Fadi el Khatib announced his retirement from his national team duties yesterday in an emotional message on his Instagram page. Khatib was hoping to win the Asian trophy with Lebanon this year but Lebanon was defeated by Iran in the quarter finals.

Khatib is by far the best Lebanese basketball player we’ve ever had and the most consistent one. At 37, he was the top scorer at the 2017 Asian Cup with an average of 23 points per game and was averaging 34 minutes per game. I can’t think of anyone who can fill his shoes and I think our team is going to struggle big time in the upcoming competitions without Khatib.

We had a golden chance to win the Asian trophy with Khatib leading the national team one last time but the team was not well prepared. Thank you for everything Fadi and I hope we will see you managing the National team soon 🙂