Nigerian basketball team, D’Tigers’ former player and ex-assistant coach, Abdulrahman Mohammed has charged the country’s sports authorities to ensure they provide adequate preparations and support for the squad before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, megasportsarena.com reports.
Speaking against the backdrop of D’Tigers’ qualification for Tokyo 2020, after winning their last three matches at this year’s FIBA World Cup in China, Mohammed reckoned that the squad will need an adequate programme for them to excel at the Olympics.
He recounted all the woes faced by the team before they travelled to China, and reasoned that it would not be a good image and rate card for Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) in particular, and the country as a whole, for such laxity to be repeated next year.
The articulate basketball connoisseur then charged the NBBF to show the way and the ministry of sports to follow fully in the task of ensuring that D’Tigers are well prepared for the 2020 Games, so that they can go all out to make the bet of Nigeria’s third straight outing at the Olympics.
Abdurahman declared: “We need to start preparing early, and ensure we get everything right well ahead of time. We should not repeat the delays we had before going to China.
“Once we start early preparations, we will get the players focused ahead of time and allow them to bond together better. They did not bond before going to the World Cup, which we have to avoid this time. We need to get things right well before the Olympic Games.”
