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OH! THE THRILL OF A NATIONAL TEAM COMPETITION-APART FROM PRIDE AND PATRIOTISM PhilBoxing.com Wed, 19 Mar 2014  By S. Mageshwaran (FIBA Asia) A call for national duty has to be right on top of the priorities for a player. Only a 'God Forbid' injury or the decision of a coach should keep him away from this call. ALL OTHER REASONS, EXCUSES, AND JUSTIFICATIONS ARE JUST HOGWASH. Players of reigning FIBA Asia Championship winners Iran seem to have got this right. The attitude of each of them has shown crystalline clarity on their priorities for the season - be in the reckoning to represent Team Melli at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup (30 August-14 September). Iran's coach Memi Becirovic, during a conversation with me earlier in the season, laid down the rules for his preparation very clear. "I need all my players to be with me right from day one of preparations," the 52-year-old told the FIBA Asia website leaving no chance for any 'superstar' to come up with contractual obligations excuse to bunk any part of the preparation. The result: Arsalan Kazemi chose not to sign up with the Philadelphia 76ers, despite being the first Iranian player to be drafted into the NBA - by the Washington Wizards before a trade sent him to the 76ers - and instead opted to play for Petrochimi in the Iranian Super League. For a 23-year-old, priming for a professional career, the decision - for experience, exposure, remuneration and every other factor considered - was huge. But Kazemi, who was left out of the Iranian that went on to win the gold medal at the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in Manila and thus qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, for exactly the same reason the priorities were well set. Two other super stars of Iranian basketball - nay FIBA Asia - did something similar. Hamed Haddadi, the MVP of the tournament in the Philippines, and Samad Bahrami - arguably the craftiest playmaker currently in Asia - both sought greener pastures making their debut in the CBA. Haddadi played for Sichuan and Bahrami for Fujian, but once they realized their teams were not going to make the playoffs, the two got busy negotiating deals with Mahram to return to Iran. Their agents were not even allowed to think beyond. "There's an almost electric experience when we play for the National Team," Oshin Sahakian, one of the All Stars at the 27th FIBA Asia Championship had told me once. "It's difficult to explain the way things just fall in place when we play for the National Team. I don't think any Iranian will pass the opportunity to play for the country. And this is true not only for basketball, for all sports," he had said. Things look a little contrasting for the team that lost to Iran in the Final in Manila - the Philippines. L'Affaire Slaughter-Lassiter, and the reasons they provide for their decision to opt out of the Gilas Pilipinas training pool, is a perfect fit for the clich?d "more than meets the eye." Both state that the same 12 men who helped Philippines win their first FIBA Asia Championship medal in more than quarter of a century - thus qualifying for the World event after four decades - deserve to again represent the country in the biggest basketball event in the world. "For me, personally, it wouldn't feel right to take away from the players who deserve it. The 12 guys who played there (in FIBA Asia Championship), they rightfully deserve it," said the 1.88m Lassiter, who was a part of the Smart Gilas team that finished fourth at the 26th FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China in 2011. "I think the thing that they started back in August, they won that. I think that those 12 should be the ones to go on and represent the country in Spain," says the 2.13m Slaughter, who was a part of the training pool for the 27th FIBA Asia Championship before the final cuts. These reasons add an almost angelic halo to these players - willing to 'sacrifice' their place in the national team - but the fact of the matter remains that Chot Reyes had specifically selected them seeking more height in his training pool! I would have thought that every Filipino player would have wanted to be a part and parcel of the team's preparation - in what is undoubtedly the biggest international participation for the National Team - and thus provide the toughest sparring for those who eventually make it to Spain. Even if he is willing to eventually sacrifice for the "greater good." Something doesn't seem right here. Doesn't it? So long? S Mageshwaran  |
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