NBBF Targets Afrobasket, Olympics

President of the Nigeria
Basketball Federation (NBBF), Tijani Umar,  has said that Nigeria’s loss in its bid for one of the wildcards for the 2014 world championship will rather spur it to next year’s Afrobasket championships and 2016 Olympics.
Umar was reacting last week in Abuja to the selection of Brazil, Greece, Turkey and Finland for wildcards for participation at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.
Nigeria is one of the 15 countries which applied to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) for the four wildcards.
The four winners will join 20 others, who had qualified previously, to feature at the 24-team World Cup.
The winners were announced at the recent meeting of FIBA’s Central Board in Barcelona, Spain, with Nigeria not one of them.
Umar however said the loss would not affect NBBF’s programmes, but rather encourage it to work harder and ensure Nigeria qualify directly for major competitions in 2015 and 2016.
“FIBA has already taken a decision and all the countries had earlier agreed that we will abide by the outcome of the meeting. And, I am sure FIBA made the best selection.
“But this will not affect our programmes. We will work harder to ensure that we qualify for tournaments, instead of waiting for wildcards.
“Now, it means we have to start getting ready for the qualifiers for the 2015 Afrobasket Championship which is also the qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“We were at the London Olympics in 2012, and with the way things are now going, maybe we are destined for the Olympics again.