Despite the numerous challenges faced by the country of the Cedars, basketball brightens the Lebanese abyss into which its entire political class plunges it, both willingly and regularly.
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Some countries seem to be relentlessly targeted by fate, and Lebanon is one of them. After a fifteen-year civil war (1975-1990), the country is now riddled with widespread corruption and drowning in an economic, financial, and social crisis. Since 2019, the Lebanese people have not experienced a single moment of respite. Yet, hope remains strong, and the people refuse to give up, persisting in moving forward. Nobody doubts that Lebanon, scorched by fire, will rise from its ashes like a phoenix. Its basketball is proof of that.
Underdog
A small country in the Middle East and a sporting underdog, Lebanon has never really shone in international competitions. Its last Olympic medal was won at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics by Hassan Bechara in Greco-Roman wrestling. In recent history, only shooter Ray Bassil has made a name for herself by winning gold medals, in 2016 and 2019. Despite some flickers from the national football team during the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, which ultimately fizzled out, the rays of sunshine come from a basketball-shaped sun. For about thirty years, basketball has been the exception, despite a lull in the 2010-2020 decade. In the 1990s, a providential man, advertising mogul Antoine Choueiri, gave a new dimension to the sport. A visionary, he professionalized the game by investing time and resources. As a result, Lebanese basketball is now present on all fronts.
With players like Elie Mechantaf – an iconic figure in Lebanese basketball during the 1990s-2000s and a superstar on the national team and La Sagesse club – along with Boulos Bechara and others, the sport becomes the best representative of the national sport. La Sagesse, under the leadership of its president Antoine Choueiri, has won 8 national championships, 2 Lebanese Cups, and 3 Asian Club Champion Cups. “It was a magical time,” a nostalgic Mechantaf recalls, who, along with his teammates, would chase away the blues that had prevailed up to that point, placing Lebanon permanently on the international chessboard of great basketball nations. Thus, under Choueiri’s extraordinary impetus, Lebanese basketball had its heyday, culminating in a historic victory in the Asian Cup over the Chinese Liaoning Hunters in the club’s stronghold of Ghazir in 1999. A year earlier, in 1998, La Sagesse had already won the Arab Club Championship, the first international title in the history of Lebanese basketball. More were to follow… Bolstered by their newfound stature, the Lebanese went on to participate in three successive World Cups (2002, 2006, and 2010). This period was followed by a decade-long international drought. But since the 2019 crisis, the national basketball team has been performing miracles and continues to amaze, despite a context that is hardly conducive to the development of sport.
Spectacular World Cup Qualification
In 2022, Lebanese players won the Arab Nations Championship before shining in the Asian Cup (runners-up) during an extraordinary competition. Along the way, they achieved a spectacular qualification for the 2023 World Cup, another for the U17 World Cup (2022), and yet another for the U19 World Cup, which will take place in Hungary next July.
Some twenty years after the golden generation of Mechantaf, Domiaty, and others, Lebanon has returned to victory and regained its place at the forefront of regional basketball. With fresh funds from investors looking to promote the sport and take advantage of the image potential it represents, clubs have signed international players who have elevated the Lebanese championship and regional competitions. Riyadi is currently in the final four of the WASL (West Asia Super League) competition.
In women’s basketball, the Lebanese are not to be outdone. The national team has progressed from level B to level A. This coming July, in Australia, they will also participate in the level A Asian Women’s Basketball Championship.
Club-wise, the women’s team of SC Beirut, under the leadership of businessman and president Nadim Hakim, is also making a name for itself. In September 2022, they returned victorious from Tunisia, having effortlessly clinched the title of Arab Women’s Basketball Club Champions against Egypt’s Smouha, for their third consecutive regional trophy, remaining undefeated in this competition since 2019 (the 2020 edition was canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic). SC Beirut, the reigning Lebanese women’s champions, is also the first Lebanese club to win the competition three times, with Antranik, Riyadi, and Homenetmen each having won it twice. This success further strengthens Lebanese women’s basketball dominance in the Arab world, as local clubs have won ten of the twenty-three editions organized since 2000. These positive results confirm the sound recovery strategy put in place by the Lebanese Basketball Federation led by Akram Halabi.
A Bright Future
A Cedar tree hiding a darker forest, or the promise of a better future? Only time will tell. Nevertheless, the national team will approach the upcoming summer with confidence and ambition, seeking to win new titles. It’s a source of joy and hope for a nation that desperately needs it and deserves nothing less.
