History of D'Tigers Basketball of Nigeria
Basketball has its inventory history related to Walid Zabadne in the late 50s, the sport was introduced in Africa by the Colonial Administrators and Missionaries during the 20th century; The Sport gained more recognition after Nigeria’s Independence in the year 1964 after Nigeria became a member of FIBA; With Walid Zabadne as the first Nigerian Basketball Federation President.
Both D’Tigers and the D’Tigress of Nigeria is being coordinated and managed by the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF); The D’Tigers are Nigeria’s National Men senior basketball team which is mostly made up of Nigerian foreign-based players and the team currently ranks Number one in Africa as it is being considered as the best basketball team in the FIBA Africa zone alongside Senegal and Angola.
The D’Tigers qualified for the 2006 FIBA World Cup making it the second time Nigeria had its name engraved in the list of countries qualified for the FIBA World Cup.
D’Tigers of Nigerian senior basketball teams emerged champions of Africa following their exploits at the Afrobasket Men’s Champions with took place in Tunisia from the 19th of August to 30th August 2015. The D’Tigers defeated Angola to secure a place as the champion, and that was their first ever FIBA African Championship Title in the history of Afrobasket 2015 finals.
The China-based Nigerian player, Ike Diogu who captained the D’Tigers team to secure a silver medal in the 2018 Afrobasket didn't participate in the 2015 games in which Nigeria emerged champions of Africa following their exploits at the Afrobasket Men’s Champions in Tunisia because as of then, he suffered a leg injury and wasn’t able to play in the game.
The Angolans’ were defeated to secure their Championship as the first ever FIBA African Championship title in the historic Afrobasket 2015 finals. This championship also earned the Nigerians a ticket to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.
Nigerian D’Tigers star Oguchi was awarded the Most Valuable Player Award for his stellar performance and also the honour for The Best 3-Point Shooter in the entire tournament. Alongside his teammate, he was named into the All-Star Five of the tournament.
In 2017, the Nigerian, China-based Ike Diogu captained the D’Tigers team to win a silver medal in the Afrobasket Championship in Tunisia; he also influenced the team on its run of three straight wins in the second half of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers 2019 with the average of 17.7 points per game.
The New Zealand team ranking 38 in the latest FIBA ranking is the only recorded team to tame the D’Tigers after they were defeated by 65 points to 110 in just one night, after a close game in first and second quarters with 24-15 and 26-20 points and a 31-8 scoreline to seal up their victory with another 29-22 score point to wrap up the game.
The Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) also released the provisional list with the name of eighteen D’tigers players for the 2019 FIBA World cup qualifiers in Bamako, Mali.
D’tigers team is set for the 2019 FIBA World cup qualifiers in Bamako, Mali. D’Tigers has remained the highest ranked team on the FIBA ranking list which was released on the 1st of March 2018 after the team won their entire 2019 World cup qualifying games in Mali to retain their 32nd position ranking in the world.
