BEIRUT (Lebanon) - After a long wait, the 2024/2025 FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) competitions are upon us, as the pan-regional tilt opens shop on October 21.
The festivities will begin with the Gulf League featuring Group A teams, with Kuwait Club serving as the welcoming committee to the debuting Al Ahli on Monday before Shabab Al Ahli and the comebacking Al Bashaer battling it out the next day.
And by having another season means as well that there would be plenty of interesting storylines for each of the participants. Now, we take a look at some of those from the aforementioned group's competitors heading into the tilt's latest chapter.
Kuwait Club: Gulf League three-peat?
Needless to say, eyes will be on Kuwait Club if they can accomplish as much, now that they're entering the season as the reigning two-time WASL-Gulf champions.
But as we always say, some things are easier said than done, and that applies as well to the perennial contenders. Because they will be coming into the meet with a squad that's a bit far from what they fielded in the previous two seasons.
After leaning mainly on the tandem of Cady Lalanne and Marcus Georges-Hunt, the team will now go with new foreign reinforcements in ex-NBA veterans in JaKarr Sampson and Briante Weber, plus former Bayern Munich standout Augustine Rubit.
Much are expected from the trio as their local support has taken quite a hit. Two players have been placed in the injury/reserve list, one of which is star forward Mohammad Hasan. He will be out for 5-6 months due to a wrist injury.
So, it would be interesting to see how this present-day Kuwait Club would fare this season, making Monday's game an anticipated game to watch.
Shabab Al Ahli: Is this the year?
Expectations are high for Shabab Al Ahli this season after surprisingly finishing as runners-up in the Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL Asia) inaugurals last July, which were held on their home floor at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall.
But what the UAE Basketball League champions from Dubai would want now, no doubt, is to taste success in WASL after falling short in the last two seasons.
After reaching the Semi-Finals in its inaugural staging back in the 2022/2023 season, Shabab Al Ahli failed to make it past the Qualification to Semi-Finals in the following edition, losing to Muharraq of Bahrain in a best-of-3 series that went the limit.
Coach Oualid Zrida are once again calling the shots, and the team has kept, too, one of the reasons behind its stellar BCL Asia run in Sir'Dom Pointer to bolster their bid.
Forward Khalid Alameri has also joined in the fray, as Shabab Al Ahli added another UAE national team member to their roster that already has main man Qais Omar Alshabebi and the high-flying Hamed Lateef, with the hope that it leads to wins.
Will those be enough to break through?
Al Bashaer: Are they for real this time?
One of WASL's pioneering teams, Al Bashaer are coming back this time with a lot to prove. That's because their maiden run in the 2022/2023 meet proved to be a luckless one as they finished the season as the only team without a win, posting a 0-6 card.
Well, they do have written themselves in history as the team of the player that scored the first two points of the league in Aaron Clyde Parks. But they no longer want to be known for only that fact, now that they are set to run it back in the tilt.
Star center Mahmoud Al Souli will be leading the pack once more but he's hoping as well to have enough help this time in the form of foreign players Christopher Johnson and Shakir Smith, as well as young stalwart Hadid Bait Bakhit.
Al Ahli Club: New contender from Bahrain?
So far, teams from Bahrain have built a solid track record in the league. Of course, there's Manama, the first-ever WASL champions. Then there's Muharraq, who went as far as the Gulf League Semi-Finals in their first foray just last season.
Will Al Ahli continue that tradition of sorts? That remains to be seen, but on paper, they appear to have a shot. They actually finished as runners-up to Manama in the 2023/2024 Bahraini Premier League, securing their spot in WASL.
Roster-wise, they have former and current Bahraini national team pieces such as Ahmed Alderazi, Ali Hasan, and Maitham Isa, to name some.
They have respected foreign players as well in Cliff Alexander and DeWayne Jackson, both of which have been experienced with the style of play in the region.
And lest we forget that Al Ahli are now being mentored by Jad El Hajj. Yes, the former Lebanon men's team head coach who sure knows a thing or two about going deep in FIBA WASL after steering C.S. Sagesse to a runner-up finish in the last Final 8.
They should be fun to watch.
FIBA