D’TIGRESS are good enough to have a successful outing at the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, Nigeria Basketball Federation President Musa Kida believes.
The African champions sealed a spot at the World Cup after winning two of their three matches, against France and Mali, in the qualifying tournament in Belgrade, Serbia last week.
Kida, who recently won re-election, traced the team’s continued success to a long-term plan that started at the 2017 Women’s AfroBasket.
“We knew what we wanted and what we needed to do,” he said on Monday, the day after D’Tigress defeated Mali 73-69 to confirm their ticket. “In 2018 in Spain, they became the first team from Africa to win two games at the FIBA World Cup and also first out of Africa to advance to the quarter finals.”
Kida believes the players can perform even better than they did in 2018, especially after their below-par showing at the Beijing 2020 Olympics where they lost all their three games.
“We are proud of what we have been able to achieve with this team and we are optimistic that the future can only be brighter with the young talents at our disposal,” he added.
Kida insisted that the NBBF’s mission is to be amongst the best and eventually rule the world.
Since 2017, in an unprecedented fashion, D’Tigress have won three AfroBasket titles, qualified for the World Cup and also represented Africa at the Olympics.
For Kida, the latest victory is another opportunity for all stakeholders to join hands in building a formidable basketball structure that can stand the test of time.
“We have the potential within and outside Nigeria to do more to develop basketball. We just have to come together and do what is best in the interest of the game,” he appealed.
