In March 2021, the global governing body FIBA ranked Nigeria as Africa's top men's basketball nation.[2] After the 2016 Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament in Rio, Nigeria was ranked 16th in the FIBA World Rankings, making them the top climber in FIBA rankings from 2015.[3]
The history of basketball in Nigeria goes as far back as the late 1950s when Walid Zabadne served as the first basketball coach to train Nigerians. At the time, Nigeria's only basketball court was situated in the Syrian Club in Lagos. Walid Zabadne continued teaching young Nigerians to become basketballers and when Nigeria's basketball federation was organized, he took them to several basketball competitions across Africa. In view of his role as the pioneer of basketball in Nigeria, Walid Zabadne has been deemed "father of Nigerian basketball’’. Also worthy of note is that Zabadne was later made the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation.
Nigeria's national basketball team joined FIBA in 1964. Since the mid-1990s, the team has enjoyed unprecedented success, due to an increasing amount of talents from Nigeria as well as an orchestrated recruitment of American college and professional players of Nigerian descent. The D'Tigers (as the team is nicknamed) qualified for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, marking only the second time in the country's history that they qualified to the FIBA World Cup. Team Nigeria usually plays its home games at the 3,000-capacity Indoor Sports Hall in Lagos.[4][5]
Nigeria competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. They finished the group play with a 1–4 record, with their lone victory coming against Tunisia in their Olympics debut.[6] The team's roster, assembled by coach Ayodele Bakare, primarily comprised former college basketball players.[7]
2016 Summer Olympics
Nigeria qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics tournament as champions of AfroBasket 2015. They finished at the bottom of Group B, winning one game against Croatia and losing four games.[citation needed] The team entered the 2016 games with several injured players and little financial support from the Nigerian government.[8]
2020 Summer Olympics
As the top African team at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, Nigeria qualified for their third consecutive Olympics berth for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[9] The team, which included seven NBA players and was led by Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, was called up for training in the United States in June 2021. D'Tigers defeated the United States 90–87 during an exhibition game in Las Vegas on 10 July. The victory, described as an "upset", was the first for an African team against the United States.[10][11]
Hakeem Olajuwon never played for Nigeria at the international senior level,[13] and would eventually play for the United States, after becoming a US citizen in 1993.