2004-2005
On May 1st, 2005, Coached by Fouad Abou Chakra and his assistant Tygran Gyokechian, Al Riyadi was crowned Champions of Lebanon for the 2004-2005 season after 8 years of waiting. The team broke a record by winning 25 times in 25 games, to become the first team in the recent Lebanese Basketball History to win the championship without any loss! In the final game, Al Riyadi smashed Sagesse in Manara by 40 pts (112-72), and ended the series a by clean sweep of (3-0). Al Riyadi was represented by Ismail Ahmad, Tony Madison, Ali Mahmoud, Joe Vogel, Ghaleb Reda, Mohamad Ibrahim, Ali Fakhreddine, Omar Turk, Richi Halleet, Mohamad Hantas, Robert Bou Dagher, Hussein Tawbi, Abdullah Hijazi, Mazen Mneimneh, and Hasan Lakkis. Few days after they were crowned undefeated champions of Lebanon for the season 2004-2005, Al-Riyadi team headed to Dubai, UAE and participated in Hamdan Ben Rashed Tournament which was held during the month of May 2005. Al Riyadi, once again undefeated, was crowned Champion of The Tournament after overcoming Saba from Iran (99-83). Tony Madison was nominated MVP and best scorer of the tournament, while Ismail Ahmad earned the best rebounder title. The same dream continued its success in the 2004-2005 season, and on May 26, 2005, Al Riyadi proved to be the strongest team in the Arab world by winning the Pan Arab Tournament cup over Fast Link from Jordan (87-82), in al Nasr Stadium in Dubai, UAE. This cup is very valuable as it is the first time that Riyadi wins the Arabic championship. This tournament showed the first loss for Riyadi in more than 450 days, against the Fast Link in the second round, however, Riyadi who managed to revenge in the final, will enjoy its 66 straight wins and no losses mouth dropping record for a very long time! With that win, Riyadi would have successfully finished the 2004-2005 season by winning 6 out of 6 tournaments (Damascus tournament, Hariri tournament, Rashed Ben Maktoum tournament, Lebanese Championship, Hamdan Ben Rashed tournament, and finally the Pan Arab tournament
Read more about this topic: Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut