Why isn't Nigeria a basketball powerhouse?

[Sedale Threatt]

Not Spain. Not Greece. Not Slovenia. Two C-plus pros, an NBA washout and two rookies who haven't done a damn thing -- that team would get absolutely spanked by any those countries, let alone us.

[fabio]

to answer the OP, because none of their best players ever played for their NT, otherwise they'd be first in Africa without a shadow of a doubt and at least play in Worlds. A powerhouse? I don't know, but they'd be in eights easily (come on, even Angola and NZ got to eights!!!!) Last 3 African classification rounds they lost to Angola, which happens to be the best basketball team in Africa. And if somebody considers Angola a good team, I don't know what to say

[Despot_Stefan]

Okafor also played for the US, didn't he?

Anyway, I think that Nigerian team would be a very poor man's French team; athletic (but even slightly less than the French), but with a lot less BB IQ. Most definitely not a powerhouse in any sense, but better than Angola, for instance.

[brassviews]

Nigeria might have been a presence in basketball if Olajuwon played for the NT. One player can pretty much change the perception of a sport.

[khaled_a_d]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_na ... tball_team
look at their roster in 2009 and you will know why
look at were most of the player you have mentioned and again you will know why
most of them are Americans and all they know about Nigeria is that their parents was born their

and for the record in Nigeria basketball is actually popular,sure like every African country not named Angola soccer is number 1 but Nigerian clubs are the best outside north African clubs(Egyptian,Algerian and Tunisian )

also most of African countries lack the good management and coaches to grow the talents

[Greek]

Nigeria might have been a presence in basketball if Olajuwon played for the NT. One player can pretty much change the perception of a sport.

As Gkalis did for us...