Haddadi, Ming, Mills Three Stars from Asia, Oceania at Olympics
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hamed Haddadi from Iran, China’s Yao Ming and Australian Patty Mills are among the players who shone for Asia & Oceania at the Men’s Basketball Tournament in the Olympics in the past years.
Beijing 2008 was obviously a big tournament for Yao Ming as it was played in home country, but Athens 2004 was arguably one of his most productive performances at this stage.
While Yao was Asia’s great big man, he wasn’t alone. Iran barged into the scene of the Olympics in 2008 for the very first time and they did so by riding the wave of its very own big-time superstar Hamed Haddadi, FIBA.com reported.
After coming off a historic run to the Asia Cup title in 2007, Haddadi was ready to make his Olympics debut at Beijing 2008. He lived up to the hype and finished with averages of 16.6 points per game, 11.2 rebounds per game, and 2.6 blocks per game, leading the entire tournament in the latter two categories.
Haddadi’s highlight performance was in a loss to a strong Argentina squad when he put up 21 points and 16 rebounds.
The skilled big man had already garnered plenty of interest from the NBA leading up to the Olympics. His performance there only made it certain that he deserved a shot to play in league and shortly after the competition, he signed a contract with the Memphis Grizzlies to become the first Iranian player to play in the NBA.
And Mills went to work once again at Rio 2016 and finished as the second best scorer in the competition with 21.3 points per game.