The Azerbaijan men's national basketball team ( az, Azərbaycan milli basketbol komandası) is the national

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. The team is controlled by the

Azerbaijan Basketball Federation The Azerbaijan Basketball Federation (Azerbaijani: ''Azərbaycan Basketbol Federasiyası''), also known as ABF, is the national governing body of basketball in Azerbaijan. It was founded in 1992, and is headquartered in Baku. The Azerbaijan Bask ...

. Since becoming members of

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

in 1994, Azerbaijan has mostly taken part in smaller competitions such as the

FIBA European Championship for Small Countries The FIBA European Championship for Small Countries is the lowest-ranked tier of the biennial FIBA EuroBasket competition, organized by FIBA Europe. History This championship was first introduced in 1988, as the Promotion Cup, the competition or ...

, winning it twice, in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and 2008. The national team also won a title at the

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games ( ar, ألعاب التضامن الإسلامي) is a multinational, multi-sport event. The Games involve the elite athletes of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who compete in a variety of sports. The Solidari ...

in their lone appearance in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

History

After

obtained

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1991, the

was founded in 1992, and became members of

in 1994. During Azerbaijan's early years, the national team did not appear in any international competition until they entered EuroBasket 2003 qualifiers. Following Azerbaijan's failed qualification process for

EuroBasket 2003 The 2003 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2003, was the 33rd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as the Europe qualifier for the 2004 Summer Olympics, giving a berth ...

, the national team entered their first international tournament at the 2004 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries. Azerbaijan would complete the event at a (2–2) record, for a fourth place finish. A year later, the national team entered the

, where Azerbaijan finished the competition winning the gold medal. In 2006, Azerbaijan participated in the 2006 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries, in which the team went (4–1), and reached the final to defeat

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

66–57 to win the title. At the event in 2008, Azerbaijan repeated as champions, this time in an 78–80 victory over

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

. After the tournament, Azerbaijan did not appear at an international event until EuroBasket 2013 qualifiers. However, Azerbaijan would eventually be eliminated from qualifying following a (4–4) record. Ten years after Azerbaijan competed in their last international competition, the national team made its return at the 2022 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries. Azerbaijan went on to close out the tournament in fourth place.

Competitive record

FIBA World Cup

Championship for Small Countries

Islamic Solidarity Games

EuroBasket

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2022 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries.

Depth chart

Head coach position

Rimas Kurtinaitis Rimas Kurtinaitis (born May 15, 1960) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach, and a retired professional basketball player, who was a member of the senior Soviet and Lithuanian national basketball teams during his playing career. He won ...

– (2002–2006) * Elkhan Aliyev – (2008–2016) * Samit Nuruzade – (2016–2018) * Aleksandar Trifunović – (2022)

References

External links

Official website

Azerbaijan FIBA profileAzerbaijan National Team – Men
at Eurobasket.com {{FIBA Europe teams

Azerbaijan national basketball team 1994 establishments in Azerbaijan