FIBA Basketball

    Iran's Behnam Yakhchali ready for the spotlight

    MANILA (Enzo Flojo's Asia on my Mind) - Fans of Iranian basketball looking for the team’s next big star need not look further than Behnam Yakhchali.

    MANILA (Enzo Flojo's Asia on my Mind) - Fans of Iranian basketball looking for the team's next big star need not look further than Behnam Yakhchali.

    The 1.95m (6ft 5in) native of Shahrekord has built a pretty impressive international basketball resume since first breaking onto the scene at the 2012 FIBA Asia U18 Championship, where he led Iran to a third-place finish behind China and Korea. That tournament produced some of the brightest young prospects in Asian basketball including Wang Zhelin and Lee Jong-Hyun, and, for sure, Yakhchali won't let himself be left far behind.

    Yakhchali, who turns 21 next month, also starred for the Iranians at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship in Prague, averaging nearly 11 points per game and hitting 13 three-pointers in eight contests. His first-rate play enabled him to rise to even greater heights the following year, when he was named to Team Melli's senior roster for the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup, the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2014 Asian Games shortly after turning 19 years of age.

    In those competitions - as in last year's FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha-Hunan - despite being one of the youngest on the team, Yakhchali showed a lot of maturity and consistency. As one of the designated shooters, he never shied away from an open three and although he mainly played back-up to Iranian stalwarts Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and Hamed Afagh, his role should be more magnified this year with head coach Dirk Bauermann choosing to go young as they move toward the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Turin.

    This is mainly because Bahrami and Afagh, along with national team mainstays Mahdi Kamrani and Javad Davari won't be around to suit up for Iran in the OQT. What this means is that 2.18m (7ft 2in) behemoth Hamed Haddadi will be the undisputed leader and veteran voice of Bauermann's OQT squad and it also presents a wonderful opportunity for the young guns like Yakhchali to really step up and showcase their wares. Bauermann believes Yakhchali headlines a very promising group of young talents who can be groomed to be the next generation of superstars for Iran, and Turin should be their coming out party.

    ...

    Iran are currently playing in the 2016 West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) tournament that serves as their subzone's qualifier for the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge. Despite being without Haddadi and his hulking presence in the middle, the Iranians started well, beating Lebanon, 81-75, on the first day. They followed that up with a 93-63 shellacking of Syria on the second day, with Yakhchali spearheading Team Melli's attack in that encounter, dropping 26 points on the strength of scintillating outside shooting.

    The young sharp-shooter will certainly face tougher foes in the OQT as the likes of Francisco "Pako" Cruz of Mexico and Nick Calathes of Greece lie in wait. If Iran manages to advance to the next round, then Yakhchali will possibly take his shot against no less than Marco Belinelli of Italy, Bojan Bogdanovic of Croatia or naturalized Tunisian Michael Roll. None of those will be easy pickings for the Iranian wingman.

    The odds are stacked against Behnam Yakhchali and his team, but no matter the result of their campaigns this year, one thing is for sure - he is set to be one of Iran's pillars in 2016.

    Enzo Flojo

    FIBA

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