Iranian National Basketball Team

News Wrap: June Deadliest Month for US Troops in Iraq in 2 Years

HARI SREENIVASAN: The news from Greece helped reassure Wall Street, and stocks gained ground for a fourth day. The Dow Jones industrial average was up nearly 153 points to close at 12,414. The Nasdaq rose 33 points to close above 2,773.

U.S. forces in Iraq have had their deadliest month in two years. Officials announced today that three American soldiers were killed Wednesday in the south near the border with Iran. That made 15 this month, the most since June of 2009. Shiite militias in Iraq have stepped up attacks on U.S. forces. The militias oppose any move to have the troops stay into next year, past a year-end deadline.

NATO's monthly losses in Afghanistan reached 64 today, most of them Americans, with two more soldiers killed in the south. And 20 Afghan civilians died when a roadside bomb blew up the bus they were riding.

Meanwhile, the coalition said Tuesday's deadly attack on a Kabul hotel was the work of the Haqqani Network. The group has ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban. A leader of that network was killed in a NATO airstrike last night.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates got a ceremonial send-off on his last day on the job. President Obama and the outgoing Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, joined hundreds of others on the parade ground outside the Pentagon to mark the occasion. The president awarded Gates the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

And the secretary joked it had been a secret to rival the raid on Osama bin Laden.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES: I'm deeply honored and moved by your presentation of this award. It is a big surprise. But we should have known a couple of months ago you're getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff.

(LAUGHTER)

HARI SREENIVASAN: Gates served four-and-a-half years as defense secretary, starting under President Bush. He will be replaced by Leon Panetta, who moves over from his post as CIA director. Panetta's successor at the CIA, Gen. David Petraeus, won Senate confirmation today.

In Lebanon, a U.N.-backed tribunal issued indictments today in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He was one of 23 people killed in a massive truck bombing in Beirut six years ago. He was a prominent Sunni leader, and supporters demanded justice. Lebanese officials said one of the indicted was a senior member of Hezbollah. The Shiite militant group backed by Iran has threatened violence if anyone tries to arrest one of its members.

Hamed Haddadi Profile

Hamed Haddadi Profile Posted in category: Basketball at: June 2, 2011 by admin

Hamed Haddadi (born May 19, 1985 in Ahvaz) is an Iranian professional basketball player with the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA).  He plays at the centre position and is 2.18 m (7’2″) tall and weighs 280 lbs. Haddadi is the first Iranian to play in the NBA.

Haddadi played in the Iranian Basketball Super League with Paykan and Saba Battery. In August 2007, while still playing in Iran, he rejected a contract offer from the Serbian League team Partizan Belgrade. In 2008, he won the Asian Club Championship.

Haddadi won a silver medal at the 2002 Asian Under-18 Championship and a gold medal at the 2004 Asian U20 Championship while playing on Iran’s junior national teams. He won gold medals at the 2004 and 2005 West Asian Championships with the senior Iranian national basketball team.

Haddadi also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Asian Games and gold medals at both the 2007 FIBA Asian Championship and the 2009 FIBA Asian Championship. He was also named the MVP of both tournaments.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he led the tournament with the highest average blocked shots per game and rebounds per game, the latter by a wide margin.

Haddadi was involved in a brawl in the 2009 William Jones cup against team Jordan, which was a vital game in the cup. It later led to the outcome of the championship where Iran won despite having a 6–2 standing while Jordan had a 7–1 record.

Haddadi led team Iran to back-to-back FIBA Asia championships, where they beat Jordan in the semifinals 77–75, and defeated tournament favorite and host China, 70–52.

In September 2009, Haddadi hosted a weekend basketball camp for children on the campus of California State University, Northridge. The camp catered mainly to the Iranian American community, and coaches included Haddadi himself, his manager, Mayar Zokaei, Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest, and Iranian professional basketball players Behdad Sami and Benny Koochoie, amongst others. The camp attracted over 120 children and was the first sports camp ever by an Iranian athlete in the United States.

Haddadi also spearheaded the Hamed Haddadi Javanan Foundation, a charity organization formed with the intention of awarding college scholarships to student athletes across the nation.

National Basketball Teams, United States Men's National Basketball Team, Puerto Rico Men's National Basketball Team

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National Sports Teams of Iran, Iran National Football Team, Iran National Freestyle Wrestling Athletes, Iran National Under-23 Football Team

Islamic Extremism and the War of Ideas, Lessons from Indonesia

Sport in Iran by Sport, Baseball in Iran, Basketball in Iran, Chess in Iran, Cricket in Iran, Field Hockey in Iran, Football in Iran