The Return of the King
Al Riyadi is the Asian Cup Champ!
by rick olivares
There were five seconds left when Loren Woods pulled down a defensive rebound, the last one of the title game. He placed it on the floor next to Iran guard Mahdi Kamrani and ran over to Al Riyadi’s bench to celebrate their historic 91-82 win over Mahram that ended four years of Iranian dominance of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup.
As teammates mobbed him, a rain of confetti from the Philsports Arena rafters descended upon the floor. The previous year, Woods led Mahram to a second consecutive title in the competition. And now he was on another team; once more a winner. “Mahram is one of the best organized and managed clubs in the whole region,” revealed the former University of Arizona Wildcat. “I moved because I wanted to move around and see what there was. And Al Riyadi, they’ve got a championship pedigree too.”
Conspicuously missing from the bedlam at center court was another winner – one who won everywhere he’s gone -- Fadi El Khatib.
The Lebanese superstar, overcome with emotion, knelt on the sidelines on the opposite side of the court as tears of joy fell from his eyes. Teammate Ahmed Ismail, the Egyptian power forward who pulled down a crucial offensive rebound (one of his 15 boards) that all but killed Mahram’s chances of sending the match into overtime, quickly rushed towards his teammate.
As photographers and a television crew zoomed in on the poignant scene, El Khatib, finally found his bearings and embraced his teammate. “I was thinking that we were denied the past two years,” related El Khatib who led Al Riyadi with 41 huge points. “And now… now we won it with the people of Lebanon and the rest of the world watching. It has been a long time.”
The talismanic El Khatib last tasted Asian gold as a member of Sagesse. He finally was signed to Al Riyadi three years ago and as dynastic as the club was in the domestic league, they faltered in the Champions Cup.
After they fell in last year’s semifinals to Mahram, El Khatib left to join Champville. “Fadi had done pretty much everything, won everything worth it in the region. Now he is thinking for himself,” related a Lebanese reporter.
The long season begins
In the 2010-11 season of the Lebanese Basketball League, the Federation Libanaise de Basketball drew up a list of the 30 best players in Lebanon. Each of the 10 teams were capped to sign up any five of the hoopsters listed. This was done to provide parity and in the minds of many Lebanese basketball observers, to break the stranglehold that Al Riyadi had on the title.
Al Riyadi had Jean Abdelnour, the star swingman of Bluestars, one of the emerging stars of Lebanon hoops, shooting guard Omar El Turk, forward Ali Fakhreddine, and point guard Ali Mahmoud.
When the list was first drawn out, there were seven Al Riyadi players listed and that included Joe Vogel, El Khatib and Matt Freije. Eventually El Khatib moved to Champsville while Freije, the Lebanese-American who once played for the New Orleans Hornets and the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA, left for Uruguay to suit up for Hebraica Macabi.
The domestic season did not begin well for Al Riyadi. The new rule had seen some crucial pieces in their reign moved off the board. At one point, Chakra’s team had a 5-7 record. But by the end of December 2010, with Americans Nate Johnson and Loren Woods leading the way, Al Riyadi won three straight to snap out of their early season funk.
With Champville breathing heavily down Riyadi’s neck, the season by happenstance, came down to the final game – El Khatib’s new team versus his old one. As it was, Chakra’s club, won their final match up 83-78 with Wassim El Zloulof scoring 27 points.
In the West Asian Basketball Association, Al Riyadi won it’s second title of the season which they clinched in controversial fashion after Syria’s Al Jalaa walked out of the fifth and final game of the title series.*
Reloading for Asia
As the team looked to the 22nd FIBA Asia Champions Cup, Al Riyadi picked up two crucial pieces for their campaign – El Khatib and Anibal Zahle’s point guard supreme Rodrigue Akl. With the two additions, the coaching staff knew that this was the year when they finally hoist the one title that eluded one of the most decorated clubs in Asia.
Akl in particular was brought in because Al Riyadi’s starting point guard Ali Mahmoud had recurring back problems. As the tournament progressed, Mahmoud and his regular backup Amir Saoud mostly sat while Akl blended perfectly well with his new teammates. “I hope I can contribute before the tournament is over,” said the Ottawa, Canada-born Mahmoud when his team dispatched Al Rayyan Qatar.
“In years past, after we won the domestic title, we placed a lot of focus on the Arab championship (the West Asian Basketball Association title or WABA),” revealed Fouad Abou Chakra who is in his seventh year with Al Riyadi. “This time, we used the WABA to prepare for the Champions Cup.”
Al Riyadi knew that if they wanted to win the Champions Cup, they would have to go through Mahram. They slew the ghosts of failures past after they beat the Iranian club in the semifinals of WABA. Their meeting in the third day of Group B play of the Champions Cup – a 76-73 win where Woods rejected Mahram opposite Cheikh Samb’s desperation three-point attempt at the buzzer -- reinforced their belief that they finally had foe’s number. “We are now 3-0 against them,” pronounced Chakra afterwards. “I know we well meet them again for the championship.”
And true enough, the two once more met.
If the first match was characterized by a tough and physical game, the Finals was all about skill and desire. Without Akl who was out for a month with a hamstring injury, Mahmoud’s number was dialed to lead Al Riyadi against Kamrani and company. Bad back and all, he played the entire 40 minutes and compiled 7 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals.
But for long stretches, El Khatib and Mahram forward Sammad Nikkhah Bahrami matched wits and talent in trying to tow their club to glory. With 2:10 left and Al Riyadi in the lead 80-76, El Khatib drove inside the shaded area where he was fouled by Mahram’s 7’1” center Cheikh Samb. It was the Senegalese’s player’s fifth and last foul and he had sent El Khatib to the line for a pair of free throws.
He promptly made them for a six-point lead.
El Khatib would add eight more (out of 10) free throws to close out the game while Bahrami added a free throw, an assist, and a rebound.
The title was Al Riyadi’s. And El Khatib who had won his fourth Champions Cup (he earlier won three with Sagesse) and he knelt as a sign of thanksgiving. “When you get older, you cherish the championships more because you never know when you will win another,” said the Finals’ best player as he made his way out of Discovery Suites to take the long 15-hour flight back to Lebanon. “I am going to remember this for a long time.”
Al Riyadi Beirut owner and president Hisham Jaroudi who flew in the day before to watch the finals game sweetened the deal when he announced a $200,000 bonus for the team.
“Enjoy the bonus! Enjoy it,” smiled Jaroudi who patted Woods on the arm.
“I will!” yelled the massive center who was flying back to the United States. “What did I tell you? I was going to help you win this!”
Chakra surveyed the merriment at the fifth floor restaurant of the hotel. The Treble – the Lebanese league, the WABA, and the Champions Cup – has been secured. “My resume,” reflected the coach, “is now complete.”
Jaroudi’s mobile phone rang. It was a long distance call from Lebanon. “We did it!” he yelped into the receiver. “Thank God we did it!”
As the final whistle blew to signify the toppling of the old monarchy as well as to celebrate a new one, several thousand Lebanese fans gathered in downtown Beirut to celebrate in song, by honking their car horns, and shooting off fireworks.
“There will be a big celebration when we arrive,” promised assistant coach Krikor Krikorian who specially prepared the team a video of Mahram’s tendencies the night before the title game. “They will celebrate the return of the kings of Asian basketball.”
Epilogue:
Fouad Abou Chakra is a basketball lifer. While his team will be on national duty for the next few weeks, he will enjoy the summer in his seaside home in Lebanon. With his family and friends. “When does the next season begin for Al Riyadi?” he said to me. “Tomorrow when we wake up.”
Basketball is serious business in Lebanon. It is the national sport. “My coaching staff and I will begin planning on what kind of team we will need for the next year. All of them – Nate Johnson, Loren Woods, all of them. We will try to put up a good team that can compete again.”
When Fadi El Khatib arrived in Manila, one of his favorite places on this planet, he didn’t smile much. “We came here not to talk but to win,” he said at the beginning of the Champions Cup. As he boarded the shuttle bus that would take them to the airport for the red eye flight back to Beirut, he finally managed a smile. “It turned out good, right?”
With Al Riyadi's Fouad Abou Chakra and Loren Woods at the Discovery Suites before they left Manila. I spent quite some time talking and interviewing Chakra who I first struck up a friendship in Jakarta. He granted me a 30-minute interview (along with his assistants and a few players) before they all left. They helped me piece together the story that I began writing about a week ago.
I'd like to say thanks to some people who were most helpful in the coverage of the FIBA tournament: SBP: Sonny Barrios, Bernie Atienza (super thanks!), Nardy Madrasto, Anthony Servinio, and the staff (kahit kulang sa media ID); my media colleagues: Tito Talao, Joey Villar, Ben Terrado, Jonas Terrado, Jeric Lopez, Diego dela Paz, Sid Ventura, June Navarro, Brosi Gonzales, Mark Escarlote, Kent Clever, TJ Jurado, Mike Yu, Waylon Galvez and Sheikh Noel Zarate; Si Wazzup Wazzup boy; Smart Gilas' Chris Tiu, Mark Barroca, Jayvee Casio, Dylan Ababou, Charles Tiu, Jude Roque, Oliver Bunyi, Jimbo Saret, Albert Rolle, and Rajko Toroman; Magesh; the KL Dragons, Al Riyadi Beirut, Samaki Walker, and Veselin Matic. Did I miss out anyone?
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