The Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) is now making last-minute attempts for the men’s national basketball team D’Tigers to play the 2025 AfroBasket qualifiers.
D’Tigers late Wednesday night said that they had withdrawn from the AfroBasket qualifiers due to issues related to money.
“Despite several 2020 Olympians committing, D’Tigers will forfeit this AfroBasket Qualifiers window due to lack of funds from government,” D’Tigers tweeted.
The NBBF led by President Musa Kida had also issued a statement to notify Nigerians of its inability to gather funds for D’Tigers to participate in the event.
“The board of NBBF, appeals to the ever-growing fans and lovers of the game in Nigeria and the diaspora to understand the dire situation it found itself in view of the economic challenges faced by the country,” Kida said.
However, the Nigerian men’s national basketball team issued another post a few hours later, saying that the NBBF is now looking into their situation to find a solution.
“The Federation is aiming to finalise a roster and gather funds in time for D’Tigers to play the AfroBasket qualifiers,” the mens basketball team said.
The FIBA Afrobasket qualifiers will kick off in Tunisia on Friday, February 23, with D’Tigers in Group B alongside Cape Verde, Libya and Uganda.
Nigeria’s D’Tigers are currently ranked as Africa’s top men’s basketball nation by FIBA.
After the 2016 Olympic Men’s Basketball Tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nigeria was ranked 16th in the FIBA World Rankings, making them the top climber in FIBA rankings from the year 2015.
Nigeria is the only African nation to beat the United States (US) in a game of basketball at any level and that was achieved by D’Tigers.
Nigeria was also the first African team to qualify for the Summer Olympics through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. This was accomplished at the 2012 Event when Nigeria beat the world elite teams of Lithuania and Greece.
In 2015, Nigeria won its first crown as basketball champion of Africa.
D’Tigers also won the gold medal at the 2011 edition of the All Africa Games which took place from 9 to 17 September, 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique.
