JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia) - There's no better way to hush the skeptics and naysayers than achieving success, and Iran did precisely that after ending nearly a decade of waiting for a medal in the FIBA Asia Cup on Sunday.
Team Melli took bronze in the 2025 games following a narrow win against New Zealand, which for Arsalan Kazemi is a statement per se, as nobody - even their own people - believed that they could accomplish as much.
"We walked into the tournament as underdogs," the veteran forward offered moments after their 79-73 victory against the Tall Blacks, which coincidentally were the 2022 third-placers, at the King Abdullah Sports City.
"Nobody was expecting us to accomplish anything, especially in Iran, We have a whole controversy around our basketball team, around this young group of guys, that they're not ready yet," the 35-year-old furthered.
It's a relatively young team which Coach Sotirios Manolopoulos went with for this year's tournament as half of the 12-man roster are aged below 25, with Mohammad Heydari the youngest of the bunch at only 19.
It feels kinda greater than a gold medal for me, because it was very unexpected.
Yes, it's quite a different lineup from the one that competed in the 2022 Asia Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia, making fans and observers question if this present batch would be good enough to compete in Jeddah.
Six games later and the whole squad proved that they can, and Kazemi himself couldn't be any happier especially after witnessing the younger pieces step up to the plate - like what they did in the Third-Place Game.
Seyed Jafari, for one, submitted arguably his best game for Iran by firing 22 points. There's also Sina Vahedi with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. as well as Matin Aghajanpour with 14 to his name.
"We have some young guys; they're unknown, but every game one of them is gonna step up," he said.
"They all can go for 30 points. Tonight, Matin played great, Sina played great, but I think Jafari was the guy that really surprised New Zealand and came out with some huge shots for us," he continued.
Mohammad Amini would've added more to that but the rising star wing was unfortunately out due to a knee issue he sustained against Australia in the Semi-Finals. Yet he served as a reason for them to compete harder.
"Obviously tonight we were missing Amini so I told them, 'He helped us to get here, let's win one for him.' That's kinda like what the atmosphere in the locker room was," the 12-year pro out of Oregon said.
But he wasn't only a vocal guide in their most important game of the tilt. Kazemi was aggressive on offense right from the start as he wanted to lead by example, eventually finishing with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
The others sure followed him but he's never one to make it all about himself. In fact the honor is his, filled with so much gratitude that his teammates gave him an opportunity to be the figure they can look up to.
"I played a horrible game against Australia yesterday and being able to regroup in less than 14 hours with these young guys, that shows a lot of character and a lot of toughness. I'm really glad, I'm proud of them," he said.
"I'm glad they let me be their leader," he added, "and help them to get to this point."
Kazemi now has two Asia Cup medals, the first being a silver which he and Iran took home in 2017 - the last time that the program stood on the podium. But this bronze, for him, weighs more than the ultimate prize.
"It feels kinda greater than a gold medal for me, because it was very unexpected," the former Olympian said.
Also because he and Team Melli were able to prove the doubters wrong.
"Even after beating Chinese Taipei, and yesterday we lost to Australia - Australia is a great team ... they're just going at us like crazy. I mean, this will definitely shut them up," Kazemi said with a smile.
FIBA