon vs Kuwait

Lebanese players arrival to Jordan

The lebanese national team has arrived earlier today to Jordan .
One last training session will be held this after noon , before tomorrow's game .

2012 Olympic Games

It's a dream never realized  participating in the Olympic Games , playing against the best players and meeting the American "Dream Team". Only the upcoming Asian Championship can give us the chance to go to London.  

With the return of Fadi El Khatib , Jean Abd El Nour , and Ali Mahmoud , Lebanon will be well equipped to face the best teams in Asia . Only the final victory counts , that's why the players and the staff will do their best to reach their goal : Winning the Asia Championship and get to the Olympic Games . 

Elie Restom set to miss the King Abdullah Tournament

Elie Restom will probably miss the King Abdullah Tournament due to a back injury . 
This injury was contracted during the trainings at the Champville stadium .  
Lebanon’s preparations received a jolt with "the mouttahed guard" being ruled out of this tournament, the first step in Ghassan Sarkis’ plans.

Michael Southall

Michael Southall is an American basketball player . He play as a center and he'll be tested at the King Abdullah Tournament as the " new naturalized player " . Senegalese center Cheikh Samb along with Americans Loren Woods and Darry Watkins were some of the leading names doing the rounds as candidates after Jackson Vroman almost ruled out playing for the national team.
But if he satisfies the national team head coach Ghassan Sarkis , he'll be naturalized and will play as a lebanese player at the Asian Championship .

Fadi El-Khatib

Fadi El-Khatib is the current captain of the national team , his nickname is "the tiger of the national team " and he's considered one of the best lebanese player ever. He's simply a lebanese legend.
Consequently Michael Jordan's personal trainer Tim Grover personally invited him to workout with Michael Jordan, Michael Finley, Ray Allen, Charles Oakley, Sam Mack and Juwan Howard. They were all very impressed and told Fadi he should be in the NBA. Michael Jordan was quoted in the New York Times, "Lebanon's premiere player Fadi El-Khatib should be in the NBA."


The extraordinary palmares of Fadi El-Khatib :

-Lebanese Cup Winner -95, 97, 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03.
-Lebanese Cup Finalist -04, 06, 07.
-Lebanese Basketball League Champion -98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 09.
-Lebanese Basketball League Runner-up -06, 07, 10.
-Lebanese Basketball League Best Domestic Player -06, 09, 10
-Lebanese Basketball League All Tournament Team -04, 06, 07, 10.
-Lebanese Basketball League Player of the year-01, 02, 03, 04.
-2000-2001 Lebanese Basketball League 4th Top Scorer averaging 22.8 ppg.
-2001-2002 Lebanese Basketball League 2nd Top Scorer averaging 25.8 ppg.
-2003-2004 Lebanese Basketball League 2nd Top Scorer averaging 27.7 ppg.
-2005-2006 Lebanese Basketball League 4th Top Scorer averaging 27.7 ppg.
-2006-2007 Lebanese Basketball League 2nd Top Scorer averaging 29.6 ppg.
-2006-2007 Lebanese Basketball League Forward of the year.
-2009-2010 Lebanese Basketball League 1st Top Scorer averaging 29.6 ppg.
-2009-2010 Lebanese Basketball League 8th Top Rebounder averaging 8.7 rpg.
-2009-2010 Lebanese Basketball League 9th Top Assist averaging 3.4 apg.
-Arab Cup Champion -98, 99
-Asian Club Championships -99(1), 00(1), 01, 04-(1)
-Lebanon Military National Team -00
-West Asian Championship 1st place -00,01
-West Asia MVP -2001,2002
-Dubai International Tournament -04 (Best Scorer)
-Syrian League Regular Season Champion -05
-2002 FIBA World Championship 10th Top Scorer averaging 17.6 ppg.
-2006 FIBA World Championship 8th Top Scorer averaging 18.8 ppg.
-2006 FIBA World Championship 13th Best Stealer of the Tournament.
-2010 FIBA World Championship 12th Top Scorer averaging 15.4 ppg.
-FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2005 All Tournament 1st Team.
-Asian Championship
-Most Valuable Player: 2005 (Al Riyadi)
-2001 ABC Championship-Silver Medalist.
-2001 ABC Championship-All Tournament 1st Team.
-2005 FIBA Asia Championship-Silver Medalist.
-2005 FIBA Asia Championship-Best Forward.
-2005 FIBA Asia Championship-All Tournament 1st Team.
-2007 FIBA Asia Championship 2nd Top Scorer averaging 27.3 ppg.
-2007 FIBA Asia Championship-Silver Medalist.
-2009 William Jones Cup-Bronze Medalist.
-2010 William Jones Cup-Silver Medalist.
-2010 Arab Club Championship-All Tournament 1st Team.
-2010 Arab Club Championship-Best Domestic Player.
-2010 Arab Club Championship- Gold Medalist.
-Efes Pilsen World Cup 9-Bronze Medalist
-2010 FIBA Asia Stanković Cup-Gold Medalist

El-Khatib and Abd El Nour renew their contract

Jean Abd El Nour is staying at Al Riyadi until 2014 while Fadi el Khatib added two years to his initial contract with Champville

The National League

The Lebanese Basketball League or FLB League or BANKMED FLB League is the top basketball league in Lebanon and one of the top leagues in Asia. It is organised annually as a national championship with playoffs and a national cup by the Lebanese Basketball Federation (FLB). The Men Division A made up of 10 teams is named BANKMED FLB League due to sponsorship reasons. Lebanese Basketball League is ranked top A level, according to FIBA Asia.
Each team consists of 12 players. A maximum of 2 foreigners is allowed .

Previous winner :
Season Champion Runner-up Third place
1998-1999 Sagesse Tadamon Antranik
1999-2000 Sagesse Antranik Champville
2000–2001 Sagesse Champville Al Riyadi
2001–2002 Sagesse Champville Al Riyadi
2002–2003 Sagesse Al Riyadi Antranik
2003–2004 Sagesse Champville Blue Stars
2004–2005 Al Riyadi Sagesse Blue Stars
2005–2006 Al Riyadi Sagesse Blue Stars
2006–2007 Al Riyadi Blue Stars Champville
2007–2008 Al Riyadi Mouttahed Sagesse
2008-2009 Al Riyadi Mouttahed Sagesse
2009-2010 Al Riyadi Champville Hoops
2010-2011 Al Riyadi Champville Mouttahed

King Abdullah Friendly Tournament

The Lebanese National Team is travelling , from the 21th to the 27th of july , to Jordan to participate in this annual friendly tournament. The objective of the national team is to prepare the Asian Championship which will take place in Wuhan , china , at the beginning of september.
Here is the list of the players who will compete in the tournament :
-Rodrigue Akl PG
-Miguel Martinez PG
-Mohammad Ibrahim PG
-Elie Restom SF
-Elie Estephan SG/SF
-Ghaleb Reda SG
-Aboudi Al Farekh PF
-Ali Haidar PF
-Ali Kanaan PF/C
-Roy Samaha C
-Nadim Hawi C
-Mike Southall C


Here are the groups :
Group A: Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Kuwait
Group B : Belarus, Palestine, Tunis, Egypt

The first game of the NT will be on the 21th of july , against the host , Jordan