BEIRUT (Lebanon) – All games in Window 3 of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers for Lebanon are for academic purposes only. Make such a statement, and you certainly will earn the ire of superstar point guard Wael Arakji.
Lebanon have swept all their four games so far and head into the final window of the Qualifiers having already qualified for this summer’s FIBA Asia Cup 2025 in Jeddah – their results against Bahrain in an away game (on Feb 21) and at home against UAE (on Feb 24) therefore bearing no consequence.
“We are playing in front of home crowd after a year,” Arakji declared nipping any thought of “taking it easy” in its bud.
Basketball is and will always be what unites people in this country. We as players will always be there to lift our country in tough days
It has been a year since the Lebanese National Team has been able to play in front of their home crowd. They last played at the Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex in Zouk Mikael returning back-to-back wins 87-78 against Syria and 94-63 against Bahrain in Window 1 of the Qualifiers last February.
Ever since then, they have been unable to host a game due to security concerns in the country – even being forced to their play “home” game in Window 2 of Qualifiers (against Syria) in November 2024 at Dubai.
“We are all very excited to play again in front of our fans. Honestly, we all miss being gathered on court together as a family,” Arakji opened his conversation.
Mention the “already qualified” status, and pat comes the reply from reigning FIBA Asia MVP: “Of course we won’t take it easy this window even though we qualified. We are very excited to play again in Lebanon and we want to give our fans a show.”
The conversation invariably led to the mood in the team given the obvious concerns surrounding them, Arakji said: “We always keep telling ourselves to remember that we have people that look up to us; that we are blessed to do what we love by playing this game.”
“And we want to always send a message to the young generation that giving up is never an option for us Lebanese,” he said.
FIBA