AMMAN — Jordan Basketball Federation (
JBF) Secretary General
Nabeel Abu Ata said “options are still open” regarding the identity of the
naturalized foreign player who will represent the
Kingdom at upcoming
international events.
اضافة اعلان
The Kingdom’s naturalized center, Dar Tucker, is currently
suffering from a knee injury that will require surgical intervention,
preventing him from playing at the last window of the Asian qualifiers.
“Physicians are currently assessing Dar’s Tucker’s injury,
who remains our top pick should we find ourselves unable to naturalize a
replacement,” Abu Ata said, adding: “The alternative, Justin Dentmon, is not
our preference for the time being, considering the excess of local playmakers
and scorers; positions occupied by several players, most notably: Freddy
Ibrahim, Mahmoud Abdin, Amine Abu Hawas, Sami Bzaigh, Malek Kanaan, Mousa
Al-Awadi, Ibrahim Hamati and Mitri Bousheh.”
“Changes to the national team’s style of play, in the
presence of its technical team — led by Marwan Matouq and coaches Mohammad
Hamdan and Wesam Al-Sous — have led us to consider the naturalization of
another player who can occupy the positions of power forward and center,” Abu
Ata explained.
The federation official noted that there are several options
for the naturalization of players from the US, Europe and Canada, as well as an
Arab-American player, adding that the issue of Tucker’s alternative will be
settled at the end of this week.
“We are facing two challenges in selecting a player to
naturalize. We must first make sure that he is available to play at any time,
especially during the final window of the qualifiers and Asia Cup finals in
June and August. The second challenge is
related to official procedures pertaining to the naturalization process, which
may take a long a time, which is why we are working simultaneously on all
fronts between the two stages,” Abu Ata elaborated.
He added that the federation will take care of all the
paperwork and naturalization protocols. “We cannot control matters of
registration, but we will do what we can and send the application to the
International Basketball Federation (
FIBA)”.
Abu Ata underscored that if the federation fails to
naturalize a new player, Dar Tucker will remain the first choice for the Asian
tournament.
The JBF has set forth the selection criteria for the
naturalized player in line with the technical team’s vision. “…The player has
to be a strong scorer to carry the team and make a strong addition in his
position, in addition to serving the national team’s new offense identity,” Abu
Ata said, noting that the athlete in question must also be able to keep up with
naturalized players on the South Korean and Japanese teams or any others Jordan
may face in the Asia Cup finals in Indonesia.
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