The best of Asia will highlight their skills in the upcoming 27th FIBA Asia Championship this coming August 1-11, 2013 but some of the brightest stars in Asia will not be available here in Manila in the highly-anticipated basketball event.
China’s Wang Zhizhi, the seven-footer veteran of Asia will not play for his team, NBA-bound and Iranian superstar Arzalan Kazemi, Jordan’s Sam Daghles and Zaid Abbas were not included in the official roster of the FIBA Asia which was released yesterday.
The final line-up of the top three teams is a good sign for the Philippines and other participating countries, but according to the coaches of teams involved they have reliable replacements for the above-mentioned players. The Top 3 finishers in this year’s edition of FIBA Asia will qualify for the World Championship to be held in Spain next year.
Arzalan Kazemi is one of the regular mainstay of the Iranian basketball squad, he is a 6-foot-8 power forward who played for the US NCAA Division I Rice University and University of Oregon. The Iranian opted not to risk his health in the tournament after being picked 54th overall in the recent NBA Draft. He is currently playing for the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas as Philadelphia 76ers.
The former team captain of the Chinese national basketball squad, Wang Zhizhi, China’s first NBA player was left out in the final line-up, ending his colorful career as Chinese international basketball superstar. China’s coach Panagiotis Gianakis did not include the 34-year-old Wang in the final line-up.
Jordan’s superstar cager Sam Daghles and Zaid Abbas decided to focus on their career as Chinese Basketball (–foul word(s) removed–)ociation players and decided to skip the tournament. Jordan is bracketed with the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Saudi Arabia in Group A.