15 August 2011
BEIRUT: The Lebanese national basketball team travelled Sunday to Istanbul to undergo a training camp until next Monday, prior to moving to Qatar for an invitational tournament Aug. 24 to compete in a friendly tournament alongside the hosts, Philippines and Syria.
Coach Ghassan Sarkis selected 14 players for the camp – Rodrigue Akl (Captain), Miguel Martinez, Mohammad Ibrahim, Ghaleb Reda, Elie Stephan, Elie Rustom, Jean Abdel Nour, Aboudy al-Farekh, Charles Tabet, Roy Samaha, Ali Kanaan, Bassel Bawji, Paul Iskandar, and American Center Thomas Coleman, who will fly directly from the U.S. to Turkey to undergo a couple of tryouts in order to take the final decision on whether naturalize him or not.
Lebanon is scheduled to meet Ukraine and Qatar during their seven-day stay in Istanbul.
However, the Lebanese officials are still trying to arrange more games against local teams.
Ukraine is currently preparing for Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania, and they had brought in a naturalized American point guard called Steve Burtt, who is also the Ukraine’s top league’s leading scorer.
“We want this so bad” Sarkis said about the camp in Turkey last Friday during a training session.
“Our Asian opponents are now battling in the Jones Cup in Taipei, while we are still figuring out the teams we will play in Turkey.”
Sarkis, seemed worried about the naturalized issue. “We are going to test Coleman, if he’s good he’ll stay, otherwise we have to search from the beginning for other options,” he said.
Sarkis praised the mood in the team. “We are like a family here, everyone is doing his best to represent his country in the best possible way, and we are hopefully going to make some noise wherever we go,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Lebanon starting point guard and Captain Rodrigue Akl indicated that, “The preparations were slowly advancing, but we are still going to show a good image no matter what.”
Copyright The Daily Star 2011.
