'Nigeria has to get their s--- together': Moneke urges change amidst recent fails / News - Basketnews.com

"The government needs to be better. The resources need to be better, the honesty needs to be better," Chima Moneke speaks out on Nigerian basketball struggles.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

2021-07-10. Eight digits that mark a historical date for Nigerian basketball. On that day, Nigeria stunned Team USA in an Olympic exhibition game in Las Vegas and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in international basketball.

Chima Moneke

Team:AS MonacoPosition:PFAge:27Height:198 cmWeight:101 kgBirth place:Abuja, NigeriaProfileNewsStatistics

Nigeria turned the tables around since the 2012 London Olympics when the U.S. squad demolished D'Tigers by 83 points (156-73).

"This team not only has everything it needs to get out of a pool play, but they have everything to finish on the podium. That right there will literally assure the golden age of Nigerian basketball," Nigerian NT pioneer Ike Diogu told BasketNews' Donatas Urbonas before the Tokyo Olympics.

A massive hype around the African nation quickly turned into a big flop. The golden age shifted into dark and turbulent times.

Since the nostalgic July 10, 2021, Nigeria has suffered a fiasco in Tokyo Olympics, losing all three games in the group phase, has not qualified for FIBA World Cup 2023, and has a long and twisty road toward Paris Olympics, starting from Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Nigeria has a lot of talent and a roster mainly of NBA players but fails to deliver substantial results.

There's plenty of finger-pointing within the Nigerian basketball community. Most of those negative remarks belong to the government people.

Former Sacramento Kings and current AS Monaco forward -- Chima Moneke -- goes with the flow.

"Absolutely [it's the fault of our government]. The government needs to be better. The resources need to be better, the honesty needs to be better," Moneke told BasketNews after his recent visit to Kaunas and Zalgirio Arena.

Credit FIBA

Mike Brown, an NBA Coach of the Year candidate and long-time NBA specialist had to oversee the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics mostly by himself, from organizing travel arrangements to ensuring that practice equipment had arrived.

Brown also opened a charitable foundation and tried to collect $1 million to help the Nigerian basketball program.

"There are just a lot of things that are going wrong behind the scenes that have nothing to do with the players," Moneke underlined.

Nigeria did not participate in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and the D'Tigers are now skipping the major tournament this upcoming summer.

The same kind of situation could have happened in 2019 when Nigeria almost didn't make it to the FIBA World Cup in China for the reason that is even difficult to think about -- the money for the flights allegedly wasn't released until the last moment.

"It's unfortunate because we have so much talent, but Nigeria has to get their shit together," Moneke minced no words.

Credit FIBA

He is not the only person who is speaking out loudly.

"Nigeria's biggest threat from progress is Nigeria. We need a change," the Nigerian Basketball Federation stated after another scandalous event inside the country.

On May 5 last year, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari withdrew the country's national basketball teams from international competition for the next two years.

That announcement was swiftly met with strong opposition from Nigeria's basketball community.

Kings big man Chimezie Metu was brutally honest. In his tweets, Metu called out the heads of the government and the federation, underlining that "every single one" of them "should be ashamed" of themselves.

"The amount of embarrassment, greed, and corruption that you just showed to not only a deserving group of women [they missed the 2022 FIBA Women's World Cup due to withdrawal] but also an entire nation is extremely alarming. Decades of work have been thrown down the drain," Metu wrote back then.

"Multiple-time African champions and multiple Olympic/World Cup bids, and we don't get to even participate in the next competition, not because of athletic inabilities, but because grown men are too busy fighting over money," Metu went on to argue.

"Absolutely embarrassing. At the end of the day, this is only a metaphor for what our people are going through in Nigeria. Innocent people suffering because our so-called 'leaders' are too busy being greedy."

People who showed huge disappointment with Nigeria getting banned from FIBA competitions by its own government included the Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri and former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.

"Enough is enough. The leaders of the basketball ecosystem in Nigeria continue to rob our youth of their present and future while tearing the entire basketball community apart - this needs to stop," Ujiri stated.

A storm of criticism forced the Nigerian government into an about-turn, and the withdrawal decision was rescinded 42 days later.

Indeed, "enough is enough." Internal disagreements must be left behind if Nigeria is to think about success and accolades on the international basketball stage.

Good thing the sun always shines after a storm. D'Tigers still have hope of qualifying for Paris, and that's where a new beginning could start. Fingers crossed.

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