The Palestine national basketball team who will be competing in the prestigious FIBA Asia Championship for the very time will rely on their most popular basketball star nowadays headed by Sani Sakakini who set to prove to Asia that his team is a worthy Gilas opponent. The National Team of Palestine wanted to showcase their basketball skills despite the war-torn situation of their homeland.
The Palestinians will be seeing action for the very first time in FIBA Asia and is scheduled to face one of the toughest team in the competition and considered as heavy title favorites, the Gilas Pilipinas squad.
According to basketball experts in the Middle East, the leader of Team Palestne, Sani Sakakini has been regarded as the country’s best cager. He became the first person from Palestine to make basketball a profession and wanted to prove that he will never turn back on his people despite his great skills which he could have used to gain citizenship somewhere else.
The 6-foot-9 center recently trained in Las Vegas to hone up for the FIBA Asia and was able to convince former University of Minnesota guard Jamal Abu-Shamala to build the national basketball team of Palestine.
The 28-year-old Sakakini grew from Ramallah in the West Bank but has played in major professional leagues in China, Lebanon and Jordan. He also hopes the one day he will become the first Palestine national to make it to the NBA.
According to Sani Sakakini, he will use the FIBA Asia stint to draw attention from scouts, at least those who wll try to spot talents for the European league. Aside from being the leader of the Palestine national basketball team, Sani Sakakini is currently considered as the face of the Palestine national team.