Though he no longer needed to prove it further, Wael Arakji showed to Gilas Pilipinas why he is the continent’s hottest player on Friday morning (Manila time).
Despite having an NBA player in Jordan Clarkson, Arakji and the Cedars showed no fear.
(C) FIBA.basketball
And this was greatly seen when Lebanon was down 71-75 against the Philippines.
Calmly and even without Amir Saoud in the last five minutes of the game, Karim Zeinoun and Ali Haidar chopped into the lead.
Later on, with the game knotted at 78-all, Arakji, the reigning Asia Cup MVP, took charge, knocking down big basket after big basket — including the dagger three with 18 seconds left that put the Cedars up 83-78.
The 27-year-old native of Beirut made sure to announce to Gilas that this was their town.
“Again, we are building a team that can win with any five in the court. As you can see in every tournament, we are missing two main players today. Today, we missed Gerard Hadidian and late in the game we did not have Amir Saoud,” said Arakji, who got 24 points in the game. “But the bench stepped up which shows that every single player in this team is willing to step up. We are super proud of this win. To be honest, as they said, the Philippines got their 12 players in their league in the Philippines, maybe they are missing one or two, but we beat them.
“When you are in my town, you go by my rules. So, when you are in Lebanon, you go by our rules and this is what we did for sure.”
A Notice to Asia
Lebanon is the hottest team in Asia over the past four years, only losing a handful of games.
In the ongoing World Cup Qualifiers, the Cedars are 4-1 and are on the verge of making it to the Big Dance next year.
But according to Arakji, the Lebanese federation also needs to step up just like they do.
Moreover, he called on leagues like the B.League and the Korean Basketball League, and maybe the National Basketball League-Australia, to open their doors to them.
After all, they have arrived.
“I mean, you need to ask the federation this question. What’s next for the players, what’s next for the development of the players. They have to have a major plan, a very good plan for our players,” he said.
“We’re beating national teams that have triple, quadruple budget than ours. Most of the players we are playing against are playing in top leagues in the world, so they need to figure out a good plan for the players.
“And I believe that Mr. Hagop Khajirian, I am asking this loudly for Mr. Hagop Khajirian who is always doing a great job. I believe every country in Asia is supposed to have two Asian spots for the whole continent so players in Lebanon and in Jordan and in Syria can have the chance to go and play in Korea, in Australia, the same way that the Far East are having their own rule where Asian players are allowed to play in Australia, in Korea, in Japan as Asian, I believe Lebanese and other nationalities should be allowed to do that,” expressed Arakji, who had stints in China, Qatar, Tunisia, and Kuwait before settling for Beirut last season.
And Arakji is hoping that his boost comes sooner rather than later.
“The players are doing the impossible to raise Lebanon’s flag back to the top. We’re exhausted, this is for sure. I believe we’re the only players in Asia who had zero rest this summer. We came out of a crazy finals in the (domestic) league, straight to World Cup qualifiers, straight to FIBA Asia Cup, straight to World Cup qualifiers, we’re killing ourselves for our country so I believe we deserve much more respect and much more appreciation from whoever is responsible.”
