This will be the fourth time in a row that Iran qualified for the FIBA World Cup. In this article, you are going to learn more about them.
In the previous days, we got the answer to the question whether veteran Hamed Haddadi will play at the World Cup. According to the latest informations, he will be part of the team at the upcoming tournament.
On the other hand, a very strange decision is that Mohammad Jamshidi will not be part of the team at Mundobasket. The new head coach, Hakan Demir, for reasons unknown to the public, decided to cut the best player of the Iranian League.
FIBA World Cup – Iran: Previous editions and the best results of the national team
This will be the fourth appearance at the World Cup for Iran. They achieved all the previous ones from 2010 until now.
In 2010, they finished as the 19th national team in the world, and four years later they were ranked one position lower. At the last edition of Mundobasket in China, they finished 23rd out of 32 competing teams.
FIBA World Cup – Iran: Road to Mundobasket
In the first round of the qualifiers, their rivals were Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Syria. They advanced as the second-placed team with a 4-2 record. Arsalan Kazemi achieved an incredible triple-double performance in one of the triumphs over Bahrain. He scored 10 points, grabbed 26 rebounds and dished out 12 assists.
Until that moment, it was only the second triple-double performance in the World Cup qualifiers history. What he set the record for was the number of rebounds, which has not been surpassed so far.
Mohammad Jamshidi was the star of the February window when he scored an incredible 73 points in two games. Iran qualified for the Mundobasket two rounds before the end of the qualifierrs. Australia, China and Japan finished ahead of them.
FIBA World Cup – Iran: Roster and focus on those who are expected the most
The two names that you could read in the previous paragraph led the team in terms of the number of games played through the qualifiiers. Arsalan Kazemi averaged eight points with 11 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
Jamshidi did not shy away from responsibility for a single moment. His contribution is reflected in 16.2 points and four assists on average. Therefore, it is a mystery why the new Iran national team head coach crossed out one of the team’s best players.
Behnam Yakchali was the best in terms of average points per game, but with four fewer appearances. 19.1 points and slightly more than four rebounds are numbers that must be seen at the World Cup if Iran wants to provide adequate result.
Hamer Haddadi made four appearances during the qualifiers. When you look at the numbers, even though he is 38 years old, the veteran is still able to make some damage under the opponents rim. He averaged 14.8 points and 11.5 rebounds in those four games. In the previous part of his career, he played in three World Cups and twice at the Olympic Games.
Sajjad Mashayekhi and Mohammad Amini are the players of the Iranian national team who do not jump out of their role and make an evident contribution on both ends of the floor.
The rest of the team consists of Meisam Mirzaei, Mohammad Sharhiari, Jalal Aghamiri, Matin Aghajanhour, Hasan Aliakhbari, Salar Monji, Sina Vahedi, Sajjad Pazrofteh, Navid Rezaeifar and Piter Girgoorian.
FIBA World Cup – Iran: A word more about head coach – Hakan Demir
Turkish expert Hakan Demir was born in 1968. He recently took over Iran after Saeed Armaghani was sacked as head coach, although the Asian country qualified for the World Cup under him.
Demir started his coaching career in 1999, where he worked as an assistant until 2005. Then he took over Tekelsport, which was the beginning of his journey in Turkey. Mersin, Besiktas, Pinar Karsiyaka, Trabzonspor, Tofas and finally Manisa. All the clubs he lead in his homeland. With Manisa, he achieved significant overachievement.
Demir also worked as an assistant of Turkish national team where Ergin Ataman is the head coach. He was part of the coaching staff at the previous Eurobasket, as well as during the qualification for Mundobasket.
![FIBA World Cup Iran Hakan Demir](https://basketballsphere.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/FIBA-Svetsko-prvenstvo-Hakan-Demir.png)
FIBA World Cup – Iran: Expectations
When we look at the draw for the World Cup, Iran, in the company of Spain, Brazil and Ivory Coast, can hardly claim its chance for the second place.
The potential showdown for a single win in the group stage will be against the Ivory Coast, while Spain and Brazil have the status of big favorites and it would be a huge surprise if Iran beat either of the two rivals.