By Amaechi Agbo

After parading a host of all European based basketball players for the national team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan where billions of naira was spent for the team (Team Nigeria) without them recording a single win, the abysmal performance of the Nigeria senior male Basketball team continued in Kigali, Rwandan capital after they crashed out of the 2021 FIBA Afrobasket Championship, www.bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

The D’Tigers shamefully crashed out of the Afrobasket Championship following a 68-80pts defeat to Uganda on Tuesday evening in Kigali

All hopes were centred around a win against Uganda for a guaranteed spot in the quarterfinals after failing to top their group and gain an automatic quarter final place on the back of a loss to Côte d’Ivoire.

The number one team in Africa started on the back foot very early in the quarter final playoff clash as they failed to close down rampaging Uganda who shot the lights out from the three point line to open a 12 point advantage heading to the second quarter.

Uganda started where they left off in the second quarter as they once again dominated Nigeria to head into half time 44-31pts while Nigeria continued to grapple with the reality on ground.

The team failed to deal with Robinson Opong who scored 6 treys from 10 attempts to close out the game with 19pts, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

A disappointed Mike Brown said it was an honour to have contributed his quota to basketball development in Africa through Nigeria.

He regretted the inability of his wards to go farther in the competition while blaming FIBA Africa for putting the team in a tight spot with their decision to go ahead with the competition just immediately after the Olympics.

Prior to Uganda embarrassing defeat, the clawless Tigers had earlier beaten Mali 81-73 on August 25th, won Kenya 71-55 two days later but suffered 68-77 defeat against Ivory Coast on August 29.

The 2021 FIBA Afrobasket Championship will run from August 25 to September 5, 2021.

The Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF under Musa Kida has been accused of neglecting Nigerian basketball players in prefence to foreign based ones