\n
TEHRAN – Iran\u2019s basketball legend Hamed Haddadi has been thrilled in his retirement ceremony.<\/p>\n
His No. 15 jersey was retired forever on Friday in the halftime of Iran and India match in the 2025 FIBA Asian Cup qualifier.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his retirement from professional sports, Haddadi said: \u201cI was honored to bid farewell to my national career in a grand ceremony surrounded by the wonderful people of Iran. I\u2019m thrilled it happened in my homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event, attended by Ahmad Donyamali, the Minister of Sports and Youth, occurred on the sidelines of the game.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIt was a memorable ceremony where I said goodbye to both the sport and the people of Iran. Javad Davari (Iran basketball president) urged me to play, but I declined, feeling that since I\u2019d retired, it was time to step away officially. Retiring with a bouquet of flowers felt more fitting. I wish the national team the best,\u201d Haddadi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInjuries are part of an athlete\u2019s life\u2014I\u2019ve faced them and undergone surgery more than once. My proudest moment was qualifying for the Olympics. As for bad memories, there are many. The Incheon Asian Games stand out\u2014we were so close to gold but fell short, leaving a bitter mark amid the tears and triumphs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On whether he\u2019s fully stepped away from basketball, Haddadi said: \u201cI haven\u2019t decided yet. Friends advise me to keep playing as long as I can. I\u2019m staying fit, hitting Azadi Sports Complex daily to play. Retirement is still up in the air\u2014maybe this year, maybe later.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEHRAN – Iran\u2019s basketball legend Hamed Haddadi has been thrilled in his retirement ceremony. His No. 15 jersey was retired forever on Friday in the halftime of Iran and India match in the 2025 FIBA Asian Cup qualifier. Reflecting on his retirement from professional sports, Haddadi said: \u201cI was honored to bid farewell to my …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-27346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamsonews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/en.hamsonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/5390485.jpg\")
<\/p>\n