Everyone blamed the politicians, including some of the politicians.

“I am deeply sorry to announce the end of Lebanese basketball, which has been slayed by politics and sectarianism,” the minister for youth and sports, Faisal Karami, said at the time. “There is a dirty political atmosphere in the country, and it has ruined everything.”

It was all so unnerving to Hassan Whiteside, a future Miami Heat star then competing in the Lebanese league, that he immediately left to play in China. He has had nothing but bad things to say about Lebanon ever since.

Considering its size (about the same as Connecticut), population (about six million) and record in other sports (undistinguished), Lebanon is pretty good at basketball. Its youth teams are on the rise. Its national team beat China last year, though it failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup.

Fans are happy to tell you all about the last Lebanese player who made it big: Rony Seikaly, a Beirut-born college star at Syracuse who played in the N.B.A. for more than a decade.