Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bassel Bawji and Charles Tabet will join the practice on friday

Bawji ( mouttahed ) and Tabet ( anibal ) will join the Lebanese National team practices on friday. The training is taking place at Champville's stadium everyday at 6h00 pm ( Beirut time )

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

OFFICIAL : Joey Accaoui to Anibal

Joey Accaoui just signed a 2 year contract with Anibal.

Lebanese basketball league : transferts and rumors

Fadi El Khatib to Riyadi ?
It was the first shock of this off-season. Fadi El Khatib announced , live on television his departure :" I will probably sign with Riyadi this week ( mid may)" But the negociations stopped suddenly when Champville declares that there is still one condition to allow El Khatib join Riyadi . Riyadi wasn't able to fulfill this condition so Champville's captain signed a new 4 years contract with his team.


Rodrigue Akl joins the green castle
After a huge season with Anibal , Rodrigue Akl joined Sagesse for the next 4 years . His big contribution in Anibal acsension this season and his 6.31 assist per game made him the best PG of the 2011/2012 campaign


Nadim Souaid at Champville for the next 3 years
Nadim Souaid impressed this season by his good performances with Bejjeh . He was also named the 2nd best Lebanese player , behind his new teammate Fadi El Khatib. So with the departure of Elie Estephan whoes contract expires this month , Ghassan Sarkis decide to sign Nadim before any other team


Ali Mahmoud renews his contract with Riyadi
Earlier this month Riyadi tried to sign Rodrigue Akl from Anibal. But the player finaly decided to join Sagesse so Riyadi renewed Ali's contract and kept him as their starter PG.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The WABA Championship will be held in Jordan from 11 to 15 June 2012.The Best two classified teams in the WABA will qualify to participate in the FIBA ASIA Cup which will be held in Tokyo - Japan from 14 to 23 September 2012.

National Team practice

10 players were today in Champville stadium for the 2nd training of the national team : Rodrigue Akl , Bassel Bawji , Nadim Hawi , Fadi El Khatib , Nadim  Souaid , Hussein El Khatib , Carl Sarkis , Miguel Martinez , Ghaleb Reda and Jad Bitar . This situation is similar to last year's one. It's incredible to see only 10 players practicing only 13 days before an important asian competition. Many players are injured or would like to rest after a very long basketball season , so untill now things aren't so good in the NT .

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A stunning end of the season !

For the first time in the Lebanese basketball league we'll see a new champion.
Review of a dramatic "final four":


The first semi-final between Champville and Sagesse ended as predicted 3-0 in favor of Champville . Fadi el khatib's teammates dominated the series , and Ghassan Sarkis admitted : " Its good to have an easy serie like this one , so we can work harder in the training , and prepare serenely the final " Marcus Haislip also showed good performances for his first games with Champville.


The other serie was comletly different.  
After a surprising win at Manara Anibal took off the home advantage from Riyadi. But Fouad abou chakra's team answered very fast helped by a very big Ismail Ahmad performance wich gave his team the win in Zahle . This game was a turning point in the series . The attitude of Anibal fans was very negative , and so where Riyadi's fans in the game 3 : a war between the fans was clearly declared. Riyadi won the game 3 at manara and have now the chance to clinch their place in the final in Zahle . Before the game , there was rumours that the game might be played without fans inside the stadium . But the federation comfirmed that the fans were allowed to enter the stadium. Before the game anibal zahle president had a speech infront of the crowd , saying that the fans must respect the players and the teams and avoid swearing in the stadium . The game was at a very high level with a bit of aggressivity . Anibal won the game by 12 pts . After the game Isamil ahmad , exhausted by Anibal fans words , critisised openly and insulted the federation for this carelless attitude . Because of all these incidents , the game five was posponed two time before the federation decide that no fans will be able to attend the stadium and Ismail Ahamd is suspended do to impulsive attitude . These decision were cristisised by ones and approved by other but it was the final decision of the federation . These decisions were clearly unfair according to riyadi's president so he decided that riyadi won't play the match and anibal won (20-0 by forfeit).


The Final : Anibal vs Champville
 Just 2 days after the canceled game against Riyadi , the outsiders Anibal are in Dik El Mehde for the game 1 . Helped by his magic trio Rodrigue Akl , Jay Youngblood , Leroy Hurd and the clinical Charles Tabet Anibal snatches the win against an average champville team .  GAME 2: Marcus Haislip , the ex-nba player , the most expensive player in the lebanese league history proved in this game all his quality . Scored 26 pts ( almost all of the from behind the arc) , he delivered a huge performance and gave back the home advantge to his team .  The game 3 was largely dominated by Champville ( 103-79)  So Ghassan Sarkis's team have now the chance to become the first team other than Sagesse and Riyadi to win the league !  After a very tight game and great performance from Fadi El Khatib who declared before the game : " I want to win this title with Champville , I was wainting for this since I came here . I love the team , the fans, the staff , it's a wonderdul team and it will be nice to win the title today in zahle" , Champville took the lead over anibal to win the game and bring the league title home .
It's the end of an era in lebanon's basketball. We have a new champion!