Olumide Oyedeji Optimistic of D'Tigers Good Outing In Olympics

  Olumide Oyedeji Optimistic of D'Tigers Good Outing In Olympics By Niyi Busari Former captain of Nigeria men's basketball senior national team, Olumide Oyedeji is optimistic that the D'Tigers will do well in the Tokyo Olympics games, BSNSports.com.ng reports. The president of Nigeria Olympians Association (NOA) said this during an interview session with Ahmad Emmanuel on Jatto FM, Lokoja, adding that the achievements is the result of the building of the national team started since 2012. "I still believe that we have a chance to perform well at the Olympics, we started building on this since 2012 and we are glad that we qualified for Tokyo Olympics games. Also, Nigeria basketball has been present in the last three Olympics Games. I believe these teams (D'Tigers and D'Tigress) are going to do better." D'Tigers are in group B alongside France, USA and Japan. Olumide also spoke on the oncoming maiden edition of the South-West Rising Stars U-16 Basketball Championship which will dunk off from 25th April to May 1st, 2021 at the Indoor sports Hall of Akure Township Stadium, Ondo State. "We are trying to engage our youth to make sure they are planning their future, for youth empowerment and to catch them young." He told Jatto FM. He urged well- Nigerians to come as partners to ease the burden on Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation. "It's going to be a week event and hopefully after that we are going to move to another spot. This is one basically for South West region but we are still going to other region very soon, from here now we move to South South then South East. Everything we are doing now is solely sponsored by individual and we need partnership. "We need to get to a situation where everybody do the right thing and be in the right sport in right environment. In Nigeria we don't see sports from the business perspective which I believe is completely wrong, we supports sports but we don't know that it takes a lot of youth off the street. The seven-day basketball tournament is sponsored by Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation, will see not fewer than 60 boys from the South-West region sweating it out on the court. Oyedeji has represented his home country in the All Africa Games winning bronze in 1999, 2007 and 2015, silver in 2003 and gold in 2011. He also played at the FIBA World Cup in 1999 and at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Oyedeji is the inaugural African player to ever feature in all major basketball tournaments on the global stage, including Olympic Games, World Cup, Commonwealth Games, All Africa Games, NBA, Euro-League, Asia Championships and South American basketball leagues. Oyedeji featured in the invitational tournament in South Africa where he captained the team and led them to victory in the finals. Nigeria's basketball team, D'Tigers, emerged overall winners of the 2015 Four Nations' invitational basketball tournament hosted by South Africa on Sunday 22 March 2015. Oyedeji, the long serving captain of the Nigerian Men's national team, emerged the MVP of the tournament.