5 Nigerians drafted in the first round, 7 overall

[Ball so hard]

Most black americans are from the west african region ancestry-wise. It's a gifted genetic pool no doubt

I get that this is one of the more tempting off-cited explanations whenever a black population excels in a given area of sports... however, most studies do not support a genetic explanation. Brazil has the largest population of blacks, mainly of western and southwestern African ancestry outside of Africa. Why aren't a greater proportion of Brazilians coming to the NBA?

[unowen85]

How much credit should be given to Jimmy “Shake and Bake” Dolan for going out to Africa in the 90s to recruit individuals with exceptional athleticism?

[nedleeds]

I think you're all being a bit too eugenical here. 1st generation Nigerian (and Caribbean as well) American children excel in academics as well.

"Indeed, Nigerian-Americans have more post-graduate degrees than any other racial or ethnic groups. Albeit, they represent a minutia portion of the U.S. population, 37 percent of them hold a bachelor’s degree and 17 percent a master’s. 29 percent of Nigerian-Americans aged 25 and plus, have a graduate degree, compared to 11 percent of the US population. Nigerian accounts for less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet, they make up nearly 25 percent of all Black students at Harvard Business School. It comes to no surprise that Nigerian-Americans’ achievements in the world of education top any other U.S. immigrant groups, including Asian-Americans."

It's far more about family. These young Americans almost exclusively grow up in 2 parent households with an emphasis on accountability hard work and a focus on achievement. This makes sense and should carry over to athletics, with supportive motivating parents who put a ton of time into their children's success, I'd expect more success.

The outpace white students and are on par with Asian American students. Weird how they manage all this in the deeply racist United States.

[Def Leppard]

I mean same logic should apply, especially when they have 5.5x the pop of Nigeria.

If you completely ignore genetic makeup and cutural differences, sure, i guess.

Yup

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[symbiotic]

Remember what Charles Barkley said about Angola in the Olympics? Good to see Africa on the come up

[SAKURABA216]

In the UFC there are also 3 standout Nigerian fighters: Kamara Usman (welterweight champion), Israel Adesanya (middleweight champion and will fight for the light heavyweight championship next), and Francis Ngannou (#1 Heavyweight contender).

All 3 have different fighting styles and are amazing at what they do: Usman is a smothering wrestler with KO power that beat Colby Covington (the dude famous for calling out Lebron) by TKO last year; Izzy is a kickboxing ninja that is on another level as far as striking technique, timing, and precision; and Francis has the scariest KO power of anyone that has ever fought in the UFC.

[CalL]

Nigeria without a doubt could be a powerhouse with decent infrastructure, the same is probably true for Congo. Something else I noticed is that no Canadian player was drafted for the first time since 2009, last year 6 Canadian players were drafted.