BY Idris Shehu
Mike Brown, D’Tigers head coach, has decried the “bad timing” of the 2021 AfroBasket competition billed for Kigali, Rwanda, later this month.
The coach bared his mind in a chat with the media team of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) on Monday.
He stated that the tournament, billed for August 25 to September 5, coincides with the training camp of several NBA teams, costing D’Tigers some of the big names that represented the country at the Tokyo Olympics.
He added that FIBA Africa could have moved the competition to next year just like FIBA America and FIBA Europe did to aid teams that took part in the Olympics.
“It is just a bad timing for FIBA Africa to have the tournament, but FIBA decides to have the Asian and African games at the same time as the Olympics and NBA players cannot participate in both because that is the rule,” Brown said.
“It’s been a long summer for the players. They came to camp on June 20th, went through the Olympics process and I am asking them to come here. It is a long summer for everybody and on top of that, the camp right now is at the same time when a lot of training camps are happening.
“So, it makes it difficult for us to have a competition like this. I think all competitions should happen next summer.”
The situation forced Brown to name an unfamiliar roster, which included 4 home-based players, for the championship.
D’Tigers are in group C where they face Mali in their first game on August 25 before playing Kenya and Ivory Coast on August 27 and 29, respectively.
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