Shooting deficiency bane of Nigerian basketball, says Nnaji

Nigeria women basketball national team coach, Scot Nnaji, has said the country would keep facing stiffer challenges against other teams around the world if players plying their trade within and outside the country don’t pay much attention to their shooting skills.

He said a team could only succeed in championships if the players gathered more points than their opponents at the end of the game.

The Customs coach urged Nigerian players to develop personal training regime for shooting, which he said would give them added advantage over their opponents.

The former Nigerian national team player reasoned that the world’s top basketball teams, especially in America, have dominance in the dunking game because they are aware that the major focus in winning a match is on points. “This is why they focus on impacting the skills to intending basketball players from their formative years,” he said.

Nnaji maintained that Nigeria have abundant talents that could contend favourably with other nations if the players took the right step to develop themselves.

“Nigerian basketball players, in and outside the country, fail to shoot effectively to gain points in any game. They pay much attention to dunking and dribbling, which are not the only skills for a team to succeed.

“A player has to develop a special training routine in shooting to assist his team win games. In my playing days, my teammates called me computer because I could shoot effectively from any range, even with my eyes closed. I developed this skills by having a special training session for myself on shooting,’’ he said.

Nnaji said the men’s national team, D’Tigers, would have done better at the Rio 2016 Olympics were the players able to make the basket when they had shooting opportunities.