D’TIGERS head coach Mike Brown has declared that his team will be going all out for the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020.
The Nigerian team will be up against some of the world’s best sides in the men’s basketball event in Tokyo, but Brown has unshaken belief in his men.
Brown has in his 15-man provisional roster eight players from the American National Basketball Association (NBA), the world’s biggest and most competitive basketball league, and believes they are ready to compete at the Games.
“We”re not going there just for the experience,” Brown, who has worked as Miami Heat assistant coach, said in a video posted on D’Tigers Twitter account on Saturday.
“The experience is going to be nice, and we are excited about going there and experiencing everything that Tokyo has to offer for us as well as the Olympics. But we want to go win.”
The Nigerian men are in the same group as Australia (world No 3), Italy (world No.7) and Germany (world No.17) for the Games, all of whom are highest-ranked than D’Tigers (world No.22), but Brown insists that his men are confident.
“So we have the mindset of ‘we’re going to Tokyo to win’,” the American added.
“And whatever that means at the end of the day we will find out. We’re not going to be OK with just anything along the way.
“We are looking forward to showing not just the people of Nigeria and the continent of Africa, but those all over the world, that there’s a lot of Nigerian talent out there.”
As part of their preparation for the Olympics, D’Tigers will be featuring in a four-nation tournament alongside heavyweights USA (world No.1) who they face on Saturday, Argentina (world No.4) and Spain (world No.2).
The basketball event at the Tokyo Olympics will begin on 26 July.
Comments are closed.