BEIRUT: It’s an understatement to say that 2011 wasn’t a great year for Lebanese international basketball. The men’s national team met with failure in the last edition of the FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, where they ranked sixth place, their worst performance in 12 years.Sadly, in the last three years Lebanese basketball has slowly declined in quality as the country gradually sinks further and further from last decade’s glory days.

To regain even some of their past luster, the Lebanese federation and basketball organizations face the challenge of changing the current direction in which the game is headed.

The golden generation of basketball players, as some would call them, is getting older, and sooner or later Lebanese basketball will be paying the price for the shortsightedness shown toward the country’s youth teams – unless young stars become a solid base who can prevent Lebanon from falling off the horizon.

The problems faced by the national team this year were not necessarily the fault of the coach or the players. Lebanon’s head coach Ghassan Sarkis may not have been the public’s favored choice, but he can’t be held responsible if Fadi al-Khatib is so disenfranchised by the Lebanese federation, thanks to its complete inability to handle even the simplest logistics. And perhaps even the federation can’t be blamed, considering that the government frequently shows a lack of interest in funding sports appropriately, preventing the country from achieving its full potential.

So what is going wrong? Basketball in Asia has reached a high level of professionalism. Most Far East Asian countries have followed the trend of Europe and the U.S. and have applied modern rules and developed working infrastructures. Their results in youth competitions, in comparison to Lebanon, have been by far more outstanding and noticeable, whereas Lebanon hasn’t produced quality players in quite some time.

Every few years a player comes across as promising and talented – Rodrigue Akl, Elie Rustom, Miguel Martinez, Mazen Mneimneh – but has ended up becoming just a run-of-the-mill, average player. As Lebanese clubs continue to become more competitive on the continental scene, pressure mounts on clubs to use their more experienced players, hampering the development of younger players who desperately need minutes on the floor.

By watching the youth teams this year, specifically the Under-17s and Under-16s in international competitions, one couldn’t help but notice how those youngsters lack the fundamentals of the game – they are not physically prepared to play in tournaments. This can simply be put down to the lack of a working and innovative domestic league at all youth levels.

The downward spiral of Lebanese basketball can be traced back to 2007, when Lebanon suffered a heartbreaking loss against Iran (69-74) in the Asian Championship finals, thus losing a unique chance to qualify for the Olympics when Lebanon’s best players were reaching their peak.

The loss was a turning point, as since then the national team has struggled to find the same character it showed in Indianapolis in 2002 and Tokushima in 2006. It is as if the current generation put so much into qualifying for the Olympics in 2007 that there is nothing left in the tank.

It may finally be time to introduce new players, slowly wean the team off the players who led the country throughout the 2000s and look to a new future with the likes of Ahmad Ibrahim, Samir Oezir and Ali Haidar – all of whom play in the NCAA.

Lebanon has leaned on the talents of Khatib, Elie Mechantaf and Rony Fahed, to mention only three players, for too long. Lebanon was also too reliant on acquiring foreign players who are naturalized for a year before leaving the country high and dry.

Lebanon needs to settle into a new development plan that covers all sectors of the game and improves from the bottom up. Developmental strategies have moved on in the last 10 years, and Lebanon needs to move with them.