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 .