Arsalan Kazemi @ Philadelphia 76ers

[persianbruin]

By the way he did get some bad advice and the guy responsible for that is no longer a threat. I kept telling him to fire his incompetent agent which he did. He hired a new agent a few weeks ago. Actually I wish I had stepped in sooner.
You guys are overreacting. If you saw the brazil game you would have seen he is still the same player. Just not getting playing time or passes due to politics. He can't play in the NBA this year because he missed the training camp for the WC but truth is hinkie is tanking in a historical level. But sooner or later he had to either sign or release ak. Once that happens he will play in the league and you will all eat your wirds

[behzadir]

First of all, if there is a book!!! we would really like to read a few pages of it to just know what kinda stuff it includes! We all know what kinda thought the author has so it's not really hard to guess i suppose!
About the situation there are some facts i would like to point out: (Before that i must repeat myself and say i think Becirovic failed on his quest in the World Cup and i personally don't like the Mashhoon brothers and their mindset about basketball).

1. Memi Becirovic being Jealous on AK's contract and attention... This comment is really unbelievable and shows how weak some arguements in Kazemi's defense are. I don't care how crap Becirovic is but he coached a Slovenian team led by Goran Dragic(NBA's 6th man of the year) and his son Sani Becirovic who was an absolute stud in the Euroleague. Now he is jealous about Arsalan who hasn't stepped on the court yet?!! Utter BS and weak statement.

2. As much as i disapprove Mashhoon's work on the Senior level specially in the last 2-3 years or so, he is the guy who made us known not only across Asia but in the whole basketball world...In the last 8 years we have won 3 Asian titles outta 4 based on the old guy's work.. Guess what?? The only time Kazemi was on Team Melli's squad in the Asian Championship was the year we failed to bring home the gold! Coincidence? Maybe... But we all know the team was divided and we had some big problems among the players during that campaign.

3. Most of you surely haven't watched AK's game in the Iran's Super League(including his close friends and advisers). But me as a diehard Arsalan fan watched whatever game that was televised wherever the game was played, and without being biased his performance was really mediocre or average at best with his only strength being an elite rebounder and most his points coming from the FT line or putbacks.(That's why his FG% is pretty high) A player who is NBA material should really dominate our league big time as former NBA players still do at the age of +35. Look at what Kasaeipour an Iranian coach says about his performance

ارسلان در لیگ هم پتانسیل خود را نشان نداد
کسایی پور در مورد استفاده کم از ارسلان کاظمی در جام جهانی تاکید کرد: زمان بازی ارسلان در جام جهانی کم بود اما بحث مربوط به ارسلان را باید از زمان ورود او به ایران پی گیری کرد. ارسلان قبل از آمدن به ایران بازی های بزرگی در آمریکا انجام داده بود اما تاثیرگذاری او در پتروشیمی آن چیزی نبود که قبلا در آمریکا از او شنیده بودیم. شرایط کاظمی در پتروشیمی کمی متفاوت شد و همین تفاوت به تیم ملی کشیده شد. البته بهترین فرد برای صحبت در این موارد خود ارسلان است که بگوید چه اتفاقی در این مدت افتاد؟ اما در جام جهانی هم آن پتانسیل را از خود نشان نداد.
وی گفت: بعضی از کارشناسان هم اعتقاد داشتند که ما پست 4 گلزن نداریم از این جهت هم فکر می کنم که باید موضوع را به شکل دیگری نگاه کنیم. تیمی که به یک رقابت بزرگ می رود نیاز به 2 گلزن، 2
ریباند و یک بازیکن متوسط دارد. حضور 2 یا 3 امتیازآور در تیم کافی است و ارسلان و اوشین در پست چهار باید ریباند کرده و به یاران دیگر خود اسکرین (پیک) بدهند.

http://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/4971427/%DA%A9%D8%B3%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D9%BE%D9%88%D8%B1-90-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%DA%86%D8%B1%D8%AE%D9%87-%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%AA-%D8%A8%D8%B3%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A2%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA

4. Most of us have seen his games in the NT in the WC. It could easily be understood from AK's body language that he hasn't coped with the team well at all. He wasn't demanding passes at all typically and he wasn't fired up within the game.(Maybe at times with HH only). He isn't comfortable with this group of players at all and i think he is waiting for the time that the group are gone(Samad, Kamrani and Afagh cuz he is ok with HH). A sign of some ego he has gained playing college ball in the states and looking to other players from a higher level.

After all let's see what AK gained from all this decisions he made lately and in the last 3 years?

A) Wouldn't have he made more money if he was drafted and signed after his sophomore year in 2011?

B) If he would've kissed Team Melli goodbye for this summer, wouldn't have he had better chances of making the 76er's roster this year?

C) If he would obey the rules within the team and play at whatever position the coach asked him to, wouldn't have he had more playing time to showcase his talent in the World Cup to get a better deal wherever it is and also hang an Asian Games gold medal high in his room?

D) Wouldn't he make thousands of Iranian basketball followers happier and thousands of young enthusiastic basketball players motivated to follow his footsteps to glory?

[persian-eagle-13]

^^reading through some of your post i have to agree with you, I followed AK through his NCAA from the first day, and I truly believed he could make it to the nba, which he did. however the more i followed him on the court and off the court on social media and tv interview I felt he had something missing. on one hand he played hard on the court and preached how he wants to play in nba, but on the other hand he turned down the 2 year offer "supposedly" from sixers so he can come back and the following year and have a bigger role in the team, or again according to persianbruin players get paid more money in Iran than they do in Europe and thus he played in Iran. or he would always say IF he players in iran he could bring attention to the basketball in iran so nba, ncaa scouts could find the talents in iran etc...

there are politics in every sport and in every country, if TM coach did not like him, he could have easily crossed him off the final list!! AK having a previous experience of "leaving a team" because opportunity was not given, i.e Rice University, he could have just step aside and everyone would have known who the culprit was in this case. this issue obviously did not started in Spain, it was ongoing problem, so now that he did go to Spain, that means he accepted the situation and should deal with it.

and lastly, watching the world cup it was obvious that he is at best a bench player! his shooting inability is really handicapping him. he really needs to get that issue fixed or bulk up and really dominate the paint under the rim, just like charles barkley

[pres80]

I have been following him for a long time now, and even I was on the fence after his world cup performance.

But looking at the analysis I was convinced that there were other issues. I mean if you know basketball you will know that no one would take a contested three when there is an open player rolling to the rim but many times this happened and he got no passes even though he played his role.

[Z Joon]

It is all BS I can write a book about everything behind the screens that you don't know about! All the basketball experts are showing videos "proof" of how effective his game was. The coach is a pawn to the number 14 on that team who absolutely HATES ak due to jealousy. Attention, contract amount and do many other things. There is so much corruption going on in the federation I don't even know where to begin.
He did make some mistakes but none if those had anything to do with what went in. Part of is bad luck a huge part of it actually. If he wasn't drafted at all he would be playing in the NBA right now.

Are you kidding me! Samad>Kazemi no contest. I rather have Samad starting as he is a much better player overall except defensively no one can say otherwise. He is our best player after HH, I cannot believe you think that it's due to favoritism that Becirovic doesn't play Arsalan. I really love AK but you have to be realistic come on!

[Farhad-7]

Becirovic is a professional coach who's coached players that had much better careers than AK who still is being an average player in Iran's Bball league. No way he's favouring Bahrami over him. Also in no way is Samad jealous of him. Just look at his stats at the WC. Had AK been given the same amount of time, he would have gotten a few more rebound but not as many assists and scores as Samad.

AK just has had a bad start in his career. He can still overcome this as he is a young lad. He probably disagreed with him not being used as much or wanted to play a certain role in the team since the Asian Championship and that didn't fit in the team which pissed off Becirovic.

[EKBATAN]

Guys u misunderstood....persianbruin meant bahrami is jealous of kazemi not the coach. This has been the case since last world cup when samad faked an injury and he didnt play at all! This is cuz at that time kazemi was his position and he didnt even travel with the team! If a player is injured he would still travel ańd i dont even remember a game where he got that injured that he had to be taken off the team completely. It was strange that he was fine in the friendlies and out of nowhere few days before WC he was suddenly injured? It was very fishy.


Regarding whether samd is better or arsalan, its not comparable to me. Each are good in their way and it was always my dream to see these 2 be best friends (like with HH) and complement each other on the court but sadly that never happenend due to various reasons that NONE of us can make a judgement on. To conclude a whole story based on a few interview words and not hard FACTS is not convincing me.


No doubt he might have made some wrong choices but he has also made many right choices. I disagree that he shoulda entered the draft as a sophmore. No way in hell a player from Rice would get picked by NBA teams no matter how good his stats were. He did make the right choice of goin to oregon and making a name for himself in the sweet sixteen. Its not his fault NBA got stupid rules for contracts and teams deciding to tank. He is not the first player to fall victim of that. Many good players end up missing a chance at nba and many other crappy ones due to circumstances.


I dont know arsalan and i dont know the politics within Iran's teams but FACTS are many many of our athletes get screwed due to politics but we all know most people in iran these days are HATERS and especially against people with opportunities outside. We all see this. Hell my own family hates on me and i show them nothjng but love and never brag about any of the stuff i do. Its just the society has raised our people like that. Im more of a believer of samad and the rest hating on arsalan than u guys makin kazemi to be some super ego monster who wanted to ruin the team for his own good. Does that even make sense? His game is not like that hes a hustle guy who plays for the team i like to hear suggestions of how his plans of MAKING the team work for his favor ar

[pres80]

By the way he did get some bad advice and the guy responsible for that is no longer a threat. I kept telling him to fire his incompetent agent which he did. He hired a new agent a few weeks ago. Actually I wish I had stepped in sooner.
You guys are overreacting. If you saw the brazil game you would have seen he is still the same player. Just not getting playing time or passes due to politics. He can't play in the NBA this year because he missed the training camp for the WC but truth is hinkie is tanking in a historical level. But sooner or later he had to either sign or release ak. Once that happens he will play in the league and you will all eat your wirds

Persianbruin since you seem to be close to him, do you mind telling us what his plans are for the coming season?

[Irannn]

Guys u misunderstood....persianbruin meant bahrami is jealous of kazemi not the coach. This has been the case since last world cup when samad faked an injury and he didnt play at all! This is cuz at that time kazemi was his position and he didnt even travel with the team! If a player is injured he would still travel ańd i dont even remember a game where he got that injured that he had to be taken off the team completely. It was strange that he was fine in the friendlies and out of nowhere few days before WC he was suddenly injured? It was very fishy.
Regarding whether samd is better or arsalan, its not comparable to me. Each are good in their way and it was always my dream to see these 2 be best friends (like with HH) and complement each other on the court but sadly that never happenend due to various reasons that NONE of us can make a judgement on. To conclude a whole story based on a few interview words and not hard FACTS is not convincing me.
No doubt he might have made some wrong choices but he has also made many right choices. I disagree that he shoulda entered the draft as a sophmore. No way in hell a player from Rice would get picked by NBA teams no matter how good his stats were. He did make the right choice of goin to oregon and making a name for himself in the sweet sixteen. Its not his fault NBA got stupid rules for contracts and teams deciding to tank. He is not the first player to fall victim of that. Many good players end up missing a chance at nba and many other crappy ones due to circumstances.
I dont know arsalan and i dont know the politics within Iran's teams but FACTS are many many of our athletes get screwed due to politics but we all know most people in iran these days are HATERS and especially against people with opportunities outside. We all see this. Hell my own family hates on me and i show them nothjng but love and never brag about any of the stuff i do. Its just the society has raised our people like that. Im more of a believer of samad and the rest hating on arsalan than u guys makin kazemi to be some super ego monster who wanted to ruin the team for his own good. Does that even make sense? His game is not like that hes a hustle guy who plays for the team i like to hear suggestions of how his plans of MAKING the team work for his favor ar

what ? wait a minute, fake injury ?!! where is this come from ? poor guy was injured and did not play months after that.

[Masoud_A]

Samad was by far our best player in the WC, Hamed was uninterested in D and pursuit of loose balls. Arsalan didn't really pass the eye test, I agree that he had to get more PT but we had Oshin at 4 as well. Iran's struggle in the World Cup was lacking a quick, agile PG who could bring the damn ball safely up the court. It was embarrassing watching opponent guards so arrogantly going for a steal mid-court and being somehow successful the majority of the times. Kamrani averaged 3.2 turn overs while dishing out 1.8 assists... Samad had to shoulder the PG responsibility which took its toll, considering all that bringing our team total to 19+ turn overs a game to top the list of the worst teams at handling the ball
Where does AK's performance rank in this mess you say? I'd say somewhere between us losing the game to Serbia because of a garbage start to Q3 and he failing to meet the least of expectations, to be our X-factor in the tournament.

[EKBATAN]

^ ya our turnovers are at times amateur level like high school mistakes. We do need a better point guard.

[persianbruin]

It is difficult typing on a phone!
But I quickly point out to several facts:
1) the whole TM is a mafia right now. You are either part of the family or you are not. If you are not no matter how good you are you will be cut. If you don't live in Iran and you don't follow the stories then you don't know what is going on.
2) almost all of the Iran basketball experts are speaking in support of Arsalan. Alek peteossian, for met national team captain put it perfectly. Players X and Y have commited 45 of te 96 turnovers am you are blaming player Z for the losses?
Vahid
Abolhassani former national team coach and the person responsible for me getting into basketball when I was a teenager in Tehran is also very openly supporting Arsalan. When I contacted him last week to touch bases he say this:
سلام عزيز دلم
روز بخير
اسباب افتخارم هستيد شهريارم.
به ارسلان هم سلام منو برسان و بكو بسرم نكران نباش،تو خورشيدى و خورشيد ازبين نمى رود.
3) SAMad is a better scorer than AK but if you think he is a better player. You don't understand basketball. Experts have broken down arsalan's moves in different videos and din one particular case, they showed when a 6'7 Arsalan was playing center for Iran against Serbia, how he set up three screens for samad, an samad still refused to pass te ball and went for an uncontested layup beause ak opened te way for him. If I ever find a link I will post it. (Also the monster lebronesque chasedown blockshot against brazil (my birthday gift btw requested from him
Months ago ), was a result of him cleaning up samad's messy play and turnover.
You just see samad scoring some points and refuse to look at all his flaws. If what you bring to the table is a net negative then you are a liability not an asset.
4) +\- of AK was the highest of all players from
Iran. Proof that he is the most valuable.
You guys look at samads points but fail to look at all his mistakes and weaknesses. It is kinda like looking at only the times you hit a blak jack and not the losing hands when you are at a casino! That wouldn't give you a true picture of wtf is goin on and your reasoning is biased as hell.
5) while everyone was trying to be arsalan's agent I was trying to be his friend and older brother. Recently he ja asked me for a lot of advice and since now I am
Neck deep involved, I am not at liberty to say anything. All I going to say is as early as this week you could find out of his plans. But one thing is for sure: because of another tanking season (which should be illegal) he won't play in the NBA this season either. Does he like it? Heck no! But as I have mentioned many many times before (and some I you guy pretend like you didn't hear me and you still do) he is NOT a free agent! Yes I am talking to those of you who say
"I he Has a good showing he might get a chance at the NBA". Please open your eyes n read what I have written before: teams CANNOT sign him because he is not a free agent and again there is NBA interest in him but he is a slave with an owner am that owner's name is 76ers. They own him and because of unethical yet legal plans that they have in mind they are just holding on to them.

[pres80]

It is difficult typing on a phone!
But I quickly point out to several facts:
1) the whole TM is a mafia right now. You are either part of the family or you are not. If you are not no matter how good you are you will be cut. If you don't live in Iran and you don't follow the stories then you don't know what is going on.
2) almost all of the Iran basketball experts are speaking in support of Arsalan. Alek peteossian, for met national team captain put it perfectly. Players X and Y have commited 45 of te 96 turnovers am you are blaming player Z for the losses?
Vahid
Abolhassani former national team coach and the person responsible for me getting into basketball when I was a teenager in Tehran is also very openly supporting Arsalan. When I contacted him last week to touch bases he say this:
سلام عزيز دلم
روز بخير
اسباب افتخارم هستيد شهريارم.
به ارسلان هم سلام منو برسان و بكو بسرم نكران نباش،تو خورشيدى و خورشيد ازبين نمى رود.
3) SAMad is a better scorer than AK but if you think he is a better player. You don't understand basketball. Experts have broken down arsalan's moves in different videos and din one particular case, they showed when a 6'7 Arsalan was playing center for Iran against Serbia, how he set up three screens for samad, an samad still refused to pass te ball and went for an uncontested layup beause ak opened te way for him. If I ever find a link I will post it. (Also the monster lebronesque chasedown blockshot against brazil (my birthday gift btw requested from him
Months ago ), was a result of him cleaning up samad's messy play and turnover.

You just see samad scoring some points and refuse to look at all his flaws. If what you bring to the table is a net negative then you are a liability not an asset.
4) +\- of AK was the highest of all players from
Iran. Proof that he is the most valuable.

You guys look at samads points but fail to look at all his mistakes and weaknesses. It is kinda like looking at only the times you hit a blak jack and not the losing hands when you are at a casino! That wouldn't give you a true picture of wtf is goin on and your reasoning is biased as hell.
5) while everyone was trying to be arsalan's agent I was trying to be his friend and older brother. Recently he ja asked me for a lot of advice and since now I am
Neck deep involved, I am not at liberty to say anything. All I going to say is as early as this week you could find out of his plans. But one thing is for sure: because of another tanking season (which should be illegal) he won't play in the NBA this season either. Does he like it? Heck no! But as I have mentioned many many times before (and some I you guy pretend like you didn't hear me and you still do) he is NOT a free agent! Yes I am talking to those of you who say
"I he Has a good showing he might get a chance at the NBA". Please open your eyes n read what I have written before: teams CANNOT sign him because he is not a free agent and again there is NBA interest in him but he is a slave with an owner am that owner's name is 76ers. They own him and because of unethical yet illegal plans that they have in mind they are just holding on to them.

Cheers for the update. And I have seen the videos of the analysis and completely agree with you. Even if the basketball team is not a mafia (which it is as I have seen the youth team first hand and seen what a mafia it is) those video analysis speak for them selves.

Good luck to him.

[Shahin]

WTF?! AK isn't competing with Samad, he's competing with Sahakhian. I would give him the edge over Sahakhian because Oshin just isn't very athletic but as far as Samad, if Samad isn't playing we're just not scoring enough pts.

[persianbruin]

WTF?! AK isn't competing with Samad, he's competing with Sahakhian. I would give him the edge over Sahakhian because Oshin just isn't very athletic but as far as Samad, if Samad isn't playing we're just not scoring enough pts.

you dint get any denials from me. maybe next time you see samad, let him know that