NBA Academy Africa Technical Director, Roland Houston commend the players that took part in the Next Generation programme which took place at Minneapolis and Tampa from April 6th – 8th.
Seven Nigerian male basketball players – Chukwudalu Calistus Egbejiogu, Victor Ezeh, John Kenoye, Oluwatobi Samuel Ariyibi, Joshua Ojianwuna, Nelly Joseph and Abdou Aziz Bandaogo.
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Others African players who took part in the event are Papa Malick Thiam (Senegal), Kurt-Curry Wegscheider (Central African Republic), Babacar Faye (Senegal) Saliou Seye (Senegal) and Mouhamed Lamine Mbaye (Senegal)
Four African female players – Diouma Berthe (Mali), Alexia Dizeko (Angola), Yacine Ndiaye (Senegal), Aicha Ndour (Senegal) also took part in the event.
Houston, who led the players to the US, said the team performed extremely well and represented the Academy and the continent in a positive matter adding that the players showed character, intelligence and toughness.
“If a player is a hard worker and wants to be special, the programme has all the necessary components to help them being successful in life,” he added.
He further said: “I am very impressed with basketball on the continent. I have been to some great countries here and hopefully will visit Nigeria soon as well. Some of the coaches have very few resources and what they do with what they have was not only a great education for me, but it also opened my eyes on how good some of these coaches are.”
