To ensure that the jinx is finally broken and D’Tigers wins this year’s edition of the Championship slated for Libya later in the year, the Nigeria Basketball Federation has appointed a foreign coach to tinker the team and has invited players from the United States of America and Europe to blend with their home-based counterparts.
Sharing her optimism in an interview with Trustsport in Abuja , former Captain of the national female Basketball team, Stella Agu, said with the new coach and the array of stars invited across the globe, D’Tigers are going to be the team to beat in Libya.
She said the new coach knows that Nigeria has good basketball players who can hold their head high in any competition and are capable of winning the championship for him, saying that is why he has accepted the responsibility.
“I believe he won’t do anything that will bring failure upon him and tarnish the image which he has built over the years,” Stella said.
Asked why the game has refused to developed in Nigeria, “skippo”, as she was fondly called during her days in the National team, attributed the problems to lack of sponsorship and failure of the government to give equal attention to other sports.
“The way out is that governments at all levels must assist schools to set up basketball courts to enable us to tap hidden talents in those children who ordinarily would not have had any chance of playing the game” she opined.
She also called on well-to-do individuals and corporate bodies to come to the rescue of Nigerian basketball by sponsoring local competitions and setting up basketball courts in schools across the country, adding that such efforts will make it easy for coaches to spot children who have potentials of becoming great basketball players like the great Olajuwons and the likes.
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