Lebanon men's national basketball team

The first time basketball was played in Lebanon was in the mid-1920s in the American University of Beirut. Gabi Arbaji was the first to prepare a basketball playground in Tabaris area, where the early college competitions were held.

In 1939, the first college championship was organized and the finals opposed the Makassed team to the AUB and ended with a major victory to Makassed with a score of (33–11). The Lebanese Basketball Federation (French: Fédération Libanaise de Basketball) was jointly founded later in 1949 along with the Lebanese Volleyball Federation. The Lebanese Basketball Federation is a member of the International, Asian, West Asian and Arab basketball organizations. The two federations broke up and the first independent Lebanese Basketball Federation was born in 1955. But the Lebanese Basketball Championship was already organized back in 1951. The Lebanese Basketball Championship was organized and the champions were crowned till 1975 when the dramatic war stopped everything. In this period before the war, Riyadi team had the biggest number of trophies. During the war, the basketball never stopped and there were always tournaments organized between the clubs of each section in the country and the players did not stop from doing their best hobby. After the war in 1993 the 1st championship was organized under the era of Tony Khoury who stood in the Federation for so many years and from that time the media started to had a bigger interest in this game until late 1996 when a new Federation was born with Antoin Chartier as a president, at that time the LBC interfered and sponsored the game so this date was the big launching of the Lebanese Basketball.

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. 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.

The two federations broke up and the first independent Lebanese Basketball Federation was founded in 1955. This plan was already organized by the year 1951. The Lebanese Basketball Championship was formed back then, and went into action till Lebanese civil war. In this period before the war, Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut team had the biggest number of trophies.

This new federation started to organize lot of championships (other categories . ages championships, ...), in 1997 Riyadi finished as Lebanese champions, the next season they went to participate in the Asian championship they reached the 3rd place and on their return to Beirut the Lebanese fans were on the streets to celebrate this achievement. The same year in 1998 Riyadi lost the Lebanese championship to their big rival Sagesse . Lebanon hosted a big tournament, the Arab club Championship Which Sagesse Club (Hekmeh) won to be the 1st ever trophy for Lebanon after losing the final in 1996 in Beirut. Beirut did not sleep that night all over the country people were on the roads partying till dawn, the next day all the schools were closed as a national holiday. In 1999 Beirut hosted the Asian Championship for clubs, Sagesse managed to win the first ever Asian title for any Lebanese or Arab team, celebrations were all over the country. This same year Sagesse managed to retain their title in the Arab club Championship which was held for the second consecutive time in Beirut. In May 2000, Lebanon once more hosted the Asian Championship for clubs and again Sagesse Club won it and created history for being the only team to win the championship two consecutive times.

Late 1999 new Elections were made and a new group came to the federation on their head Mr. Jean Hammam with a big target in his mind to reach to higher levels on the clubs and national teams competitions. So the new federation started to work on the national teams Men, Women, Young man, Junior Men with bringing the best coaches.

After the war in 1993, the 1st championship was organized under the era of Tony Khoury who stood in the Federation for many years; from that time the media started to have a bigger interest in this game. In late 1996, a new Federation was formed with Antoin Chartier as a president, at that time the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation sponsored the game and is still till nowadays. In late 1999, new elections were made and a new group came to the federation on their head Jean Hammam with a big target in his mind to reach to higher levels on the clubs and national teams competitions. The new federation started to work on the national teams for men, women, junior Men.

The new group changed the regulation of the federation in a way that can fit the targets designed and they have created new regulations for the players concerning their transfers and their signatures in their clubs. These new rules changed the idea of Basketball in Lebanon and the Basketball player, he turned down to be a professional one after these changes.

The women's team of Sagesse Club made history by winning the Arab Title for the first time in the history of Lebanese Women's Basketball. In 2000 the Lebanese Basketball Federation signed a contract with Andrew Young. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, he and his wife and daughter were living in Bahrain. The Lebanese National Team won the WABA championship that year but lost their coach one day before the start of the championship who died in his hotel room due to a heart attack. This event gave the Lebanese national team a bigger motivation to go till the end, the next year in 2001 under another American coach, John Neuman, they played the second round of qualifications of WABA which led them to play the Asian Championship for National Team in China . This tournament will turn down to be the best result in the history of Lebanese Basketball . for the 1st participation in a such event Lebanon managed to reach the semi-final and to beat Korea and reach the Final and in the same time to reach the World Championship in the US in 2002. Lebanon lost in the final but in Lebanon every place were full of emotions, and the national team players were the long time waited heroes for the Lebanese People, the celebrations were everywhere in the country, the president of the republic and the prime minister met the Lebanese Team and congratulate them.

In 2002 the Lebanese National team went to many camps in the USA before 1 month of the Championship, and they managed to show a good level of the Lebanese Basketball, Lebanon was ranked at the end 16. In 2003 the Lebanese National team with a new coach Ghassan Sarkis reached the final of the Jordan Tournament to lose against the Egyptian team, and they reached the semi final of the Asian Championship in China to lose against the Korean team by overtime and to be ranked 4th overall in the championship. As for the other national teams in 2000 the Junior National Team played the Asian Championship in Malaysia after playing the Qualifications in Beirut in reaching the 2nd place, in 2001 the Junior National Team won the WABA Championship which qualified him to play the Asian Championship in Kuwait in 2002 in which he reached the 9th place with 1 loss. In 2003 they played the qualifications for the Asian Championship in Yemen and they reached the 2nd place. The women national team played the Arab Championship in 2000 in Algeria, they won all their games except the one against the home team so they reached the 2nd spot which was a great results for the Women Basketball . In 2003 they won the Jordan tournament after beating all the Arab national teams with comfortable margin, the women national is full of new generation players. As for the young men national team they played the WABA Championship in 2003 and they reached the 2nd spot. In 2004 Sagesse made another step in the history after winning back the Asian Championship for Clubs in Dubai and to be the 1st team ever to win it three times.

In 2005 The Lebanese Men's National team made another historic achievement by qualifying for the second consecutive time to the World Championship by finishing 2nd in the Asian Championship behind China. In 2005 Riyadi imposed its supremacy on the Arabic clubs scene by winning the Arab Club Championship which was held in Dubai. In 2006 Lebanon had its most successful summer of Basketball, The men national team achieved the best results for Lebanon by beating Venezuela and Canada in the ALPOS CUP in Slovenia and by beating again Venezuela and France in the world championship in Japan. The Lebanese Junior National added to this achievement another one which was the qualification to the U19 Men World Championship for the first time ever which will be held in Vancouver – Canada in July 2007. Riyadi – Beirut Club Once again retained its Arabic title by winning the Arabic Title in Morocco. As for the women's Antranik -Beirut club created history by being the only Lebanese team to win the Arab Championship for Women's clubs for the first time outside Lebanon, the championship was held in Dubai.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lebanon national basketball team.

• Official website
• FIBA profile