Advancing from the group stage is the first priority for Nigeria at the FIBA 2019 World Cup in China, says D’Tiger’s small forward Stanley Okoye.
Nigeria on Friday was drawn alongside Argentina, Russia and Korea in Group B of the competition scheduled to commence in August later this year.
Stanley played down on his personal target at China but said it was pertinent for the team to progress out for the group before thinking of any other target, personally or collectively while speaking on a live chat with Brilla FM, a radio station in Lagos.
“As far as setting a target, I don’t know. Once we are together we’ll talk about that and make it known. I think that for us it’s important to make it out of the group stage and we’ll take it a step at a time.”
The Nigerian-American is optimistic on the chances of the D’Tigers having a good outing in China.
“Anything is possible we just have to have a lot of faith and hope, be determined and go out there and show what we are capable of; and I think we have a great chance to do that and we have time to prepare.
“We have a lot of talent, I’m not sure which group of players it will be, but whoever goes out there will represent and do their thing,” Stanley said.
The Nigerian basketball national team will hope to better their previous outings in the competition. In 1998 and 2016, Nigeria finished 13th and 14th respectively.
