Nigeria’s basketball on the brink

D’Tigers

Nigeria is one of the most improved basketball nations in the world. The country, which hitherto played second fiddle to Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Central African Republic and North African countries in the continent’s pecking order, has in the last 15 years, dominated the sport such that its national teams, D’Tigers (men) and D’Tigress (women), during this period, won more continental trophies than all the other African countries combined.

At the world level, Nigeria has become one of the pundits’ favourites to excel at such competitions as the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup. Among its recent feats, Nigeria’s men team in 2012 became the first African country to win a game at the Olympics when it beat Tunisia at the London Games.

The women team went a notch higher, when, in 2016 it became the first African side to get to the quarterfinals of the World Cup at the Spain edition of the FIBA competition.

Nowadays, it has become common for pundits to list Nigeria’s men and women teams among the favourites in major championships. That explains the surprise expressed by many pundits when the country’s teams failed to reach the podium at the Japan 2020 Olympic Games.

The expectations are that going by the caliber of players, both overseas-born and home grown, constantly becoming available for selection by Nigeria’s coaches, the country will soon become one of the top five nations in the world.

But, all such expectations seem to have been put on hold by the ambitions of two self-confessed pious, greedy and unpatriotic administrators. Nigeria, as expected, has qualified for the FIBA Women World Cup billed to hold in Australia later this year, while the men’s team is among sides billed to vie for the Rwanda 2022 African