The Nigeria Basketball Federation again etched its name on silver following another winning feat by the National under-18 boys and girls teams on Sunday in Mali at the FIBA Africa 3×3 championship.
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Musa Kida commended the team’s efforts adding that the country has the potentials to dominate Africa and become a strong force in world basketball with adequate planning and preparation.
This he said showed in the qualification of 4 different national basketball teams for finals of FIBA organized tournaments since the new NBBF board was sworn in on the 21st of July.
Kida expressed optimism that with better preparations, the future remains bright while still eulogizing the gold medal winning D’Tigress and the D’Tigers for performing nothing short of miracles despite limited days of Afrobasket preparations.
“Only 2 weeks camping for D’Tigers, a team that played matches at the competition without really playing together and the kind of commitment the boys had, I cannot but commend them for performing this miracle.”
Kida expressed belief that Nigeria had enough talents home and abroad to produce world class athletes with 3 of its players bagging individual awards at the Afrobasket for men.
“Our captain, Ike Diogu is the best basketballer in Africa as he was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament as he scored the most points at the tournament. Ikenna Iroegbu was also picked in the tournament’s best 5 while Afam Nwamu claimed the best 3 point shooter.”
He assured that the federation will leave no stone unturned to give the D’Tigers adequate support and preparations needed for a successful world cup qualifying campaign starting in February, 2018.
He added that with early start and better preparations for the Sam Vincent coached D’Tigress, he is confident that the team will not just be at the World cup as mere participants, but will do the nation proud.
