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3. WASL: Riyadi Aims For the Four-peat, Sagesse Kicks Things Off, Arakji’s Shadow Looms

The WASL fever is back. Starting Wednesday, November 5, Beirut turns the spotlights of West Asian basketball back on: Sagesse opens the 2025-26 season against Shahrdari Gorgan, then Riyadi follows on Thursday against Al Wahda. Between the Yellow Castle’s quest for a four-peat, Youssef Khayat’s first steps on the regional stage, and a storyline that goes beyond the hardwood, the national icon Wael Arakji has changed sides: off to shine in the Gulf League with Al Ula alongside Jonathan Gibson and Thon Maker, he leaves behind a void — and a burning question: how will the Lebanese crowd react the day their paths cross again?

A pan-regional clubs competition organized by FIBA, the West Asia Super League (WASL) brings together the heavyweights of West Asia and the Gulf in a format designed for the truth of the court: a single group of five teams (Riyadi, Sagesse, Shahrdari Gorgan, Al Wahda, BC Astana), a home-and-away round robin until February 19, then best-of-3 semifinals and a best-of-3 final. West Asia’s fourth-placed team keeps a way out via a cross-zone playoff with the fourth of the Gulf League, before a Final 8 where the best of the two sub-zones meet with the SABA champion. Concretely, the season opens in Beirut this week: a whiff of revenge for Sagesse against Gorgan, and the very next day a first exam for Riyadi, which must prove it can hold its rank without Arakji.

Beirut, stage of the first skirmishes
Al Difaa Al Jawii’s withdrawal tightened the field to five. The schedule remains dense, and the opening in Beirut sets the tone straight away. Sagesse meets Gorgan again, which beat them twice during the 2023-24 group phase (86–74 in Ghazir, 81–68 at home in Tehran). With rosters widely reworked, the opener looks like an identity test: ability to control the long rebound, outside punishment as soon as the Iranian defense packs the paint, management of runs. Twenty-four hours later, Riyadi hosts Al Wahda for a return with high symbolic value.

Riyadi: keep the crown, rewrite without Arakji
The Yellow Castle remains the regional benchmark: defensive density, execution in money time, mastery of tempo. But the era opening now is the first without Wael Arakji in WASL. The staff will have to redistribute creation on the perimeter, lock the game-to-game details, and maintain pressure on the passing lanes. The standard does not move: aim for the final series and remain the sub-zone’s reference, while proving that the machine wins without its franchise floor general.

Sagesse: light the fuse, launch Khayat
Sagesse has the weapons to turn the opener into a launchpad: on-ball pressure, verticality in transition, perimeter shooting. The arrival of Youssef Khayat adds wing length and offensive volume. Against Gorgan, the stake is twofold: break last season’s unfavorable series and install a cruising rhythm right away before the heart of winter.

The Arakji shockwave, from rival to ally… elsewhere
Gone to Al Ula, Wael Arakji made thunderous beginnings in the Gulf League alongside Jonathan Gibson and Thon Maker. The trio has already laid down a major offensive marker, feeding the idea of a new force to the east. For the Lebanese public, the drama is written: if paths cross at the Final 8, the national icon will return through the front door, under another jersey. Hero for life or opponent to target, the question remains open in the stands.

What this implies for Lebanese clubs
In the short term, Riyadi must show that the game plan withstands the loss of a totem: more responsibility for creators, the same defensive hardness, the same constancy in swing possessions. Sagesse, for its part, can capitalize on Matchday 1: an opening win would send a signal to the sub-zone and place the group in the right carriage for the playoffs. Beyond the court, the Arakji case electrifies the season and thickens the Lebanese storyline at the regional scale.

The bottom line
West Asia sets off again from Beirut, and Lebanon still holds the tip of the spear. Riyadi for history, Sagesse to rekindle the embers; in the background, Arakji electrifies the Gulf and threads a dramatic wire through the season. Starting Wednesday, the truth of the court will speak.