Iran's Hamed Haddadi

babak82 · Post #1 » by **babak82** » Sun May 4, 2008 7:07 am

The 7'2, 250 pound forward from the Iranian Olympic Team has stated that he's received several invitations for tryouts with NBA teams. He was the top performer in the 2007 Asian Championship in which Iran won Gold, and will be competing with the national team in this summer's Beijing Olympics. As of now, he is widely recognized as the best player in Western Asia and has received comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki.

He has a huge obstacle to overcome considering no Iranian player has ever played in the NBA. Does anyone have any information on him?

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=26 ... id=3510211

Blame Rasho · Post #2 » by **Blame Rasho** » Mon May 5, 2008 4:01 am

I doubt he can get a Visa to even enter the US.

Post #3 » by **Livno** » Wed May 7, 2008 12:22 pm

Blame Rasho wrote:I doubt he can get a Visa to even enter the US.

If not, he can make much money playing in europe!

Dogen · Post #4 » by **Dogen** » Thu May 8, 2008 1:47 am

Still, lets get him!

Versubio · Post #5 » by **Versubio** » Sat May 10, 2008 3:15 pm

A 7'2'' 250 pound forward? Sounds like tooth pick! Is he any good?

wilt · Post #6 » by **wilt** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:51 pm

he is, according to a friend of mine who just saw him play in the asian club championship (basically same principle as Euroleague in Europe). Weak competition onvioulsy by international standards, but what he

babak82 · Post #7 » by **babak82** » Sun May 18, 2008 2:47 pm

Apparently he recently turned down a lucrative offer from Partizan Belgrade. From an interview with Iran's Serbian coach on the FIBA website:

"And do you believe that we have the potential among Iranian players to play in good foreign teams?

Yes, I do. We agreed for Hamed Haddadi to play with one of the best European teams, Partizan Belgrade. But unfortunately the deal was not finalized because Hamed turned it down. If he had played one season in Partizan, it would have projected a different mentality here in Iran. Partizan's coach has so far sent three players to NBA. This team has over 70 very difficult games each season, and Hamed could have opened the door for other Iranian players too. For the moment, I think Samad Bahrami and Mehdi Kamrani are ready to play in Europe. These three are the tops. They can play even in ULEB and the Euro League. I believe they have the potential. "

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/l ... /arti.html