The President of Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri and Boston Celtics coach, Ime Udoka, have spoken out against the decision by Nigeria’s government to have its basketball teams withdrawn from international competitions for two years and potentially halt any chance of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
Both Ujiri and Udoka are of Nigerian descent. Ujiri has demanded resignations and a rebirth of the Nigerian federation.
Ujiri released a letter to say ” enough is enough” and Udoka has asked a question about the motives behind the move by government officials.
Ujiri wrote: “The leaders of the basketball ecosystem in Nigeria continue to rob our youth of their present and future while tearing the entire basketball community apart — this needs to stop.”
Fédération Internationale de Basketball, basketball’s global governing body, said it had no choice recently but to remove Nigeria from the 12-team field for the women’s World Cup that will take place later this year and substitute it with Mali. The men’s national team has been making effort to qualify for next year’s men’s World Cup.
However, if the ban approved by the Nigerian government holds, there’s no realistic chance through which Nigeria’s basketball teams can qualify for Paris. The Nigerian men and women were part of the Tokyo Olympics field last summer where the men’s team defeated the eventual gold medalist U.S. team in an exhibition game.
Udoka made it known that the Nigerian federation suffers from disorganization.
He said: “A lot of the same stuff I dealt with as a player, which is disappointing.”
It was a problem last summer as well. Brown received a great deal of logistical support from the Warriors when he was gathering the Nigerian team for a training camp. He had to supervise everything from ensuring practice equipment arrived to perfecting travel arrangements and even established a charitable foundation that was trying to generate $1 million to support the national team programs.
Nigerian basketball problems revolve around a leadership tussle at the national level, which elected two presidents in parallel elections in January. The government wanted to set up an interim committee to manage the NBBF until its issues are resolved but has also announced its plan to “revamp” every area of Nigerian basketball, including the domestic league.
Ujiri wrote: “The time for change is now.
“I know 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 forward. We need a new slate and a new narrative. To do this, all of the leaders that have held on to the realms of the Nigerian Basketball Federation for the past several years must all step down.”
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