SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, (THEWILL) – Two Nigerian nationals, Andre Iguodala and Festus Ifeanyi Ezeli made NBA history on Tuesday night with the Golden State Warriors after they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2015 NBA Championship title.
Iguodala (31), who is in his 11th year in the league, was named the 2015 Finals MVP after inspiring performances which helped his team win three straight games to hand the California-Bay Area side a 4-2 series victory and avoiding Game 7.
The 6ft-6 Andre Tyler Iguodala was born in Springfield, Illinois to a Nigerian father from Benin City, Edo State and an African-American mother.
He was drafted to the NBA in 2004.
Ezeli (25) was born to Nigerian parents in Benin City and grew up there. He left the city for the United States after completing his secondary school education at the age of 14. He neither played nor understood the game of basketball until he arrived in the states.
His parents, who now live in Sacramento, the California capital, wanted him to study medicine in one of the Ivy League schools. Instead, he opted to study Biology with a major in Economic on scholarship at the Vanderbilt University after turning down an offer to study at Harvard. He told a local paper that Vanderbilt provided him with the ‘best of both worlds’ allowing him to study and develop his basketball skills.
The 6ft-11 centre was drafted in 2012.
Ezeli, Iguodala and NBA Hall of Fame superstar, Hakeem Olajuwon (The Dream) of the Houston Rockets, are the only Nigerians with the NBA Finals ring.
The NBA Finals
The Golden State Warriors closed out the series in Game 6 at Cleveland defeating the Cavaliers 105-97 to secure their first league title in 40 years (1975).
Stephen Curry and Iguodala both scored 25 points to neutralize LeBron James’ 32 points.
The Warriors won Game 1 but lost Game 2 playing both games at home court in Oakland. They were down in Game 3 in Cleveland but evened the series in Game 4 also at Cleveland.
They took Game 5 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland and won Game 6 on the road.
