The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Musa Kida, has commended D’Tigress’s manager, Rena Wakama, following the team’s historic run at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
D’Tigress made history at the Olympic Games by becoming the first African team, male or female, to reach the quarterfinals of an Olympic basketball tournament.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Paris, on Tuesday, Kida praised Wakama for her leadership, noting her achievements, including leading the nation’s female basketball team to victory at the 2023 AfroBasket and securing Olympic qualification.
The D’Tigress milestone was also acknowledged by FIBA when she was named the best coach at the just concluded 2024 Olympics in France.
Kida highlighted the team’s strong preparation and strategic planning, noting the blend of new and experienced players that contributed to their success.
READ MORE: Paris Olympics: D’Tigress Coach, Rena Wakama Named Best Female Basketball Manager
He said: ”They did the same thing in the FIBA World Cup in Spain in 2018, reaching the same feat; rolling from there was the Olympics in Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
”Our preparations for Tokyo were second to none; I don’t think our girls ever prepared to or were more prepared to play in any Olympics.
”Unfortunately, because of the resources we didn’t have, even though preparations were top-notch, we didn’t perform as expected.
”Fast forward to the ripples that we had in 2021 and 2022 about inner frictions between the players and the allowances they didn’t get.
”So, there was a little fallout from there when the government decided to withdraw us from international women’s basketball events; we had to rebound on that, go back to the trenches to rebuild.
”Wakama came in with new blood, and then we gave her all the support possible to build this new team with a few old people.”
