Nigeria Has Potentials To Win Basketball Medals At 2021 Olympic Games… Olumide Oyedeji

Nigeria Has Potentials To Win Basketball Medals At 2021 Olympic Games… Olumide Oyedeji

By Editor

Former NBA star and D’Tigers captain, Olumide Oyedeji has expressed optimism that country has the potentials of winning medals at the both the men and women Basketball events at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.

Olumide who remains the longest serving D'Tigers captain spoke at the popular WhatsApp Forum "FCT Football Update" also said that shifting of Olympics Games to next year is the best decision the Olympics Committee could take at that point.

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".

“Nigeria 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 coaching crew 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.”

“There is no reason why we shouldn’t have one home based player in the team. Not all the 12 players will have equal minutes.”

“We should give one home based player the opportunity to know that for you being at home in Nigeria isn’t a crime. I had the same opportunity in 1997 when I joined the Nigeria national team. Since that time my career has never been the same and we won a Medal. We can do the same and give the players back home an opportunity and belief it is not a crime to be a Nigerian Basketball League player,” he said.

The Oyo state born ex- NBA star said shifting the Olympic Games to 2021 is in the right direction, as it would give the athletes the opportunity to prepare adequately before the games next year.

"COVID-19 actually paralyzed the whole world, not only sports. As we can see people all over the world started losing their jobs, economy started getting bad , businesses shutting down everywhere and everyday. The implication of Covid 19 is bad and shifting the date of the Games is in our best interest" he concluded.