Chaotic preparation for Kingdom’s first time

Jordan’s National Team is set to make its FIBA World Championship debut. This achievement is due in large part to Portuguese coach Mario Palma. However, winning at least one game in the tournament will be a very difficult challenge since a large majority of Jordanian players participated in very few games last season due to the dissolution of their basketball federation a year ago.

It stands to reason that a country named Jordan would be pretty good in basketball. Rest assured, though, there are no players of the calibre of ‘His Airness’ that put on the Jordan shirt every summer, though ‘Air Jordans’ have been seen on the feet of some players. If you want to know anything about Jordan and their first-ever appearance at the 2010 FIBA World Championship it’s this: Jordan has shown that with organisation, determination and most importantly, a good coach, anything is possible.

To understand why on 16th August 2009 players from the Hashemite Kingdom ascended the podium in Tianjin, China rather than from Lebanon, one needs to go back to 2006. Mario Palma, the coach of Angola had led his national team for several years and in 2005 guided them to another Afrobasket title which qualified them for the FIBA World Championship in Japan. The expectation was that Palma would be in charge of the team in the Far East but he felt it was time for a change and didn’t renew his contract, instead joining Jordan who had been looking to make inroads in Asian basketball and qualify for the 2008 Olympics. The Portuguese coach had led Angola to two FIBA World Championships and the 2004 Olympics and therefore he understood the commitment and long-range planning needed to achieve these goals. Palma travelled to the Middle East and immediately went to work.

At the end of 2006, he coached Jordan at the 15th Asian Games against another ambitious basketball nation, Iran, and led his team to a 62-59 upset. “If we didn't work as hard as we did in the past three months,” Palma said, “we would have lost by 20 points against Iran. This Iranian team is very strong. It may be the best team they’ve ever had.” He was proved right because the next year, Iran upset Lebanon in the gold medal game at the FIBA Asia Championship to reach the Beijing Games. Jordan had been upset by Japan in the quarter-finals and finished fifth. Still, there was cause for optimism. Fourth at the Asian Games in 2006, victory in the William Jones Cup and then fifth at the FIBA Asia Championship was nothing to sneer at. “This team is capable of even higher things, if its talent is channelled properly,” Palma said.

One player that had been incorporated into the team was Rasheim Wright, a naturalised Jordanian from America. Wright and Jordan ended up getting it right at last year’s FIBA Asia Championship. Needing a top-three finish to book a spot in Turkey for the FIBA World Championship, Jordan rode the hot hand of Wright – the tournament’s leading scorer – and stormed into the semi-finals to meet Iran. Jordan trailed by 13 but clawed the deficit back and took a 75-74 lead with a minute remaining. With the game knotted at 75 and only 13 seconds left to play, Iran scored and Jordan missed two potential game-tying shots. However, Jordan accomplished their pre-tournament mission of qualifying for Turkey with a bronze-medal triumph over Lebanon.

While the initial goal had been to reach the 2008 Olympics, Jordan confirmed they were on the right path by earning a spot at the FIBA World Championship for the first time. However, the joy of celebrating Jordan’s National Team’s biggest achievement did not last long. The Jordan Olympic Committee had actually dissolved the Jordanian Basketball Federation six weeks before the competition. One consequence of this dissolution was the suspension of the local league, in which all the players of the national team, except Zaid Abbaas, played. “The bronze-medal achievement is being ruined,” Palma said. “Three years ago, everything was going fine. Suddenly, everything is gone.”

With the exception of Abbaas, the Jordanian players have played very few games this season. Clearly, they are not in the best shape to play at a FIBA World Championship. However it will be easy for Mario Palma to motivate his team.