It’s a little known fact that Lebanese starting center Joe Vogel was picked on the second round by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA draft. The 6-11 beanpole, who hit 25 points – including six treys – in Lebanon’s 88-83 loss to the Philippines in the Manila Invitationals last Thursday, was born in North Platte, Nebraska, and played at Colorado State before swearing in as a Lebanese naturalized citizen.
Vogel, 33, played for Lebanon at the 2002 and 2006 World Championships.
Another US-born Lebanese cager is 6-9 Brian Beshara, now using the surname Feghali. His parents Tony and Chris are from Dallas. Beshara, 29, claims Lebanese lineage and is considered a “local” in the national squad.
Under FIBA rules, a national team may recruit only one naturalized player. If Vogel is Lebanon’s naturalized player, Beshara must be a local otherwise he wouldn’t be eligible. He joined the national team in 2004 and averaged 9.8 points at the World Championships where Lebanon posted a 2-3 record, beating Venezuela, 82-72, and France, 74-73, last year.
Lebanon coach Dragan Raca, 46, is from Serbia and has lived in Cyprus since 1990. He coaches the APOEL club in Cyprus where he played for 12 years and finished as the league’s all-time leading scorer. Raca used to coach the Lebanese team Sagesse.
Raca was hired to coach Lebanon exclusively for the FIBA-Asia Olympic qualifiers in Tokushima on July 28-Aug. 5. He took over the Lebanese team last June 1 and his contract expires on the last day of the Japan tournament.
* * *
Syria’s lineup is reinforced by two “BraSyrians” Eduardo Caviglia, now known as Farhat, and Marcelo Correa. They’re not naturalized citizens but locals because of supposed Syrian descent. A third “BraSyrian” Andre (Dede) Barbosa would’ve made the squad much tougher but the 6-5 Magic Johnson play-alike was disqualified from playing for Syria after it was discovered he suited up for Brazil at the Americas Cup in Venezuela three years ago.
Correa’s father Roberto is a former Brazilian national cager. Caviglia’s father allegedly left Syria to migrate to Brazil over 30 years ago. It is uncanny that three Brazilian professional cagers, not related to each other, claim Syrian heritage.
Former California State at Fullerton coach John Sneed was initially tipped to call the shots for Syria in Tokushima but in the end, the job went to Ulsame Samer Kayali and assistant Moustafa Mohammad Abo Sada.
Syria’s top gun 6-3 Michel Maadanli was the leading scorer in the recent FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in Tehran. The other Syrian weapon is 7-foot center Wissam Yakoub.
* * *
Only four players from China’s 22-man national pool are seeing action in the Manila Invitationals. They are 6-2 Zhang Qingpeng, 6-4 Yang Ming, 6-7 Wang Yong and 6-6 Han Shuo. Curiously, the four are considered “juniors” in the senior squad with Zhang the oldest at 21 and Han the youngest at 18.
Chinese head coach Jonas Kaulauskas, a Lithuaninan, sent his top assistant Adijian Chang Bin to sit on the bench for the four-team pocket tournament. Kaulauskas is busy with China’s A team training in the US.
The others in China’s lineup are standouts from the 20-under selection, in particular Yi Li, Zhang Kai and Gu Liye. Yi tallied 30 points to power China to a 98-94 win over Syria in the opening game of the Manila Invitationals last Thursday. The four recruits from the national pool combined for 23 points.
China’s B team will represent the Mainland in Tokushima because the A squad is playing in the Stankovic Cup to be held at the same time. China is seeded in the Beijing Olympics as the host nation so playing in the Tokushima qualifiers is inconsequential.
The Philippines is bracketed in Group A with China, Jordan and Iran in the qualifiers. The top two teams in the group will advance to the knockout quarterfinals while the last two will be relegated to the consolation pool for ranking purposes.
