A board member of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, Victor Okoro, denies as untrue the accusation of unprofessionalism made against the Federation by a former D’Tigress player, Oderah Chidom.
Okoro said this in reaction to comments by the ex-basketball player that went viral on the social media about her impromptu retirement from International basketball, a development she ascribed to several unprofessional conducts by the NBBF.
In an exclusive chat with AIT.live, Okoro explained that the NBBF has always been professional with the players and the Federation acknowledges her contributions to the country.
The NBBF board member representing the Paramilitary further noted that Tryouts being conducted for the D’Tigress are in line with international best practices and cost effective for the Federation, especially now that the NBBF is currently cash trapped and there are mounting expenses in terms of flying the players around the world to come for training or physical assessment and other expenditures.
The basketball administrator also explained that there has been a history of tryouts with the D’Tigress before as the NBBF previously organized an all-comers camping in 2017, where a lot of stars were discovered.
According to Okoro, the NBBF does not have such budget and is yet to get a refund of the money it used for prosecuting the 2021 FIBA Women Afrobasket which Nigeria won.
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Okoro also explained that lack of funds has also made the dissemination of information between the Board and the team difficult.
He noted that the camping venue and the number of players as well as coaches to be invited to the team are issues that the NBBF has not been able to decide because of paucity of funds.
Already, the tryouts in Lagos, Abuja and Chicago have all been completed and soon the Coach Rena Wakama-led crew will call up selected players from the trials for camping ahead of the team’s defence of the Afrobasket.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
