You are here: HomeSports2021 03 01Article 418981

Sports News of Monday, 1 March 2021

Source: punchng.com

Home-based basketballers will get Olympic chance – Ogunade

Babs Ogunade, Vice President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation Babs Ogunade, Vice President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation

Vice President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Babs Ogunade, says home-based players will be given an opportunity to fight for places with their overseas-based counterparts at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The men and women’s national teams had relied largely on overseas-based players recently, but Ogunade says top local players will be given the chance to try out for a spot in the team when preparation for the Games begin.

“We’ll give everybody an opportunity, if you’re good enough, you’ll be selected by a coach known to be unbiased,” Ogunade told The PUNCH.

“For the Olympics, we’ll open the camp for everyone both local-based and overseas-based. We have a long list of 50 players that we’ll send to FIBA.

“We can only pick the final list of players from the initial one we’ll submit and if your name is not in that original pool, you can’t be picked,” Ogunade added.

The basketball event of the Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to begin July 25.