Everyone plays basketball today.
This adapted phrase from football stadiums, in recent decades, has been living under baskets all over the world.
Although many national teams still lack medals from major tournaments, such as the World Cup or the Olympic Games, basketball is widely followed, energetically played and uncompromisingly loved.
One of them is the Lebanon team.
"All national teams from Asia are specific, but the Lebanese have basketball in their blood, they love it more than 'bread to eat,'" says coach Marko Filipović, until recently the assistant coach of the young coach Jad el Hajeh in the Lebanese national team, which secured a place in the World Cup in November .
He told the BBC in Serbian that basketball is the main sport in this Arab country on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that the people live for it, but that "chaos, panic, drama" appear as soon as the first game is lost.
He came to the hot bench at the beginning of 2022, and they passed their first successful test at the Arab Championship in the United Arab Emirates in February, winning it, followed by the Asian Cup in Indonesia in July, where they were defeated in the final by Australia by a basket.
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At the Mundobasket in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, 32 national teams are competing, among them Serbia, Slovenia and Montenegro from the region, as well as defending champions Spain, favorites the United States of America, Italy and others.
But four debutants also traveled to the Asian Far East - Latvia and Georgia from Europe and the African national teams of Cape Verde and South Sudan.
South Sudan almost pulled off a surprise in the first game - they came close to beating Puerto Rico, but were defeated in extra time.
The Cape Verde team sensationally triumphed over Venezuela in the second round of the group stage of the competition.
A place at the 2023 World Basketball Championship was secured by national teams that were not given too many chances, such as Iran, Jordan, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Mexico and others.
From the Baltic in burgundy jerseys
The national team of Latvia, on its debut at the World Championships, secured passage to the next stage of the competition by defeating France, in the "group of death", as many characterized it.
The Baltic national team is led by Davis Bertans, former Partizan ace, who has been playing in the American NBA since 2019 - now for the Oklahoma Thunder, and his brother Dairis.
Among prominent Latvian basketball players who went to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, were Rodions Kurucs, also a former Partizan winger, Rolands Schmits and Arturs Zagars, who was the most effective player in the burgundy jersey against France with 22 points.
Although they traveled to Mundobasket without injured NBA wing center Kristpas Porzingis, the main asset in the qualifiers, then from the ranks of the Washington Wizards, now in the jersey of the Boston Celtics, achieved, according to many, an unexpected success by placing in the second round of the competition.
Serbian coach Nenad Trajković became the head coach of this national team in 2008, when the basketball conditions there were significantly different.
"They had an idea, but a lot of missed talent," says an experienced basketball expert for the BBC in Serbian.
Trajković says that he first made national teams A and B, and then one of both teams, after which they "started to think a little more seriously about basketball."
In the national team, he had at his disposal Andris Biedrinš, a player of the Golden State Warriors, but not Kaspars Kambala, a talented center who was also involved in boxing during the break, who was suspended, allegedly due to drugs.
His experience in leading this Baltic country shows that "they do not invest much in basketball, that the quality is not good and that they do not have satisfactory budgets".
"They are not so enthusiastic about any sport, the crowd only comes when there is a quality match, so it fills up to 5.000 or 6.000 people," recalls Trajković.
He adds that the Latvians are competitors, but that they did not completely fit into his philosophy of basketball, that they must be players both on and off the court.
"They also like to drink outside the field, so they don't come to training.
"They are not disciplined and that is their biggest problem off the field even today, I don't believe that can change," says the experienced coach.
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Debutant from the Caucasus
Another European and former Soviet republic - Georgia - is making its debut at Mundobasket 2023.
The experienced team is led by wing center Tornika Šengelija and center Giorgi Šermadini, heavyweights who contributed a lot to their national team's place in the Mundobasket, providing excellent games in the qualifiers.
The national team is led by Greek expert Ilias Zuros, former coach of Budućnost Podgorica, whose jersey was once worn by one of the main Georgian players - Goga Bitadze, current player of Orlando Magic, where he moved from Indiana Pacers.
This center also spent several seasons in Serbia playing for KK Smederevo 1953 and Mega, in the period from 2016 to 2019.
There is another NBA player in the Georgian ranks - Alexander Mamukelasvili from the San Antonio Spurs, born in New York (USA).
Important links in the representative chain are Duda Sanadze, who until recently played for Borac from Čačany, naturalized American Tad McFadden, as well as young playmaker Rati Andronikashvili.
The smallest and youngest country for the first time at the World Basketball Championship
By placing Cape Verde in this year's Mundobasket, this African national team is writing new pages of basketball history as the smallest country in terms of population that managed to do so.
At the previous World Cup, that record was set by Montenegro, but now they have been overtaken by a country located on an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, more than 500 kilometers from the African mainland, with a little more than 550.000 inhabitants.
The most famous name in the ranks of the worst placed national team in the FIBA ranking list (64. place), surely Walter Eddie Tavares.
Among others, Ivan and Joel Almeida, Fidel Mendonca and Kenneth Mendes, as well as Joao Betinho Gomes, who was the top scorer with 22 points in the match where the debutants celebrated against the Venezuelan national team, found a place in the team composed mainly of veterans.
The greatest success of the Cape Verdean national team, a country that gained independence from Portugal a little less than half a century ago, was bronze at the 2007 African Championship and fourth place two years ago in Rwanda.
Their basketball federation launched in mid-August fundraising event to go to Mundobasket, when Cape Verde's basketball players visited the United States.
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Next to the least, at this year's World Basketball Championship. the youngest country in the world - South Sudan, formed in 2011 by separating from Sudan - also performs.
This African national team plays in Group B, in the Philippines, with favorites Serbia, China and Puerto Rico.
The coach of the team is Royal Ivey, a former American NBA basketball player, while the playing core consists of captain Kuani Kuani, Nuni Omot, Denf Akut and Marial Shajok.
Two basketball players with experience playing in the NBA - Wenjen Gabriel and Karlik Jones, who in the defeat against Puerto Rico in the first round, scored as many as 35 points, almost three times more than his colleague from the national team and the prestigious American league, came to Mundobasket with South Sudan.
Jones was also South Sudan's top scorer in the historic victory over China, also the first at the World Cup.
This young African national team, whose country has only three World Cups, played in only one major basketball tournament.
It was two years ago at the African Cup in Rwanda, where she took seventh place.
Lebanon: Gods in the Land
After a 13-year hiatus, Lebanon found itself again at the World Basketball Championship.
On that path, they were led by the young selector Jad el Haze, and his assistant, Serbian coach Marko Filipović, also deserves a lot of credit.
The two coaches met when the native of Belgrade arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut in 2021 from Palestine, where he led their national team.
He came to the Dinamo Liban basketball club from Beirut, which was trained by Haže, and immediately, he says, they "clicked".
They continued their cooperation at the beginning of 2022 in the national team, when the Lebanese accepted the position of coach, but with the condition that Filipović would go with him.
"He told me: 'I think we can do something together, let's roll up our sleeves as brothers, you know that I'm not vain and that I want to listen to your advice,'" says the Serbian coach.
That's how it was - they won the Arab Championship, silver at the Asian Championship and took the team to the Mundobasket.
By the way, almost the entire Lebanese team plays in the domestic league, which is considered the strongest in the Middle East, according to Filipović, where the main star is Vael Arakzhi, the most valuable player of the Asian Championship last year.
Along with him, great hopes are also placed on Ali Haidar, Serdj El Darwish, Amir Saud and others.
"They are gods in the country and earn serious numbers," adds the Serbian coach.
The team was recently joined by a naturalized American - Omari Spellman, a former NBA player for the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors.
As a flaw, not only in Lebanon, but in the entire region, Filipović singles out the poor organization of competitions, especially in the younger categories.
And their national team, he adds, is plagued by another pain - the mentality of the players within the team.
"They are very sensitive, they are able to destroy everything they have built overnight.
"If I was on this mission alone, I wouldn't be able to do this, regardless of the fact that basketball is not controversial," he says
The problem at the international level is insufficient competitiveness because "the difference between European and Asian basketball is growing".
"In bodies, efforts, ways and understandings.
"Europeans are taught to play in two directions, most of them compete in America or the Euroleague, and with Asian and African teams there is no sparring, fighting in training, and therefore they cannot progress", he concludes.
A good central line and satisfactory defenders of Jordan
In April 2023, Filipović took over the junior categories of Jordan, another Asian national team that secured participation in the Mundobasket.
He says that, unlike Lebanon, in this country football is in first place, and basketball is in its infancy.
The league, he adds, is made up of several teams, children are mostly worked at basketball academies, and training is done indoors, never outdoors.
"It is very hot there, there are usually no basketball courts outside, or if we build an open field today, tomorrow they will tear down the structures, just for football," Filipović claims.
Jordan has participated in the Mundobasket twice so far - in 2010 in Turkey and in 2019 in China, where they recorded their only victory so far at the World Cup against Senegal as they were eliminated from the group stage.
The Middle Eastern team is led by heavy center Ahmad Al-Dvairi, a former player of the Turkish Fenerbahçe, also known as Ahmet Duverioglu in that country, while Ronde Hollis Jefferson, a former NBA player, scores the most points.
In addition to them, Fredi Ibrahim and Zayed Abbas, a veteran in the Jordan jersey, originally from Palestine, achieved notable games in the national team.
Filipović believes that this national team has a good central line, with two to three satisfactory defenders.
"The Jordanians traveled all over the world this year, they started their preparations sometime in mid-June, went to camps and played matches.
"Through those games, they get something they don't have in the league," explains the Serbian coach.
Iran - football, wrestling, then basketball
The best-placed Asian national team in FIBA's ranking list is Iran, which is currently on 22. place.
This is their team's fourth consecutive participation in the Mundobasket, where they achieved a total of four victories.
And this time they finish the competition in the group stage, after losing to Brazil and Ivory Coast, while another match awaits them with the favorite Spain.
The main assets of Turkish coach Hakan Demir, who leads the Iranian national team, were Behnam Jahcali and veterans Arslan Kazemi and Hamed Hadadi.
The legendary Haddadi is the first Iranian to play in the NBA - he played for five seasons in the Memphis Grizzlies jersey and a few months in the Phoenix Suns.
He spent the rest of his career, among other things, in China and Iran, and allegedly was supposed to play for Belgrade's Partizan before America.
In 2003, Nenad Trajković led the Iranian national team at the Asian Championship in China, but without Hadadi in their ranks.
"We left without him because he wasn't disciplined, he didn't show up at the camp and I didn't take him.
"Even though he was young, he was 18 years old, he was a miracle for Asia," recalls the Serbian expert.
Even without him, they made a "good team and chemistry" and eventually finished in fifth place, which Trajković describes as a great success.
After that, he adds, the expansion of their basketball began.
In the next five years, three Serbian coaches changed on Iran's bench - Vladimir Bošnjak, Rajko Toroman and Veselin Matić Toza.
"It's all our merit, all the coaches who were our assistants then, now lead the national teams.
"They learned a lot from us and I think they should return to our coaches," Trajković believes.
The Serbian coach says of the Iranians that "they are a very disciplined nation, which has a great culture and pays a lot of attention to sports".
First is football, then wrestling, then basketball.
They have, he adds, good working conditions, and they train and exercise in the Azadi sports complex, where there is a stadium, halls, apartments and other facilities.
"They fell a little in the generational change, but they are still one of the best in Asia," concludes Trajković.
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