Sports
Nigeria’s Potentials In Basketball Excites Ex-Star
A former professional
basketball player, Tamika Raymond has in Abuja said Nigeria has the potential to be among the world’s leading countries in the basketball sport.
Raymond said this at the opening of a four-day basketball clinic organised by Open Mic Forum, a sports and entertainment consultant, in collaboration with the United States Embassy, Abuja.
The former Connecticut Sun player said the basketball game would however thrive in Nigeria only if adequate facilities and other necessities were provided to teach the young ones the sport’s rudiments.
“Building nice infrastructure and having nice indoor courts, as well as getting adequate funding, will go a long way in changing the face of the game in Nigeria,’’ Raymond who played in the Women National Basketball Association (WNBA) said.
The former Tamika Williams, who married a former basketballer, Ben Raymond, said the clinic’s aim was to impart the game’s rudiments on Nigerian kids.
“Nigerian kids are in their hundreds in the U.S playing basketball. Nigerians and Senegalese have the highest representation in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and WNBA.
“But Nigeria has the brightest kids I have ever coached. They are naturally athletic and talented. They are also well built for the game.
“But sometimes the fundamentals are lacking. They can jump, run and catch, but they don’t have the form to shoot and defend.
“These are the things we have come to teach these kids,’’ the former player said.
Detlef Schrempf, one of the instructors and the first German in the NBA, also told newsmen that the enthusiasm of Nigerian youths to embrace the sport was encouraging.
“I am excited to be here. We have some young talents here, but we can’t create a perfect player in few days. We want to create a basis for them to learn some fundamentals of basketball.
“This is not about playing professional basketball. This is about learning some stuff about sports, working together and learning how things work as a team.
“We are not here to make NBA basketball players. Obviously, I was fortunate enough to get to that point, but that is not what this camp is about.
“It’s about sharing knowledge, bringing guys together, communicating and building relationships,’’ Schrempf said.
Mohammed Suleiman, Co-ordinator of Open Mic Forum, said they were more concerned about getting the kids to avoid roaming the streets so that they can be useful in life.
Suleiman said their main target was to use sports and entertainment to reach out to the kids who do not know how to talk into the microphone.
“We are committed to creating speakers and talents out of people. We are also improving the talents in people.
“As simple as it looks, a lot of people tend to stammer when speaking through the microphone.
“But when you pick up young kids, you find them sharp and bold on the microphone. They can express themselves.
“We are developing people who are definitely the leaders of tomorrow. They have to take charge of that leadership from now.
“If you know how to talk to people, you will lead people if you don’t know how to talk to people, you will be in the background,’’ he said.
About 300 students from 15 schools in the FCT are participating in the four-day programme.
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.
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.
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