The FIBA Asia Championships concluded Sunday morning over in the Philippines with Iran dominating a hosting Philippines squad en route to an 85-71 victory. It was Iran’s third championship in the biannual event since 2007 and, not coincidentally, the third time Hamed Haddadi was named the tournament MVP.
Haddadi is currently a free agent after ending last season with the Phoenix Suns, but he’ll likely be able to find work now that his national team commitments are done until next year. The big man had 29 points and 16 rebounds in Sunday’s championship game, moving his averages up to 18.8 points and 10 rebounds while averaging just 22 minutes of action in his team’s nine games at the tournament.
Haddadi didn’t run into a lot of NBA-level bigs over the course of the tournament, but there were a few recognizable names competing as naturalized citizens in the tournament. Yi Jianlian was the tournament’s second-leading scorer, former lottery pick Jarvis Hayes suited up for Qatar, Temple’s Quincy Davis III led Chinese Taipei to a victory over China, Wang Zhizhi showed he still has a bit left in the tank, former Lakers draft pick Marcus Douthit was good for the Philippines -- though he missed Sunday’s championship game with an injury -- and J.R. Sakuragi used to be famous under another name in the states.
Iran and the Philippines both automatically qualified for next year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup (previously known as the FIBA World Championship) and moved one step closer to qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Korea earned Asia’s third bid for the 2014 FIBA tournament with a 75-57 victory over Chinese Taipei in the third place game.
China, likely considered the favorite heading into the tournament, will have to take a round-about route to qualify for the 2016 Olympics after being eliminated by Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. The team that features former NBA players Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi and a perpetually-struggling Sun Yue now has to hope they earn a Wild Card berth to next year’s FIBA World Cup in order to make guarantee a trip to Rio de Janeiro in 2016.