No doubt the recent FIBA World Ranking for Men, presented by NIKE has been updated with USA maintaining their top-ranked status and newly-crowned World Cup champions Spain closing in the gap but Nigeria’s leap to number 23 in the world has left the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF grinning from ear to ear.

The NBBF President, Musa Kida while reacting to Nigeria’s steady rise told Freethrow that the new ranking only means that what the federation promise as part of its campaign promises is coming to fruition.

While expressing happiness at the new ranking which has also seen Nigeria retaining the number one spot in Africa for close to a year running, Kida noted that the NBBF will continue to work towards achieving more for Nigerian basketball.

“The new FIBA ranking for men is exciting to say the least but we’re only encouraged to work harder for the benefit of basketball in Nigeria. I’m particularly happy that we’re keeping to the promises we made to Nigerians less than two years on the saddle. There’s still a lot to be done and we will keep striving to get things done the proper way but there’s need for us to be patient as we cannot achieve all we need to in one day.”

Aside Nigeria’s rise, Angola is making a spirited effort to return to the zenith of Africa basketball.

There was significant movement at the top end of the ranking, with Australia (673.6) climbing to third place and leapfrogging the fourth-ranked Argentina (670.5) and fifth-placed France (665.4) in the process.

The Sun