NBBF to release D’Tigers final team list after U.S. friendly

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has disclosed that D’Tigers final team list for the Rio Olympics, slated to begin on August 5, will be out after the friendly game against U.S. next week, before the team departs for Brazil.

According to the Federation’s spokesman, Patrick Omorodion, the players, who have been training with the best facilities in America, have been in superb form in training and also the warm up games to ensure they are selected to represent the country at the Olympics.

Omorodion revealed that the players have been working hard ahead the friendly against the U.S. on August 1, which result would give an insight into what to expect from the team at the Olympics.

He disclosed that the NBBF would not relent in giving support to the team in their quest to excel in Rio, adding that the African champions’ chances of picking a medal at the global sports event was bright, owing to the quality in the players in the team.

Nigeria will dunk off their Rio 2016 Olympics basketball campaign against Argentina on August 7, according to the schedule, before facing Lithuania in their second game on August 9.

They will battle with Spain on August 11 at the Carioca Arena in Rio and face Croatia and Brazil on August 13 and 15 respectively.The top four classified teams from each group will then move on to the final phase, which will be played in a standard knock-out system, consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals, bronze medal game and gold medal game.

The Guardian recalls that the D’Tigers made history by being the only African nation to ever qualify for the Olympics through the FIBA World Olympic qualifying tournament in 2012. D’Tigers beat the world elite teams of Lithuania and Greece to reach the London 2012 Olympics proper.