The Nigerian basketball team D’Tigers beat the USA team 90-87 on Saturday night, July10, in its first pre-Olympic exhibition game, thus inflicting the country’s first ever loss to an African Nation.
Nigeria, who had six NBA players and former NBA head coach Mike Brown at the helm, beat the USA, and the landmark victory came nine years after the U.S. embarrassed Nigeria 156-73 at the London Olympics, the U.S.’ biggest win in Olympic men’s basketball history.
“I’m kind of glad it happened,” said U.S. head coach Gregg Popovich, noting that Nigeria has been practicing together since late June with the Americans for four days. “That loss means nothing if we don’t learn from it, but it can be the most important thing in this tournament for us to learn lessons from it.
“I don’t think anyone should act nor would we act [like] that this is the end of the world.”
According to Popovich, the difference in the basketball game was three-pointers. Nigeria went 20 for 42, making twice as many as the U.S. It also won the rebounding battle 46-34.
