Hamed Haddadi is an Iranian professional basketball player. He plays with the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is the first Iranian to play in the NBA.
Haddadi was on May 19, 1985 in Ahvaz ran. He is 2.18 m (7’2″) tall and weighs 280 lbs and plays t the center position.
Haddadi played in the Iranian Basketball Super League. He won the Asian Club Championship In 2008. Prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics , Haddadi received offers from NBA teams but he decided to sign with a team after the games. There were lot of complication because of legal restrictions regarding business dealings between U.S. companies and Iranian citizens. But finally in August 2008 he signed with the NBA club the Memphis Grizzlies as a free-agent.
Haddadi have lots of offers from European teams such as the Spanish League club FC Barcelona, but he will extend his contract with the Grizzlies until 2013.
Haddadi won a silver medal and a gold medal at the 2002 Asian Under-18 Championship and 2004 Asian U20 Championship respectively, while playing on Iran’s junior national teams. With the senior Iranian national basketball team Haddadi won gold medals at the 2004 and 2005 West Asian Championships.
Another shining achievement of Haddadi is that he won a bronze medal at the 2006 Asian Games. He also won Gold medals in both 2007 and 2009 FIBA Asian Championship, and was named the MVP of both tournaments. Haddadi is the only player to average a double-double at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Haddadi was one of the top performers in the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
Important highlights of Haddadi’s basketball career history is that he played with Shahin Ahvaz (1999–2002), Paykan (2002–2007), Al-Nasr (2003), Sanam (2004), Saba Battery (2007–2008), Memphis Grizzlies (2008–present) and Dakota Wizards (2008).
Haddadi hosted a weekend basketball camp in September 2009 for children on the campus of California State University, Northridge. The camp was attended by over 120 children and was the first sports camp ever by an Iranian athlete. Haddadi is also founder of the Hamed Haddadi Javanan Foundation. This is a charity organization which is formed with the intention of awarding college scholarships to student athletes across the nation.
Medal record for Haddidi is as follows, he won Bronze in Asian Games 2006 Doha and Gold in Asian Championship 2007 Tokushima and another Gold in 2009 Tianjin.