President of FIBA Africa Zone 3, Rtd. Col. Sam Ahmedu has stated that the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) hopes the Nigerian Men’s Basketball league will start soon and believes the country still have enough time to prepare and pick representatives for the inaugural Basketball Africa League having drawn bye into the main competition set to start in 2020.

In a chat with Brila.net Sam Ahmedu revealed that the NBBF had till January to send in their entries on who will represent Nigeria at the BAL 2020 which gives us ample time to play league actions and select a worthy representative.

“Some clubs indicated that they needed more time before the commencement of the Men’s league, however after the league the Nigeria Basketball Federation will choose its representative to represent Nigeria after considering that it must have given teams in the country a fair chance to show themselves whether it’s a league or tournament that was held.”

He also disclosed that the number of games in the league is dependent on the number of teams that will participate in the League when it eventually kicks-off “There are no rules that says you must play a specific number of games but teams are expected to play at least 20 games but if time is not on our side it can be reduced though we’re in position to play the necessary number of games between now and December when our entries will be expected”.

The NBBF executive also expressed his strong belief that home-based basketball players still had a genuine chance to make the national team and called for the players to be open-minded and work extra hard to get called up “The FIBA 3×3 is made up of home-based players, the national team is not on quota basis, Nigeria must play with her best team in the world.”