Nigeria’s men’s national basketball team, the D’Tigers, will today play the Russian side at the commencement of the 2019 Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA) Basketball World Cup in China. The FIBA Basketball World Cup would run from August 31 to September 15 in Beijing, China with 32 countries participating in the games. A total of 92 games would be played over 16 days across Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzan, Foshan and Donguan. Nigeria is one of five African countries participating in the games. The rest include Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Senegal and Angola.
The competition, which used to be known as the FIBA World Championship since its inception in 1951 in Buenos Aries, Argentina, changed to its present format of FIBA Basketball World Cup at the last edition in Spain in 2014. The change was probably effected to pave way for the accommodation of more participants as well as make the game more competitive and attractive.
The qualifiers for the competition lasted for a longer duration running from May 17 2017 and 25 February 2019. The draws for the World Cup were held on March 16, this year with the 32 participating countries drawn in eight groups of four teams each. Nigeria is in Group B along with Russia, Argentina and Korea Republic.
Group A has Cote d’Ivoire, Poland, Venezuela and host, China and Group C features Spain, Iran, Puerto Rico and Tunisia. Group D has Angola, Philippines, Italy and Serbia. Teams in Group E are Turkey, Czech Republic, Japan and USA. Group F would feature Greece, New Zealand, Brazil and Montenegro. Group G has Dominican Republic, Germany, France and Jordan while Group H features Canada, Lithuania, Senegal and Australia.
Therefore, the stage is set for the titanic global contest. It is expected that Nigeria’s D’Tigers will improve on their past performance/. The team’s coach, Alex Nwora, has promised Nigerians a podium finish. This can be regarded as a tall ambition because no African team has finished anywhere near the podium in the previous editions of the competition. At the same time, it is never an impossible task. The US team, which has been adjudged the most successful team in the competition, has won it five times. The Americans are the defending champions, having won the last edition in Spain. Other successful campaigners are the old Yugoslavia (5) and USSR (3), Brazil (2) and Spain (1) and Argentina, which won the maiden edition in 1951.
It should be noted that the D’Tigers won two of the last three continental championships. The country’s improved fortunes in the game also coincided with the bringing in some of our best talents in the world. The increased participation of our nationals in the NBA, the world’s most competitive and by far the most lucrative basketball league, also helped the development of the game in the country.
For the qualifiers, Nigeria had a pool of talent both at home and abroad to draw from and they did not disappoint. Coach Nwora invited over 40 players for the final camping exercise for the World Cup with 15 jetting out for the final tune up matches under the auspices of the Peak Invitational tournament, which Nigeria won in Macedonia and Poland. It is good that the preparations have gone on well leading to the rigorous selection of the final list of 12 players that would represent Nigeria at the World Cup.
We commend the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) for its focus and commitment to the cause, despite the factionalisation of the body at home. We hope that all of them would work with the international body, International Basketball Federation (IBBF), to end the ugly development, which has dogged the local association for years now. Therefore, those in charge of the game must ensure proper utilisation of the money meant for the games. The allowances of the players and officials must be duly paid. The team and their handlers must work together to do Nigerians proud in the games. We wish the D’Tigers a successful outing.