Bruised and Beaten, but Nigerians Are Unbowed
By Greg Bishop
LONDON — The buzzer sounded the end of the fairy tale, and
the Nigerian team limped off the court in slow motion, unwilling, unable to let
go. As they filed into the tunnel, the crowd stood in unison and cheered the
team they call D’Tigers.
Tony Skinn, the Nigerian point guard who went to George
Mason University, wound up in a hospital, having surgery for a torn quadriceps
Monday.
D’Tigers lost against on Monday, this time to France, standing ovation notwithstanding.
To their list of firsts — first Olympics appearance, first Olympics victory —
they had added something less historic: their first Olympic exit.
The run ended with the point guard in the hospital, with
Sunday’s leading scorer nursing a broken toe, with only eight players healthy
enough to practice. It ended with another comeback against a France team
stocked with N.B.A. players. It ended with another round of questions about
what it meant, a basketball team from Nigeria here in the Olympics.
Afterward, not even the D’Tigers could make sense of the
events of the past six weeks. On one hand, with a roster cobbled together at
the last minute, they toppled established international teams — Lithuania,
Greece and the Dominican Republic — just to qualify. It was not hyperbole to
say they inspired a nation.
On the other, they finished Olympic group play with a 1-4
record, lost to the United States by a whopping 83 points and endured racist
chants and a rash of injuries. Disappointment mixed with pride.
“People think that was the goal for us, to get here,”
forward Derrick Obasohan said. “It wasn’t. Coach said we were the first African
team to win an Olympic game. We earned respect, but. …”
His voice trailed off. The man Obasohan called Coach,
Ayodele Bakare, sat nearby. He looked tired, his eyes bloodshot, his shoulders
slumped. He spent the morning at a hospital with Tony Skinn, the
guard who led George Mason on that magical N.C.A.A. tournament run in 2006. Skinn had surgery for a torn quadriceps on Monday, his
teammates said. It surprised no one that Bakare went to see him.
For weeks, he and his staff performed so many jobs they
forgot where one ended and another one began. Bakare, the coach of the Ebun Comets in Nigeria’s
professional league, constructed the roster on the fly. He built the team
around Ike
Diogu, a former Arizona State star, and Al-Farouq
Aminu, a forward for the New Orleans Hornets. Bakare managed to find 10
players with college basketball experience to fill the roster out.
He later traded his general manager cap for his coach’s one,
and after less than a month of practices, Bakare took that makeshift team to
Venezuela, where, Diogu said, “we were just supposed to come in and get blown
out.” Only D’Tigers stunned three opponents.
Diogu said the local crowd embraced the Nigerians, and although
Diogu heard from his brother about celebrations in Nigeria, reality awaited, so
many tasks and not a single person with experience to perform them.
Bakare had to arrange travel plans for his team. He even
booked the flights. He found gyms for practices. He helped those without
insurance to obtain it. He did so in a country fraught with political
infighting, even for its sports teams. He and his players alluded to the
politics Monday but declined to go into specifics.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize all the stuff that we
really had to go through,” Diogu said. “If people really knew the true story,
it would be an accomplishment in itself, just us making it here.”
Only Nigeria did not simply show up for its first contest
and ask for autographs from its opposition. In the first game, D’Tigers
defeated Tunisia, jumping ahead early and holding on late. A country in turmoil rallied around the team that had been
introduced six weeks earlier. Bakare’s voice mail filled.
Hiccups followed. A fan from Lithuania was fined for making
Nazi gestures and yelling monkey chants during a Lithuanian victory. The United States scored 156 points against
D’Tigers, the most ever in an Olympic game.
Yet Nigeria refused to yield. It stormed back against France
on Monday, behind 35 points from Chamberlain
Oguchi, he of the broken toe. Bakare said that as D’Tigers tied the game
late in the fourth quarter, he wanted to yell, in reference to the United
States coach, Mike Krzyzewski: “Bring on Coach K! We want a rematch! Tonight!”
Afterward, unbroken, Bakare and his players dared to dream.
This summer, the run, allowed them that.
They noted the injuries that plagued them, the way the
roster thinned. They talked about the limited time they spent together, how,
come the African championships next summer, much more could be accomplished.
Bakare guaranteed Nigeria would improve more than any Olympic team over the
next four years.
“You haven’t seen the last of Team Nigeria,” Obasohan said. Players and coaches decided Monday to leave the cosmic
questions, the what it meant, for later. Most planned to visit Skinn at the
hospital, then scatter back across the world.
Bakare called the reaction in Nigeria uplifting, but said he
received negative phone calls, too. Diogu hoped his play over the past six
weeks had earned him another shot at the N.B.A. Obasohan wanted to return to
his 3-month-old son, Darren, before he returned to Spain in one week for
another season.
The three of them sat in a circle, in the near empty news
conference room, as if competing to look most tired. The experience that
inspired others had drained the men involved. Bakare even said he would
consider stepping down as the coach, perhaps in 30 days.
“Nigeria basketball has come of age,” he said. “Nigeria
basketball doesn’t need me anymore.”
His players quickly dismissed that notion. Bakare, their
coach, general manager, insurance agent and travel secretary, embodied what
D’Tigers became over the past six weeks. Not simply a basketball team. A
historic one.
Originally published in
the New York Time
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.