Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Head Musa Kida has described the present circumstances of basketball in the West African nation as a “golden era”.
He made this description in the wake of the Men’s and Women’s National Teams qualifying to compete at this year’s Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Qualifying to the Olympics comes on the back of the Men’s Team playing at the World Cup and winning silver at the 2017 African Championship and the Women’s Team making it to the World Cup quarterfinals and lifting the continental title.
This has made the national teams attractive and multiple high profile players have made themselves available to compete for Nigeria prompting the NBBF to issue a statement pointing out “no player is guaranteed an automatic shirt on the team”.
Kida added “Let us just enjoy these moments because it’s the first time it’s happening in Nigerian Basketball, It is now a case of people wanting to play for us which is my opinion can only be good development” before going on to add the “golden” description of the situation.
NBA players Spencer Dinwiddie and Monte Morris have committed their international futures to Nigeria.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
