Nigerian-born NBA player, Festus Ezeli who recently helped his team, Golden State Warriors win the 2015 NBA finals has expressed his intention to play for Nigeria...
Nigerian-born NBA player, Festus Ezeli has expressed his intention to play for Nigeria.
Confirming this report was the erstwhile coach of the national basketball team, D’Tigers, Sani Ahmed.
Ahmed revealed that Ezeli who recently helped his team, Golden State Warriors win the 2015 NBA finals a few days ago has indicated interest in playing for Nigeria and urged the Nigeria Basketball Federation to expedite efforts to get him.
Ahmed told Punch that getting Ezeli to join the Nigerian team will greatly boost the morale of the national team players and improve the country’s chances in international tournaments.
“I’m happy that the team that won the NBA title has Nigerians. We need them in D’Tigers. The moves to get NBA players, who are Nigerians to play for the country is still on course. I’ve been in contact with all of them. Ezeli’s agent is also a Nigerian; that is Ugo Udueze of the Islanders. They are always in support of what we are doing.
“Ezeli has already shown interest in playing for Nigeria. He doesn’t need anybody to push him. It will be great if we can make all the arrangements to get him for D’Tigers especially now that he has won the NBA title. His inclusion will really boost the morale of the team”, Ahmed said.
The other Nigerian in the Warriors, Andre Iguodala, who was the NBA finals’ Most Valuable Player, had chosen to play for the US.