Iran Basketball Up for Challenge: Arsalan Kazemi
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian national basketball team's power forward Arsalan Kazemi is confident his country is up to challenge for the upcoming events.
NBA draftee Kazemi debuted for the senior men's national team of Iran in FIBA Basketball World Cup 2010, where he averaged 12.0 points and 7.4 rebounds for the team.
"Making it to the Olympics is our long term goal, but before that, we want to make it to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019 and win some games there," Kazemi said in an interview with FIBA.com.
"In the past three FIBA Asia Championships, Iran national team has always finished strong, so we look forward to continue playing well," he said.
"When coach Dirk Bauermann took the head coaching job before, he started making changes because he felt like our national team needed energy and motivation, so he started injecting young blood to the team, which resulted in winning the previous FIBA Asia Challenge," Kazemi explained.
"From now on, it depends on who will take the head coaching job. If the federation decides to continue with our new coach Mehran Hatami, then I think he will follow the same path," he concluded.
