One of the many youngsters who turned up on Saturday for the maiden Templar-Adrenale National Basketball Combine Programme at Dolphins Sports Complex in Mangoro area of Lagos, Akpan Saviour believes future players for Nigeria’s national team, D’Tigers, were discovered at the event.
Sports247 reports that, while affirming his desire to be a top-level basketball player in one of the world’s big leagues, Akpan added that he received extra motivation to excel in the giants’ game during Saturday’s sessions.
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He then revealed some of the basics of basketball that were handed down to the over 200 young players who gathered for the programme that was packaged by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s senior special assistant on grassroots sports development, Prince Adeboye Anthony Adeyinka.
Akpan, who stands tall at 6 feet 3, delightfully disclosed, “I have been introduced to many ideas that apply in the US … like strength training, speed development and shooting skills.
“Overall, this programme has helped me to improve heavily in my basketball basics. It has also given me extra motivation to choose basketball as a career.”
He also spoke about the many challenges young players face while trying to live their basketball dream in Nigeria, and quickly pointed out that the Templar-Adrenale initiative provided a solid platform to overcome those challenges.
Akpan expatiated, “The biggest challenge we face in Nigeria is that we youngsters don’t have a strong platform to showcase our skills. There are very limited opportunities for us, and it’s almost like zero to none; but this programme has opened me up to a rare chance of expressing myself.
“It gave me the opportunity of showcasing my talent to the world. This programme made me see that the sky is the beginning for me, and it has given me the confidence that I need in going to the next level.
“My main aim is to make it professionally … be it in the NBA, Euro League, or wherever I find myself. This was the right platform for me to express myself and aim for greater things.”
The enthusiastic lad concluded by calling on other personalities in government, private individuals, agencies and corporate bodies to come out with similar projects, which he believes would make Nigeria less reliant on players born abroad.
“If we have more programmes like this and multiple academies, there will be many areas of improvement in Nigeria’s basketball community. One major benefit would be that the national team coaches won’t need to find players born in the USA, Canada or UK to play for us.
“They wouldn’t need to go outside the country to get national team players, and they won’t need to look for people who were not born in Nigeria to play for D’Tigers.
“With this programme, we can spot more young talents at the grassroots and produce future professional players who can compete at the highest level of basketball,” Akpan submitted.
