A former D’Tigers captain, Olumide Oyedeji has expressed optimism that Nigeria has the potentials of winning medals in both the men and women basketball events at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.
The former NBA star who remains the longest serving D’Tigers captain spoke at the popular WhatsApp Forum “FCT Football Update” also said that the decision by the International Olympics Committee, IOC, to move the Tokyo Olympics to next year is the best decision considering the present situation with COVID-19.
Oyedeji advised the teams’ technical crew to ensure that they provide a better structure, organization and adequate team spirit for them to excel.
“I have no doubt that if we have a better structure and organization, we have the capability to win medals at the Olympic Games”.
“Nigerian basketball has been growing and improving. We have players all over the world, growing and performing well. We have players all over the world. Just this year alone, we have seen five to six players with Nigerian roots that can compete at the highest level.
“We even actually have a better chance next year at the Olympic Games than 2020. We are going to see a lot of young guys coming to fight for medals.
“I believe the coaches know what they need to do. They just have to put the team together, base on what they need. We don’t need too many stars. By the time we have too many stars, there will be ego and attitude. We just need to have 10 solid players,” said Oyedeji.
The Oyo state born ex- NBA star reiterated that shifting the Olympic Games to 2021 is in the best interest of the athletes as he maintained that it would give the athletes the opportunity to prepare adequately before the games next year.
According to him, Tokyo Olympics in 2020 wouldn’t have brought out the best in the organisers and the athletes.
“COVID-19 has actually paralyzed the whole world, not only sports. As we can see people all over the world have started losing their jobs, economy started getting bad , businesses shutting down everywhere and every day.
“The implication of Covid-19 is bad and shifting the date of the Olympics Games is in our best interest” he concluded.