On July 3, the Armenian basketball team beat Malta 84-68 in the final to win the championship. The team led by Rex Kalamian who has 30 years of coaching experience in the NBA also defeated the teams of Andorra, Gibraltar and San Marino. Chris Jones earned the championship’s MVP award and joined the All-Star Five together with Armenia’s captain Andre Spight Mkrtchyan.
“I just want to congratulate our Armenian national basketball team for winning the FIBA small countries’ championship, bringing home the gold. Thank you so much to the Armenian basketball association, thank you so much to coach Rex, Andre and Chris on winning the MVP. It was such a pleasure to be a part of the journey with you. It was a great honor, you made me proud, you made all of us at SADA proud, and you made not only Armenia proud but every Armenian all over the world. You inspired thousands and thousands of kids. We’re just getting started with basketball in Armenia,”SADA CEO and President Tony Safoian said in a video message.
“This success would not have been possible without SADA’s support. As you know, the SADA Cup tournament was successfully held in Yerevan, and the Cup had great feedback. At the moment, we are thinking about turning it into a traditional tournament and we want to include a larger number of participants. We will soon discuss with our main sponsor SADA the possible format of such a tournament next year,” said Artur Nazaryan, Secretary General of the Basketball Federation of Armenia.
Earlier this year the Basketball Federation of Armenia (BFA) and SADA signed a cooperation agreement to work together towards the promotion of the National Basketball Team and the development of Basketball as a growing sport in Armenia.
Prior to winning the FIBA European Championship for Small Countries, Armenia national team was the second in the first ever SADA Cup international tournament that was held in Yerevan on June 23-26 and also featured teams from Syria, Iran and the U.S.