Jordan Starts Asian Games Basketball Journey

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN - The national basketball team starts the 20th Asian Games basketball competition on Thursday playing Taiwan in their opening Group B match in Nagoya, Japan.

Jordan next plays Qatar on Sept 12 and Iran the following day while Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia play in Group A and China, Philippines, Bahrain and Kazakhstan in Group C.

The Kingdom's team was the first to win a medal in a team sport at the 2023 Asian Games when they won silver and have high hopes on attaining positive results despite their late preparations and incosnists performance lately,

The squad's new coach Spaniard Luis Guil Torres who took charge of the team last month did not have the opportunity to undertake drastic changes after the team finished 6th at the 45th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. In Window 4, Round 2 Asian qualifiers for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, Jordan dropped to fourth after losing 82-81 to the Philippines in OT, before losing 126-93 to Australia. Jordan's hopes of moving to their third consecutive and fourth overall World Cup have now been made tougher as they need to win at least two or three matches of their remaining four matches to secure qualification. They play Window 5 against New Zealand on November 27 and Australia on November 30 with Window 6 set on February 25 and 28, 2027 against the Philippines and New Zealand.

In FIBA qualifiers, the squad clearly lacked a cohesive attack and relied on individual efforts with Amin Abu Hawas and Abdullah Olajuwon leading the squad. With Jalen Harris off the roaster now, together with Seif Saleh, the team is boosted with newcomer Perron Buford and the return of naturalized Dar Tucker while fans hope Ahmad Duweiri will be back in form alongside Freddie Ibrahim and younger teammates.

Apart from qualifying to the World Cup three times in 2010, 2019 and 2023, Jordan also qualified to the U19 Basketball World Cup in 1995 and 2025. At the last 31st FIBA Asia Cup 2025, Jordan's squad failed to keep up the nation's impressive record finishing 11th among 16 nations after previously reaching the medals podium twice. So far, the squad has played at the FIBA Asia Cup 17th times, with their best position runner-up in 2011, 3rd in 2009 and 4th in 2022.

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