Jordan ready for FIBA Basketball World Cup

AMMAN — The Jordan basketball team on Wednesday left for the Chinese city of Suzhou ahead of its second appearance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service. The tourney takes place from August 31-September 15.

Speaking ahead of the team’s departure from Amman, head coach Joey Stiebing said that his players are in great shape after stepping up training over the past month to reach peak fitness. “Our preparations have gone well,” he said. “We have played a lot of friendly matches against some very strong teams and played well.

We have been able to identify our weaknesses and work on them to improve our level of competitiveness. All of the players understand the responsibility they have on their shoulders to try and make the Jordanian people proud of them.” Jordan previously competed at the World Cup in 2010 in Turkey and this time it has been drawn in Group G with the Dominican Republic, France and Germany.

The matches will be played in Shenzhen with the Dominican Republic up first on September 1, followed by France two days later and then Germany on the fifth. The 12-man squad members are Mahmoud Abdeen, Amin Abu Hawas, Dar Tucker, Jordan Desouki, Fadi Ibrahim, Ahmed Hamarsha, Ahmed Obeid, Yousef Abu Wazna, Mohammed Shaher, Zaid Abbas, Malik Kanaan, Musa Al Awadi, Zain Najdawi and Ahmed Al Duwairi.