Iran gaining ‘arrogant, dirty’ reputation
TAIPEI—Iran displayed very poor sportsmanship after taking its first loss, courtesy of Smart Gilas-Pilipinas, on Friday afternoon in the 34th Jones Cup here.
Samad Bahrami, a gifted scorer, and coach Mostafa Hashemi, bad-mouthed the entire tournament for it and both refused to even give a tinge of credit to the effort put up by the Filipinos in a 77-75 win.
As it turns out, the Iranians really have the reputation of being sore losers.
“They’re arrogant,” a member of the Lebanese national team told the Inquirer in a chance chat at the elevator of the Palais de Chine Hotel. “They really don’t like losing, and if they do, they’ll blame everyone for it, except themselves.”
Iran is the defending champion and it can still win the tournament if it sweeps its last two games and the Filipinos drop one of their last two.
But most everyone in the field aren’t rooting for them, including the United States, which will be the Philippines’ last foe, and hopefully, the final stumbling block for a third title for the Filipinos.
“You have a great team and we were pleased when you beat Iran,” Jermaine Dearman, a versatile 6-foot-8 forward, said in a separate elevator ride going to the mess hall. “They (Iranians) play dirty and they never stop whining in the game.
“We would love to have that game back (a double overtime loss last Wednesday),” Dearman added. “But it (Philippine win) eases the sting (of the loss) somewhat.”
Bahrami, who is so talented he still wound up with 26 points against the Filipinos despite heavy pressure all game, said: “The winner of this game is not true.”
He asked: “How could a team which lost by 30 (actually 19) to Lebanon, come back to beat Iran, which beat Lebanon by 20.”
Last year, the Iranians, after barely beating the Philippines, lined themselves up in the court like bowling pins and, with a player mimicking heaving a bowling ball, fell one by one as if a strike was scored.
Marcus Douthit said that pissed him off, and played his heart out on Friday.
The Iranians came into Friday’s game totally not expecting to even have a hard time against the Filipinos.
As a matter of fact, they did their pregame warm up with a boy of not more than 6 years old joining them in the round robin and in the shoot-around.
Could that be part of their arrogance, or were they simply being overconfident?
