Iran men's national basketball team

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Iran women's national basketball team.

The Iran national basketball team is controlled by the Iran Basketball Federation. Overall, the team won three out of the last five FIBA Asia Championship tournaments.^[2]

Iran

FIBA ranking	28 1 (15 August 2024)[1]
Joined FIBA	1947
FIBA zone	FIBA Asia
National federation	IRIBF
Coach	Sotiris Manolopoulos
Olympic Games
Appearances	3
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	4
FIBA Asia Cup
Appearances	18
Medals	Gold: (2007, 2009, 2013) Silver: (2017) Bronze: (2015)
Asian Games
Appearances	12
Medals	Silver: (2014, 2018) Bronze: (1951, 2006, 2010)
Home Away
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Asian Championship 3 1 1 Asian Games 0 2 3 FIBA Asia Challenge 3 0 0

History

Photograph of the Iranian national team at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

The Iranian national team has had limited success on the international stage, with the most international experience being that of their 1948 Summer Olympics qualification, although they did not manage to make it past the group stage.

The team won the Bronze medal at the basketball competition of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

2007 FIBA Asia Championship

Placed in the dreaded "Group of Death" alongside China, the Philippines, and Jordan, the Iranians won all three group matches to make it to the next round.

In the quarterfinals, Iran went 2–1, to make it to semifinals, following victories over Chinese Taipei and Qatar, and then routed Kazakhstan, 75–62, in the semifinals.

The Iranians then beat Lebanon 74–69, with Hamed Haddadi scoring 31 points.^[2] Not only did it avenge an 82–60 defeat in the quarterfinals, they also became the first Western Asian team to win the tournament, and thus make it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.^[2]

2008 Beijing Olympic Games

In being crowned the 2007 Asian Champions, the Iranians qualified for the 2008 Beijing games for the first time in 60 years. The Olympic experience led to a flurry of opportunities for the Iranian players, as they traveled across the world in preparation for the games, including a visit to the US. Iran was placed in Group A, along with Lithuania, Russia, Argentina, Croatia, and Australia, suffering five defeats. The Olympic experience opened doors for players such as Hamed Haddadi, and Iranian captain Samad Nikkhah Bahrami to play in the NBA (National Basketball Association) and sign in the top French League.

Haddadi 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. His highlight performance was in the game against Argentina when he put up 21 points and 16 rebounds.^[3]

2009 FIBA Asia Championship

Winning the FIBA Asia Championship 2009 at Tianjin, China, was a sign on continuing progress in basketball. Iran defeated China, by a score of 70–52 in the final.^[4]

2010 FIBA World Championship

Iran's second consecutive FIBA Asia Championship gave them their first ever FIBA World Championship berth, at the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The team finished 1–4 in Group B, good for 19th place

2013 FIBA Asia Championship

Iran national team in 2021, during a time out in a friendly against Spain.

Winning the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship at Manila, Philippines, was a sign that the Iranian team has forgot the tragedy of their loss to Jordan in last tournament, 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, and reclaimed the top place in the FIBA Asia. Iran defeated the charged up hosts Philippines by an 85–71 win in the final. Iranian center Hamed Haddadi, who played a stellar role in Iran's triumph at the 27th FIBA Asia Championship, became the most accomplished individual player of the competition winning two awards, including that of the MVP. Iran was the only team with two awards in the All Stars with Oshin Sahakian named for the Power Forward position.

2014 FIBA World Championship

Iran's third FIBA Asia Championship gave them their second FIBA World Championship berth, at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.^[5]

Tournament records

• Red border indicates that the tournament was hosted on home soil. Gold, silver, bronze backgrounds indicates 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. Bold text indicates best finish in tournament. B or U18 indicates that the team was represented by its B or U18 team.

Honours

The Iran national team's all-time medal record:

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
FIBA World Cup	0	0	0	0
FIBA Asia Cup	3	1	1	5
Asian Games	0	2	3	5
Totals	3	3	4	10

Summer Olympics

Summer Olympic Games record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L
1936	Did not enter
1948	13th place match	14th place	7	2	5
1952	Did not enter
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980	Boycotted the event
1984
1988	Did not enter
1992	Did not qualify
1996
2000
2004
2008	Preliminary round	11th place	5	0	5
2012	Did not qualify
2016
2020	Preliminary round	12th place	3	0	3
2024	Did not qualify
2028	Future events
2032
Total	3/20		15	2	13

World Cup

FIBA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L
1950	Did not enter
1954
1959
1963
1967
1970
1974	Did not qualify
1978	Did not enter
1982	Did not qualify
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010	Preliminary round	19th of 24	5	1	4
2014	Preliminary round	20th of 24	5	1	4
2019	17th–32nd Classification	23rd of 32	5	2	3
2023	17th–32nd Classification	31st of 32	5	0	5
2027	To be determined
Total	4/20		20	4	16

FIBA Asia Cup

Main article: FIBA Asia Cup

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
Europe
1959	17th place	7	1	6
Asia
1960	Did not enter
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973	5th place	10	4	6
1975	Did not enter
1977
1979
1981	8th place	7	3	4
1983	5th place	6	5	1
1985	8th place	6	2	4
1987	Did not enter
1989	5th place	7	4	3
1991	6th place	8	4	4
1993	4th place	6	4	2
1995	10th place	8	5	3
1997	8th place	7	3	4
1999	Did not qualify
2001
2003	5th place	7	4	3
2005	6th place	8	4	4
2007	Champions	8	7	1
2009	Champions	9	9	0
2011	5th place	9	8	1
2013	Champions	9	9	0
2015	3rd place	9	7	2
2017	Runners-up	6	5	1
2022	5th place	4	3	1
2025	To be determined
Total	18/31	134	90	44

Asian Games

Main article: Basketball at the Asian Games

Year	Rank	Pld	W	L
1951	3rd place	4	2	2
1954	Did not enter
1958
1962
1966	7th place	7	3	4
1970	7th place	8	6	2
1974	6th place	7	3	4
1978	Did not enter
1982
1986
1990	7th place	6	3	3
1994	8th place	6	2	4
1998	7th place	6	2	4
2002	Did not enter
2006	3rd place	8	5	3
2010	3rd place	8	6	2
2014	Runners-up	7	6	1
2018	Runners-up	4	3	1
2022	5th place	6	5	1
2026	Future events
2030
2034
Total	12/19	77	46	31

FIBA Asia Challenge

Main article: FIBA Asia Challenge

Year	Rank	Pld	W	L
2004	Qualified but withdrew
2008
2010	6th place (B)	7	3	4
2012	Champions	7	7	0
2014	Champions	7	6	1
2016	Champions	8	8	0
Total	4/6	29	24	5

West Asian Championship

Main article: WABA Championship

Year	Rank	Pld	W	L
1999	4th place	4	1	3
2000	4th place	4	2	2
2001	3rd place	4	2	2
2002	Runners-up	4	3	1
2004	Champions	4	4	0
2005	Champions	4	4	0
2008	Did not enter
2010	Champions (B)	3	3	0
2011	Champions	3	3	0
2012	Runners-up	5	4	1
2013	Champions	3	3	0
2014	Runners-up (U18)	5	4	1
2015	Did not enter
2016	Champions	4	4	0
2017	Runners-up	5	4	1
Total	13/15	52	41	11

Other tournaments

• FIBA Diamond Ball
  • 2008 – 4th place
• FIBA Stanković Continental Champions Cup
  • 2010 - 4th place
• Islamic Solidarity Games
  • 2005 – 3rd place
• West Asian Games
  • 1997 – Champions
  • 2002 – 5th place
• William Jones Cup
  • 2009 – Champions
  • 2010 – Champions
  • 2011 – Champions
  • 2013 – Champions
  • 2015 – Champions

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.^[6][7]

Iran men's national basketball team – 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. G 3 Mohammad Sina Vahedi 22 – (2001-01-08)8 January 2001 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Kalleh C 4 Meisam Mirzaei 31 – (1992-04-16)16 April 1992 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Kalleh G 5 Sajjad Mashayekhi 29 – (1994-02-23)23 February 1994 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Zob Ahan Isfahan F 6 Mohammad Amini 18 – (2005-04-26)26 April 2005 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Nancy SF 7 Navid Rezaeifar 27 – (1996-08-23)23 August 1996 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Palayesh Naft Abadan PG 8 Behnam Yakhchali 28 – (1995-07-12)12 July 1995 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Gladiators Treves SF 10 Piter Girgoorian 21 – (2002-02-27)27 February 2002 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) Mahram Tehran PF 14 Arsalan Kazemi 33 – (1990-04-22)22 April 1990 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Zob Ahan Isfahan C 15 Hamed Haddadi (C) 38 – (1985-05-19)19 May 1985 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in) Sichuan Blue Whales SG 17 Matin Aghajanpour 22 – (2001-03-14)14 March 2001 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Kalleh PF 30 Jalal Aghamiri 22 – (2001-01-29)29 January 2001 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) Kalleh C 32 Hasan Aliakbari 27 – (1996-07-07)7 July 1996 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in) Parsa	Head coach Hakan Demir Assistant coach(es) Ali Arezoomandi Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 25 August 2023

Head coaches

Note: The following list may not be complete

• Kazem Rahbari (1948)
• Hossein Soudipour (1966)
• George Chiraleu (1974)
• Mohammad Hassan Zolfaghari (1981)
• Enayatollah Atashi (1983)
• Reza Esmaeili (1985)
• Majid Towfigh (1989)
• Asadollah Kabir (1990)
• Valery Lunichkin (1991)
• Asadollah Kabir (1993)
• Vitali Zastakhov (1994)
• Manouchehr Shahamatnejad (1995)
• Ahmad Reza Elliin (1996)
• Saeid Fathi (1997)
• Enayatollah Atashi (1998)
• Gary LeMoine (2000–2001)
• Saeid Armaghani (2001–2002)
• Mehran Shahintab (2002)
• Nenad Trajković (2003)
• Mostafa Hashemi (2003)
• Vladimir Bošnjak (2004–2005)
• Mohammad Mehdi Izadpanah (2005)
• Fred Oniga (2006)
• Rajko Toroman (2007–2008)
• Veselin Matić (2009–2011)
• Memi Bečirovič (2012–2014)
• Dirk Bauermann (2015–2017)
• Mehran Hatami (2017)
• Mehran Shahintab (2018–2021)
• Mostafa Hashemi (2021–2022)
• Saeed Armaghani (2022–2023)
• Hakan Demir (2023–present)

References

1. "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
2. "IRN/LIB – It's Iraaaaaan!". FIBA. Archived from the original on 6 December 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
3. "Yao, Hamed, and Patty shined as stars from Asia & Oceania at the Olympics". FIBA. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
4. "Iran wins Asian Basketball Championships". WashingtonTV. Archived from the original on 24 August 2009. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
5. "Fan Thread". PersianFootball.com. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
6. "Announcement of the list of players of the national basketball team for the 2023 World Cup". Iribf.ir. 21 August 2023.
7. "Team roster: Iran" (PDF). FIBA. 25 August 2023.

External links

• Official website (in Persian)
• FIBA profile