Mixed reactions have greeted the reported demotion of Alex Nwora to D’Tigers Assistant Coach and the imminent announcement of Golden State Warriors Associate Coach, Mike Brown to take up the Head Coach role in the team ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Mike Brown’s appointment was first disclosed by ESPN’s Marc J. Spears on Tuesday with details of the his role being Nigeria’s Olympic appearance.
Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown has agreed to terms to be the next head coach of the Nigerian men’s basketball team during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, @espn @TheUndefeated has learned. Nigeria BB president Musa Kida was seeking a high-profile coach with an NBA background.
Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown has agreed to terms to be the next head coach of the Nigerian men’s basketball team during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, @espn @TheUndefeated has learned. Nigeria BB president Musa Kida was seeking a high-profile coach with an NBA background.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) February 4, 2020
While there seems to be some tempered excitement over the pedigree of the new Coach, they majority of the discontented voices argue it is a disruptive move to the team’s chemistry.
Former D’Tigers Forward player Olaseni “Shane” Lawal, who won the FIBA AfroBasket in 2015, tweeted:
Id like to announce my unretirement from basketball. https://t.co/BjiruCb22J
— Shane Lawal (@2typesofkiller) February 4, 2020
But, several opinions have questioned the judgement and propriety of the NBBF leadership’s decision.
A former Nigerian player and now Chairman of the Kaduna State Basketball Association, Skambo Morrison described the process of appointing Brown, “a sham”.
“The board wasn’t consulted on this decision and they manner in which Alex Nwora was replaced is wrong,”he told brila.net.
“Am not privy to the details of the contract, but I know there must be something shady about it. But, we can only hope the decision doesn’t backfire on the team.”
Refreshing! How????? Its disgusting.@alexnwora has built a solid enough team poised for greatness at the Olympics. Someone else is about is about to steal his thunder.
I am not even disappointed in these guys any more. Yuck! https://t.co/RdmJeXdgdI
— Femi Adefeso (@IncredibleFEMI) February 5, 2020
You begin to wonder the vibe this will bring to the team, Nwora took some big shots in terms of team selection, I hope this doesn’t take us back to the old Dtigers, anyways for a while now, everything in Nja seem to be on the backward spiral.
— Arome Obaje (@famousarome) February 5, 2020
Their are levels to this things ,why can’t brown be Assistant. I’m not happy about this because this experiment worked with Otis does not mean it would work this time. Why can’t brown be the Assistant 🤷 the team needs help but this not how to go about it @nbbfonline
— EL_SHITU 🌟 (@Abdulmkww) February 5, 2020
