Lebanon’s talismanic basketball player Fadi al-Khatib admitted Wednesday that he was unlikely to appear at the FIBA World Championships in Turkey next month due to a lack of match fitness.

Lebanon got off to a winning start in its much anticipated first game of The Stankovic Cup beating the Philippines 74-59 at the Ghazir Stadium on Saturday.

Lebanon overcame Japan 2-1 in the exhibition series. Lebanon opened the series with an overtime 92:87 victory in Aichi. Jackson Vroman (208-C/F-81, college: Iowa St.) stepped up with 28 points and 14 rebounds to pace the visitors. Ghaleb Rida (190-G-81) contributed 22 points in the winning effort. Hiroyuki Kinoshita (178-G-80) answered with 16 points for [...]