FIBA Asia interview with NT star Sam Daghlas jordan team
by Bk jordan on Nov.22, 2009, under Asia, basketball, FIBA, jordan, sam daghlas, team, turkey 2010.championship 2010
Can see light at the end of the tunnel: Daghlas
AMMAN, Jordan (2010 FIBA World Championship): Life for the basketball fraternity in Jordan hasn’t been hunky-dory. The National Team won an epoch-making bronze medal at the 25th FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin last year to qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for the first time in its history.
But ever since, the National Team under Portuguese coach Mario Palma has had fluctuating fortunes.
The preparations began later than expected, but when they started Palma’s boys showed dedication and determination to make up for the lost time, winning 10 of the 13 games they played on their two-leg tour of China and Philippines.
Just as they returned home from that trip, looking forward to their further plans, came the jolt of the cancellation of the tour to Italy, due to the financial troubles of the federation.
But in a positive turn of events, a sports marketing firm came forward to “support the National Team both morally and financially.”
“I can see light at the end of the tunnel,” said Jordan star point guard Sam Daghlas as he sat down heaving a sigh of relief for this exclusive interview to this website.
Daghlas was the one of the key architects of Jordan’s success at Tianjin. The 31-year-old scored at the rate of 10.8 points per game and returned an average of 4.1 assists per game as Jordan recorded a 7-2 win-loss, losing only to the finalists – Iran and China.
“We can see that there is a lot of hope to move on with Coach Palma’s plans,” he said.
“It seems that the team will be able to get visa to enter to Portugal and participate there in a small tournament from 23 to 27 July 2010,” Daghlas said.
He was also thankful for the fans in Jordan and teams from neighboring countries for coming forward to support the Jordan campaign.
GCC champions Qatar and fellow West Asian team Syria have promised to play a couple of friendlies against Jordan in Amman from July 31-Aug 1. Qatar and Syria are themselves preparing for the 3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic to be held in Beirut from Aug 7-15.
“There is now a local campaign to help the basketball national team and everybody looking forward to give a hand,” Daghlas said.
“Also there is a plan to host a four-nation tournament in Amman from Aug 6-8 with the participation of teams from the Serbia, Bulgaria and Portugal,” he added.
Daghlas continued: “I hope all this happens. And finally if we make our final stop in the Croatia international tournament from Aug 22-26, I am sure we will put up a very good fight.”
Daghlas reiterated what Palma had said before they left for China-Philippines tour: “Jordan will not be easy hunt for any team at Turkey.”
“If our preparation had started earlier, we can talk about qualifying to the second round. But now, we will try our best to finish strong in each of our five games in the Preliminary Round.”
At Turkey, Jordan are grouped in Group A along with FIBA Oceania champions Australia, Palma’s former team and FIBA Africa champions Angola, 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medalists Argentina, Eurobasket 2009 silver medalists Serbia and wildcard entrants Germany.
Jordan will play all their Group A preliminary round games at Kayseri.
FIBA Asia
