Lebanon national basketball team

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The Lebanon national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Lebanon in international competition.

They finished second in the Asian Basketball Championships twice (2001 and 2005), losing the championship game to China each time. They participated in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, the second time they qualified for the tournament. They beat France and Venezuela but lost to Serbia and Montenegro, Nigeria and Argentina in the first round , finishing in 5th place out of the six to be eliminated. The tournament was considered a success mainly because of the political problems Lebanon is having lately. Lebanon's victory over France 74-73 was considered the upset of the tournament. Fadi El Khatib was the 7th best scorer in the tournament, averaging 18 points per game. His performances in the World Championship affected his team's status because in Lebanon's victories El Khatib averaged 32 points per game, but in Lebanon's defeats El Khatib averaged 10 points per game.

Lebanon's roster includes Jean Abdel-Nour,Ramzi El Hachem, Hussein Tawbe, Ali Mahmoud, Rony Fahed, Omar Turk, Brian Beshara, Bassem Balaa, Joe Vogel, Ali Fakhreddine, Sabah Khoury, Paul Khoury, Fadi El Khatib. The Head Coach is Paul Coughter.

1 Eurobasket 1949
2 Eurobasket 1953
3 Current Squad
4 External links

[edit] Eurobasket 1949

The Lebanese made their debut in the European championship tournaments with Eurobasket 1949, held in Cairo, Egypt. They lost all six of their games in the seven team round robin tournament, finishing in 7th and last place.

The refusal of the Soviet Union to host the competition and FIBA Europe's unwillingness to ask Czechoslovakia to host consecutive tournaments meant that 1947 bronze medallist Egypt hosted the competition. Due to travel difficulties and fears, few European teams would travel to the African country to compete. Lebanon, as well as Syria, were asked to compete in the European championship despite being Asian countries.

[edit] Eurobasket 1953

Lebanon played in the European competition again at Eurobasket 1953 in Moscow. They lost all four of their preliminary round, including one by forfeit as the team refused to play against Israel. The team was able to defeat Sweden in the first classification round, giving them their first Eurobasket win. They placed 4th in their five-team group, advancing to the 13-16 classification games. They lost the first 58-56 to West Germany, but won against Denmark 74-40 to take 15th place of the 17 teams.