Sports
Another Nigerian Set For NBA
The Nigeria Basketball Federation board is excited about the prospect of watching another Nigerian in the National Basketball Association (NBA) soon after Ikenna Iroegbu was recently signed by the LA Clippers Basketball franchise ahead of the 2017/2018 season.
Iroegbu was signed last week by Ontario based Agua Caliente Clippers ahead of the new G-League which starts in November.
The board led by Engineer Musa Kida said the latest development will see the player who spent the last 4 years with Washington State become a more mature player for the senior national team.
“For a young talent to train in a world class facility, interact with quality players such as Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Miloš Teodosic and other competitive players will not only accelerate his development but boost his confidence.
“This is no mean feat coming few weeks after he made his international debut at the 2017 FIBA Africa Basketball Championship where he averaged 14.5points, 5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game.”
Kida believes the recent move of Iroegbu who was voted as one of the starting 5 players of the tournament in Tunisia calls for celebration because of the endless possibilities the opportunity portends for the player and the nation.
“Now, with more players stepping up, the coaches and Technical Committee of the NBBF will have a very difficult task of picking from the pool of available players for national duties.”
The ecstatic NBBF president promised that the technical department of the federation will continue to monitor the progress of all its players (men and women) eligible to play for Nigeria both home and abroad.
“Apart from monitoring them, the federation will do everything possible to provide the needed platform for all our players to ensure they succeed in their career. They should be rest assured of our unwavering support at the federation level whenever they need us to stand up for them”, Kida said.
Sports
Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Sports
Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Sports
Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor