Tabatabai: We were not supposed to do extraordinary work in Olympic basketball

“It is true that the Americans lost to France in the first game, but they play a certain level of basketball,” Ramin Tabatabai said after the defeat of the Iranian national basketball team against the United States, according to an IRNA correspondent.

He continued: “We did not expect the kids to win, although they could have played better and lost by less.” I must say that this is our level. Our goal was to enter the Olympics and we were not going to do any extraordinary work. This is not in line with our capabilities. We must learn from these competitions and help develop our basketball in Iran.

In response to the question that he could have performed better in the first game, Tabatabai also showed this reaction and said: If the children were themselves, they would have won that game. Maybe there was a situation where an Asian team played against a team from Europe. Ultimately, this is our capacity, and we must work harder to bring ourselves closer to world-class basketball.

The president of the basketball federation also clarified about the game against France: they have five players working in the NBA and they are a good team. Our kids are getting to know the Olympic atmosphere, and all of this is good for our basketball.

Today (Wednesday) at 9:10 AM, the Iranian national basketball team played its second game in the Olympics against the powerful American star team, and in the end, the US team managed to defeat Iran 120-66.

Iran’s senior also played against the Czech Republic in his previous game and lost 84-78 to this team. The American team also lost the game to France in its previous match. The United States is the proudest team in Olympic basketball.

In their last match in the group stage of Olympic basketball, the Iranian team must face France on Saturday, August 30, at 5:30 AM.