Nigeria’s senior national male basketball team, D’Tigers, began their Olympic preparation on a good note, beating the Chinese team, hosts of the 4-nation tournament, the 2016 Stankovic Cup, in Beijing 79-71 on Tuesday.
The coach of the Chinese team, Gong Luming, blamed the loss on the absence of his key player and former NBA star, Yi Jianlian.
But the Nigerian side also played without some of its key players such as Al-Farouq Aminu, who just concluded his basketball camp in Ibadan, Oyo State at the weekend; his brother, Alade; NBA star, Festus Ezeli; and new NBA draft, Mike Gbinije.
The quartet are expected to join their D’Tigers teammates in Las Vegas, United States of America after the Stankovic Cup to continue preparations for the Olympics despite the lack of funds from the sports ministry towards this end.
D’Tigers next game is against Argentina, while China play France who beat Argentina 64-57.
“The opening of the game was not good, we didn’t play as a team in offence and there are too much individual play,” said Luming.
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