Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri has called for resignations and a revival of the Nigerian federation.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri and Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka spoke out on Sunday against the Nigerian government’s decision to withdraw its basketball teams from international competition for two years and eliminate potentially any chance of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
Ujiri and Udoka are of Nigerian descent. Ujiri called for resignations and a revival of the Nigerian federation.
Ujiri published a letter that said “Enough is enough”, and Udoka, shortly before his team played Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, also questioned the motives behind the government officials’ decision.
“The leaders of the basketball ecosystem in Nigeria continue to rob our youth of their present and future while ripping apart the entire basketball community; this must stop,” Ujiri wrote.
FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, said it had no choice last week but to replace Nigeria from the 12-team field for the Women’s World Cup later this year and replace it with Mali. The men’s national team has been trying to qualify for next year’s men’s World Cup, an important step towards reaching the 2024 Games.
But if the Nigerian government-approved ban is upheld, there is almost no realistic scenario in which Nigerian basketball teams can qualify for Paris. Both the Nigerian men and women were part of the field at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, with the men’s team, led by Warriors assistant and now Sacramento coach Mike Brown, beating the eventual medalist American team. gold, in an exhibition game.
Udoka said that the Nigerian federation suffers from disorganization.
“A lot of the same things I dealt with as a player, which is disappointing,” said Udoka, a former Nigerian national team player.
It was also a problem last summer. Brown received a lot of logistical help from the Warriors when he assembled the Nigerian team, many of whom were NBA players, for training camp. He had to oversee everything from making sure the practice team arrived to arranging the trips, and even setting up a charitable foundation that was trying to raise $1 million to support the national team’s programs.
The problems in Nigerian basketball revolve around a leadership dispute in the national federation, which elected two different presidents in parallel elections in January. The government wants to appoint an interim committee to run the NBBF until its problems are resolved, but has also announced its intention to “revamp” all areas of Nigerian basketball, including the national league.
“The time for change is now,” Ujiri wrote. “I know that all athletes, leaders and stakeholders in African sport will not give up on Nigerian basketball, and we will not give up on the youth. It’s time for us to move on. We need a new blackboard and a new narrative. To do this, all the leaders who have held on to the kingdoms of the Nigerian Basketball Federation for the past few years must step down.” an exhibition game.
Reference-www.nba.com