JOR – Jordan hopes fade with no league and no games for players

AMMAN (2010 FIBA World Championship) - The joy of celebrating Jordan’s biggest achievement in basketball lasted a very short time for national team coach Mario Palma.

It was one day to be precise – August 16, 2009 – the day Jordan won the bronze medal at the FIBA Asia Championship.

Palma’s team beat Lebanon in the third-place game to qualify for the FIBA World Championship.

They did so under extenuating circumstances.

Six weeks before the tournament, the Jordan Olympic Committee dissolved the basketball federation, claiming that it had been “functioning without proper accountability”.

The national team nevertheless remained intact, flew to Tianjin and competed.

Since stepping down from the podium, it’s as if Palma and his players have been caught up in a vacuum. One ramification of the dissolution of the federation was the suspension of the domestic league.

That has meant that all but one of Jordan’s players – Zaid Abbaas of Chinese outfit Shanghai - have not been playing games in the country ahead of the FIBA World Championship.

Club side Zain, a team Palma is supposed to be coaching, has nine of Jordan's national team players.

They did recently leave Jordan to take part in the Dubai International Tournament and finished fifth.

However, Palma did not coach them due to the ongoing uncertainty about Jordan basketball.

“I do not know who to talk to, because there is not a (governing) body to run basketball in Jordan,” he said to FIBA.com.

“I am prevented from working as there is no basketball in Jordan.

“It has already been seven months since we played our last (domestic) game, and players are very much upset with the way things are being managed.

“This bronze-medal achievement is being ruined. Three years ago, everything was going fine. Suddenly, everything is gone."

Jordan have a very talented national side and their success is due in great part to Palma, who had led Angola in his previous national team job to numerous honors.

He ended up parting ways with Angola before the 2006 FIBA World Championship and was eventually given an offer that was too good to turn down by Jordan.

Palma’s main frustration is that the national team players are not competing.

“I am a professional coach," Palma said.

“I cannot be involved in any decision-makers’ duty. What the cause of the problem is, it is nothing to do with our game.

“We cannot go to a World Championship with poor preparation. That may denigrate the name of the country in such a big event; my experience says that players must remain in competition prior to such an important event.

“I have in mind 14 or 15 players I could take to Turkey 2010, but things have reached a disastrous point. If nobody talks to me, there is nothing I can do.

“It is impossible to work under these circumstances.”

Jordan lost to Iran (77-75) in last year’s Asian semi-final, but defeated Lebanon 80-66 to finish third.

Palma firmly believes he would put a competitive team on the court in Turkey under more normal circumstances.

“We were, in my opinion, the best team in the (FIBA Asia) Championship, despite the loss to Iran,” Palma said.

After the bronze-medal win in Tianjin, Palma submitted a proposal to the Jordan Olympic Committee that, if accepted, would have helped the national team players prepare for the FIBA World Championship where they will take on Argentina, Serbia, Angola, Germany and Australia in the Preliminary Round.

“I handed in a project on September 3 last year, and nobody has gotten back to me,” Palma said.

“It is difficult to maintain a competitive squad if there is no competition.”

Palma could be forgiven if he left the country, but he will not.

“I cannot talk about (other) job offers as I am a professional,” the 60-year-old said. “I am still the coach of Jordan.”

Palma is in such a quandary that he says he has taken his case to a Labor Court.

He says something needs to change and it needs to happen quickly.

“How can we compete against those teams in our group (in Turkey) if they keep competing and we are do not?” he asked. “It is a disastrous scenario for us.

“We are drawn in the most difficult group. All teams are in the top-12 of the world ranking.”

Julio Chitunda
FIBA