Head Coach of D’Tigers, Mike Brown has officially commenced preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games with the invitation of 49 players as camp opens in California, USA.
Top on the list are NBA stars Monte Morris (Denver Nuggets), Miye Oni (Utah Jazz), OG Anunoby (Toronto Raptors), Kz Okpala ( Miami Heat), Festus Ezeli, Precious Achiuwa (Miami Heat), Udoka Azubuike (Utah Jazz), Jahlil Okafor (Detroit Pistons) hoping to make their debut.
Josh Okogie (Minnesota Timberwolves) will join other NBA players who include Gabe Vincent (Miami Heat), Al-farouq Aminu (Chicago Bulls), Jordan Nwora (Milwaukee Bucks), Chimezie Metu (Sacramento Kings) alongside Ike Diogu (Bameso, Dominican Republic), who will be making their return to the team after their 2019 FIBA World Cup exploit which saw Nigeria become the first African team to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
The European legion comprises Obi Emegano (Fuenlabrada, Spain), Ike Iroegbu (Elan Chalon, France), Michael Oguine (BC Souffelweyersheim, France), Zaid Hearst (Alba Fehervar, Hungary), Ike Nwamu (Samara, Russia) and Michael Gbinije (BC Nevèżíe, Lithuania).
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Other European stars invited are Talib Zanna (Hapoel Tel-Aviv, Israel), Emmanuel Omogbo (Vellaznimi, Kosovo), Christian Mekowulu (Treviso, Italy), Tonye Jekiri (Baskonia, Spain), Abdul-Malik Abu (Fethiye, Turkey), Chima Moneke (Orleans, France), Amanze Egekeze (Oberhoffen, France).
Also invited are Calab Agada (Hapoel Be’er Sheva, Israel), TK Edogi (St. Chamond, France), Joshua Ajayi (Hermine Nantes, France), Keith Omoerah (Poitiers, France) and Michael Eric who recently helped CSKA Moscow of Russia to the European Basketball League.
Others who will be fighting for a chance to represent Nigeria at the games include UC Iroegbu, Ike Ndugba (2021 NBA draft prospect), Mike Okauru (UNC- Wilmington), Ben Uzoh (Rivers Hoopers), Michael Adewunmi (UT-Rio Grand Valley), Aminu Mohammed (Georgetown University), Manny Obaseki (Texas A&M University), Elijah Olaniyi (Stony Brook University) and Chibuzo Agbo (Texas Tech University).
Gideon George (Brigham Young University), Makenzie Mgbako (Gill St. Bernard School), Warith Alatishe (Oregon State University), Efe Abogidi (Washington State University), Stephen Domingo (Lakeland Magic), Emeka Okafor, Clifford Omoruyi (Rutger University) and Ekpe Udoh (Beijing RF, China) complete the 49-man list.
Meanwhile, players have started arriving since Sunday, 20th of June for the first phase of the camping exercise.
Nigeria is in group B alongside Australia and winners of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Serbia and Croatia between 29th of June to 4th of July 2021.
7 Comments
our basketball fortune has risen since coaches turned to foreign based players to execute competitions, hope our leaders wake up from their deep slumber to rescue our sporting section before it gets really embarrassing!
Athletics, Table Tennis, Football (male and female)…almost every team sport in Nigeria now relies on foreign-based and foreign-borns because that’s actually where our best are. Those who are supposed to focus on their job and develop sports in the country to enviable heights are more concerned about how they will remove Rohr and impose/install 4 homebased players in every SE line up for marketing purposes….LMAO
Haba…No Homebased…??? Does this coach want to tell us we cant find homebased players from a population of 200 million people….? This coach must be a lazy coach…he is using ready made players from the NBA and other top leagues. He should have done like Coach Ayo Bakare in the 1990s who went round to scout players from the Nigerian basketball league. There are several home-based basketballers even on the streets who are far better than these NBA players.
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Those ridiculously familiar phrases of lamentation from our dear town criers on this forum….LMAO
Hahahaha. Your time/era-pinned analogy is wicked! I dey always enjoy una tango sha. You dey get good points and Jimmyball-led camp dey also pull their weight well. Those punchy arguments and lines are great for neutrals like us. Maybe not always neutrals, but most of the time. Lol.
@Kel…you can bet my camp is going nowhere anytime soon. We must make Nigeria great… we all belong and local content must be encouraged where it makes sense. We have a stronger football culture than basketball so… We need some level of local content regarding football. As for basketball, we clearly know there is no comparison between NBA players and those anywhere in the world, so considering our basketball league… one can’t make any real strong case for them where we have better representatives in NBA teams, American College Basketball and Europe Basketball Leagues… Some people who see no talent and nothing good about our NPFL players will be the first grab guguru and groundnut in one hand, while holding and guzzling a big mug of kunu with the other hand, pulling a chair up close, staying up late till early morning for the wide time difference with United States to watch the match… I know my friend @Dr.Drey… hahaha. The day I stopped taking his yabs on homebased players serious is the night he was shouting loudest here when the fearless Anayo Iwuala whom he so loves to lampoon, conjured up real guts and muscled a stubborn Orlando Pirates side into submission with a last gap warrior assist… I was awake that night too and saw him hailing Anayo Iwuala to high heavens… @Dr.Drey is just a fair weather friend… hailing Anayo Iwuala one moment and throwing him under the bus the best minute just because of a lowkey 8minutes he played in the second game against Cameroon… We know those with real support and u conditional love for homebased stars… It’s only a thin line between one called foreign based and another who is called homebased at the moment… However… just to digress, does anyone know the whereabout of our Super nonplaying captain? Hahaha… WATFORD has signed Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis now, let’s see if Rohr will still be having reasons to field our Super NPFL playing captain while people like Dennis continue to be advised to move to Real Madrid, Liverpool and Bayern Munich before they get Super Eagles Callup!
Hahahahaha….wretched liars have come again…..
“…@Dr.Drey is just a fair weather friend… hailing Anayo Iwuala one moment and throwing him under the bus the best minute…”
Thank God CSN never deletes people’s comments. Thats the link to the Enyimba vs Pirates thread for all to read.
https://www.completesports.com/cafcc-enyimba-captain-oladapo-out-of-crucial-clash-vs-orlando-pirates-through-suspension/
When you ask them to show you where Dr.Drey hailed Iwuala now, they will start ranting, telling us biographies we care less about and requesting for Zoom meetings….LMAO.
Iwuala had “lowkey 8 minutes indeed”….LMAO….Pls how many minutes did the Portuguese 2nd division player have before the whole Country stood up in wild applause and celebration of his quality and talent….LMAO. It is indeed a thin line between homebased and foreign based….LMAO…so thin a line that only 1 player has moved straight from the league straight to a top 5 league and just 2 to a top 10 league in Europe in 20 years…..LMAO…..With 0.033% success rate of exports of the so-called league consisting of MANY TALENTS in 10 years……Such a wonderful football culture of products that cannot pass trials in Sudanese leagues anymore….LMAO
There’s really thin line indeed, so says people who claimed to have been in the U17 camp in 1995 only to become 24 years old in year 2000 when ASEC Mimosas wanted to sign them through John Zaki….LMAO
Pls hang yourself with your tie on the 4th of July because Dr. Drey is watching a football match that involves Nigeria/Nigerians….LMAOoooo
Dr.Drey does not see anything good about the league but still recommended that homebased players be allowed to go play Mexico….but hypocrite that claims to support the league was busy running around naked here on CSN breathing fire that we must either go and preach patriotism, sacrifice and “heart of hearts” to our senior foreign based players in their beach front holiday resorts to cut short their holidays or go cap in hand to beg clubs to release our fringe players or get players from Egypt, Belarus, Latvia, Armenia or any backwater foreign league….just any one abroad but homebased players would do…..that we can get, even if its just 3 days to the match….LMAO. He was even drooling when Nwakali was reported to have visited NFF secretariat….LMAO
What a great believer and harbinger of the local league…..LMAO.
All of a sudden we dont have Basketball culture in Nigeria…..because he cnt defend the use of local players when better players are awash oversees….LMAO. What a Lie…INFACT A FAT LIE..! we have a basketball culture in Nigeria and our basketball clubs have been doing well in continental competitions.
FYI more basketballers have moved from Nigerian basketball league to the NBA in the last 20 years than footballers have moved to the top 5 leagues in europe in the same period….LMAO