Jordan Beats Syria, Iran Beats Chinese Taipei!

The Fiba Asia Championships started with a couple of expected victories from favorites Jordan and Iran.

Jordan overcame a stubborn Syria 71-58, led by Rasheim Wright's 20 points.

Iran, on the other hand, were led by Samad Nikkha Bahrami's 28 point in their hard fought 49-37 victory over Chinese Taipei.


More results here.

Iranian Star To Miss FIBA-Asia Championships!

Nineteen year old Arsalan Kazemi, arguably Iran's third or fourth best player, will miss the upcoming FIBA-Asia Championships.

Kazemi, a Sports Management sophomore at Rice University, cited his academic load as the reason for his missing the championships. Kazemi said that his inability to attend training might disrupt the flow of the Iranian National Team, which is bannered by Memphis grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi.

But Kasemi believes that, inspite of his absence, Iran is still the team to beat.

This, of course, is welcome news for Gilas, who will have one less Iranian scorer to mark. Now, the Nationals can concentrate on limiting the touches of Haddadi and keeping Mahdi Kamrani and Nikkha Bahrami from penetrating inside.

More on this story here.

Hamed Haddadi Joins Iranian Team For Jones Cup!

He's 7'2" and plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. Of course, he's no Kobe Bryant. He's not even JaVale McGee.

But Hamed Haddadi still has the potential to cause trouble for Gilas as the Iranian has gained valuable experience playing with Grizz big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.

Marcus Douthit, Japeth Aguilar and Asi Taulava will have their hands full guarding Haddadi, who has developed a short fallaway jumper but both Douthit and Aguilar are quicker than Haddadi and that just might turn the tide against Iran.

Gilas faces Iran on August 14, the last day of the Jones Cup.

More on this story here.

Iraninan Women Forfeit Chance to Qualify For Olympics!

Football is considered by many as a religion. Here's a case where religion beats football out.

The women's football team of Iran has been forced by FIFA to forfeit a qualifying match for the 2012 Olympics because of their headwear.

The women came on to the pitch wearing hajibs, head scarves that cover the head and neck, which were previously banned by FIFA for posing threats to the players' safety. Hajibs and scarves can lead to chking injuries on the field.

RP FALLS TO IRAN. 88-78!

The bad news...we lost to Iran.

The good news...it was only by 10 points.

The better news...we're still on track to get into the quarterfinals.

The best news...we just need to win over UAE to avoid China.

Willie Miller and James Yap led the RP Team in scoring once again, with 14 points each. Gabe Norwood seems to have regained his offensive touch to finish with 13 while Asi Taulava was the most effective big man once again, showing that Japeth Aguilar and Sonny Thoss still have a lot to learn before they can supplant the Tongan behemoth at center.

RP YOUTH TEAM MAKES COUNTRY PROUD.

Eliminated from the semifinal round. Trying to recover from a heartbreaker a day ago. Up against the unbeaten hometown team.

So the RP youth basketball team decided to go after the biggest giant of them all and make him fall.

And fall the giant did. Down by more than 5 pts with barely two minutes left, the RP youth relied on guts, an unrelenting defense and a willingness to mix it up inside with the bigger, heftier Iranians to log the biggest, and most thrilling, upset of the tournament...an 85-84 victory over Iran. 

The Philippines finally went ahead on an RR Garcia corner jumper before Sam Marata sealed the deal with 2 ice cold daggers from the charity stripe with 4 seconds left on the clock.

The Pinoy boys may be heading home already but they'll be heading home with heads held up high.