WHEN the Philippines plays on Tuesday in the 19th Asian Games men’s basketball quarterfinal, Gilas Pilipinas will encounter for the first time an Iran team that is very much different from past Iran squads it became used to.
Some fans will remember Gilas’ clash with Iran during the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship final where the host team, weighed down by Marcus Douthit's injury, settled for second place at the Mall of Asia Arena.
READ: Brutal playoff schedule awaits Gilas if it gets past Qatar
A lot has changed since then with Hamed Haddadi, the final remnant of that multi-titled Iran team, retiring from the national team after the Fiba Basketball World Cup.
In fact, the last time an Iran A-team played the Philippines was during their final game of the Fiba Basketball World Cup in 2019 where they won convincingly, 95-75, with the likes of Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and Mohammad Jamshidi still playing.
A new batch of Iran players are now looking to reassert its supremacy against Gilas Pilipinas in their quarterfinal match in the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Eight players from the Asian Games team played in the World Cup in Jakarta, but are missing a couple of big names in Hangzhou, aside from Haddadi.
Mohammad Amini, the top scorer of Iran during the World Cup who also plays for AS Monaco in the French league, skipped the Asian Games as well as Behnam Yakhchali, who is also with German club Gladiator Treves.
The team is also much younger now with the Asiad team having an average age of around 26 years.
Leading the way so far for Iran is 27-year-old Navid Rezaeifar, who has been the top scorer of Team Melli in the Asiad with an average of 17 points and on 8-of-17 from threes during the preliminaries.
The 6-foot-4 Rezaeifar was with Iran when it ended up with a silver medal during the 2018 Asian Games and Jakarta, and he definitely wants to atone for that with a gold this time.
Without Haddadi, Gilas will be contending with Meisam Mirzaei down low. He averaged 12.7 points and 9.3 rebounds during the Asiad preliminaries.
Sharing the backcourt with Rezaeifar is Mohammadsina Vahedi, who is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 assists, and 1.7 steals during the Asiad.
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