Bahrain

Ahmed Al Derazi has run Bahrain's offense for most of his career, and a multiple-time Most Valuable Player in the domestic league he still anchors. JaKarr Sampson and C.J. Giles wore the shirt in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship cycle; Elijah Thomas, who played college ball at Texas A&M and Clemson, joined for the 2026 Asian Games campaign under coach Slobodan Subotić.

Bahrain entered the Gulf Basketball Championship in 1981 and went forty-three years without lifting it. That changed in 2024, when they beat Qatar in the final for their first title in the competition's history. Qatar is the opponent that matters most in Manama — the two sides have met repeatedly in the final, and those games tend to settle the tournament rather than merely open it.

Continental results have stayed modest by comparison: a tenth place at the FIBA Asia Cup in 1997 remains the best return, matched at Asian Games level by tenth-place finishes in New Delhi in 1982 and Hangzhou in 2022, without ever reaching a medal at either event. The 2024 Gulf title stands apart from that record, the one occasion the team went all the way rather than finishing in the middle of the pack.

Home games are played at the BBA Arena in Um Al Hassam, a ground that holds around 2,000 — intimate enough that a Qatar game fills it with the kind of crowd noise that finals are supposed to have.