Manolopoulos praises collective effort behind basketball bronze
Iran men’s basketball head coach Sotiris Manolopoulos said his team’s bronze medal at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games was the result of a collective effort by everyone involved with the national team. Knocked out in the quarterfinals in Hangzhou 2022, Iran overcame a half-time deficit to defeat China 79-70 in Sunday’s third-place playoff to secure a fifth men’s basketball medal in six editions of the Asian Games, having settled for silver in 2014 and 2018.
“Before the semifinals, it seemed China were the strongest team in this competition and could win the gold medal. It was a very difficult game for us, but in the end we managed to win. We have great respect for China,” he said.
“All the players who accept to play for the national team, the president and members of the federation, and the members of the team played a role in this victory and helped us,” he said. “Even my two assistants and the team physiotherapist, who stayed in Tehran. Many people helped our team, and I want to thank all of them.”
Reflecting on Iran’s semifinal defeat by South Korea, Manolopoulos said he remained proud of his players despite their disappointing performance.
“I’m proud of my players. We played a bad game against Korea. They are a good team and forced us to play badly,” he said. “That defeat was a big disappointment for us, but I knew my team would never give up.”
The coach said the players had shown the same resilience during last summer’s FIBA Asia Cup and needed to put the semifinal loss behind them. “This is not only because I’m their coach; they also showed it last summer at the Asia Cup in a similar situation. We had to do the same in this competition and forget the game against Korea,” he said.
“The only solution was to give everything we had in today’s game. Most of the players did that, and we managed to win. I’m proud of my players.”
Manolopoulos also addressed Iran’s ongoing generational transition, saying balancing the introduction of new players with the need to achieve results is particularly challenging.
“I have been involved in basketball for 45 years and experienced this process before in Greece. Changing generations and achieving results at the same time is difficult, and perhaps this has happened less often in the past,” he said.
“After two and a half years, we finished third at the Asia Cup and the Asian Games. It is not easy to achieve results while changing generations at the same time. My players deserve a lot of credit.”