Coach Sani Ahmed of Nigeria men's basketball team, D'Tigers, has revealed plans to strengthen the team with Nigerian-born players in the NBA ahead of the 2015 Afrobasket championship holding from August 19 to 30 in Tunisia and the All- Africa Games coming up later in the year.
D'Tigers qualified for the tournaments after beating Burkina Faso in a two-game qualifier. They also won the inaugural four-nation invitational Challenge Series in South Africa last week.
Ahmed said the current players in the team had been impressive in their last six competitive matches, but insisted the team must be strengthened as there would be tougher oppositions in the coming tournaments.
"We have listed the players we will be calling upon from the NBA and other leagues as we get closer to the tournaments," Ahmed said on Tuesday.
"We invited some of them sometime last year and earlier this year, but some of them were engaged in club playoffs, so they couldn't attend. Hopefully, they'll be available when we begin preparation for the tournaments."
Ahmed added that a number of friendly games had been lined up for the team.
"We've received requests from some national teams to engage D'Tigers in friendlies. The Nigeria Basketball Federation will decide which games we can afford to honour," he said.
Meanwhile, Golden State Warriors centre, Festus Ezeli, has indicated his availability for Nigeria when the tournaments dunk off.
"It is a big honour to be playing for your country and I am looking forward to it," the 2.11m centre said on FIBA.com .
"I have a lot of pride in my origins. I think that it is awesome that we have so many guys of Nigerian descent in the NBA.
"I am trying to get [Golden State Warriors shooting guard] Andre Iguodala to come to Nigeria with me someday. It is a great place, a great country and it has a lot of potential.
"I don't know [Dallas Mavericks] Al-Farouq Aminu personally but I know that he plays for the Nigeria national team. I'm looking forward to get to know him and all my other Nigerian brothers who play basketball. Hopefully, I will play for the national team soon." .
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