Karim Zeinoun presents a bright future for Lebanon

BEIRUT - When Karim Zeinoun first burst onto the Asian basketball scene, he was a wide-eyed 16-year-old playing for the Lebanon's youth team in the FIBA Asia U16 Championship 2015. He did pretty well, too, averaging 22.3 points, 11 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 4.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game as the young Cedars finished in sixth place overall.

The 1.88 wingman captured the imagination of Lebanese hoop nuts everywhere, and nobody was surprised to see him make it to their U18 squad for the FIBA Asia U18 Championship this year in Chenzhou-Hunan. Once again, Zeinoun impressed, scoring 9.6 points and grabbing 5.2 boards per contest. He helped Lebanon make it to the top four in the competition.

His sterling efforts paid even more dividends when he was called up to play for Al Riyadi in the recent FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2016. Zeinoun saw limited minutes, but it was a valuable learning experience for him as he played alongside the likes of Fadi El Khatib, Wael Arakji and Ali Haidar.

With so much experience and in the span of just over a year, Zeinoun has developed into one of the rising stars of Lebanese hoops, and it is not at all a surprise that he represents such a bright future for Lebanon.

Zeinoun revealed more of his plans in a chat with FIBA.com.

FIBA.com: After which player have you patterned your style of play?
Zeinoun: The player that I patterned my style of play to is LeBron James. The reason behind that is that he does a little bit of everything and does everything great, plus he makes everyone around him look better. That's the type of player I’m trying to copy as seen in previous Asia Championships (U16, U18 and Champions Cup) and hopefully create a play style of my own one day.

FIBA.com: What role do you expect to play as you continue your career with the Lebanese national team?
Zeinoun: The role that I see myself playing as in the Lebanese National team is to hopefully keep on gradually increasing the level of my game to reach a certain point where I could be a leader in the national team and help as much as I can to bring the Lebanese flag back up where it belongs.

FIBA.com: How do you see Lebanon performing in the 2017 competitions, especially the WABA and FIBA Asia tournaments?
Zeinoun: I see that the Lebanese National team is going to dominate the WABA and FIBA Asia tournaments in 2017 because of the hunger that Lebanese players have, mainly basketball is the only sport that we could dominate in Asia with all due respect to all sports.

FIBA.com: What are your plans now — will you be playing at the club level or continue playing in the US?
Zeinoun: If I wanted to play in the States I would’ve stayed there this year, but what was best for me and my family was for me to come back home and be there. You never know what the future can hold. Hopefully, I could go back there, but I don’t see that happening in 3 to 4 years time, if you know what I mean. #NBAbound

FIBA.com: How did your experience in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup help you develop as a player?
Zeinoun: The FIBA Asia Champions Cup gave me a lot of experience and exposure, besides playing with Fadi El Khatib, Jean Abdelnour, and the rest of the players. You learn a lot from them and, of course, you learn when you face high profile players like Andray Blatche, Zhou Qui, Darius Adams, Sam Young, James White and many others.

FIBA