June 23, (THEWILL)- Preparations of Nigeria’s men’s senior national basketball team, D’Tigers, for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan have picked up pace with the invitation of 49 players to the team’s California camp in the United States.
Ahead of the July 23 commencement date, D’Tigers head coach Mike Brown is set to select only the best to represent the country and target a podium finish for D’Tigers as the objective going into the XXXLL Olympiad.
The composition of the team put together shows a predominance of players from the National Basketball Association (NBA), the most prestigious basketball league in the world and where coach Brown has earned a reputation for his experience, especially with the Golden State Warriors, as associate head coach.
Invited players from the NBA who will be joining D’Tigers for the first time include Denver Nuggets’ Monte Morris, Utah Jazz’s Miye Oni, Udoka Azubuike and OG Anunoby of the Toronto Raptors and Kz Okpala and Precious Achiuwa of the Miami Heat. The rest are D’Tigers veteran Ben Uzoh and Festus Ezeli of the Rivers Hoopers and Detroit Pistons’ Jahlil Okafor.
These debutants, including Josh Okogie of the Minnesota Timberwolves, will join returning D’Tigers squad players that represented Nigeria at the 2019 FIBA World Cup such as Miami Heat’s Gabe Vincent, Chicago Bulls’ Al-farouq Aminu, Jordan Nwora of the Milwaukee Bucks and Chimezie Metu of the Sacramento Kings.
Then, there are also others like the NBA champion, Festus Ezeli, UC Iroegbu, the 2021 NBA draft prospect Ike Ndugba, Mike Okauru of UNC- Wilmington, Michael Adewunmi of UT-Rio Grande Valley, Georgetown University’s Aminu Mohammed, Texas A&M University’s Manny Obaseki, Stony Brook University’s Elijah Olaniyi and Texas Tech University’s Chibuzo Agbo.
Outside the American Basketball scene, coach Brown sent out invitations to players in the European circuit such as Obi Emegano with Fuenlabrada in Spain, Ike Iroegbu with Elan Chalon in France, Michael Oguine with BC Souffelweyersheim also in France, Zaid Hearst with Alba Fehervar in Hungary, Ike Nwamu with Samara in Russia and Michael Gbinije with BC Nevèżíe in Lithuania.
The rest of the European invitees are Talib Zanna with Hapoel Tel-Aviv in Israel, Emmanuel Omogbo with Vellaznimi in Kosovo, Christian Mekowulu with Treviso in Italy, Tonye Jekiri with Baskonia in Spain, Abdul-Malik Abu with Fethiye in Turkey, Chima Moneke with Orleans and Amanze Egekeze with Gries/Oberhoffen both of which are in France.
Included in the 49 are Hapoel Be’er Sheva’s Calab Agada in Israel, St. Chamond’s TK Edogi in France, Hermine Nantes’s Joshua Ajayi and Poitiers’ Keith Omoerah the three of whom play in France. In addition to them Michael Eric, who recently helped CSKA Moscow of Russia to the European Basketball League will be in the squad as will be Ike Diogu of Bameso in the Dominican Republic, who joins from North America.
To complete the list are the following university basketballers:
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) with Ekpe Udoh from Beijing RF in China bringing the number to 49 in all.
The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) noted that since Sunday, June 20, the camp has been growing with the gradual arrival of the invitees for the first phase of the exercise. D’Tigers are drawn in Group B together with Australia with the two remaining spots to be determined via the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in Serbia and Croatia later this month.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
