{"id":19200,"date":"2022-06-07T15:00:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation"},"modified":"2022-06-07T15:23:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T15:23:18","slug":"masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation","title":{"rendered":"Masai Ujiri criticizes Nigerian basketball federation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Masai Ujiri, the President of Toronto Raptors has spoken out about the decision by Nigeria\u2019s government to withdraw its basketball teams from international competitions for two years.<\/p>\n

Ujiri, who hails from Nigeria, penned an open letter to the federation, calling for the resignation of its officials so that the game can have a new lease of life in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leaders of the basketball ecosystem in Nigeria continue to rob our youth of their present and future while tearing the entire basketball community apart \u2014 this needs to stop,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the withdrawal of their national teams from all international basketball competitions, with the Minister of Sports Sunday Dare, saying that the decision was due to crises that have characterised the country’s basketball in the recent past.<\/p>\n

In response, the international basketball federation (FIBA) replaced Nigeria\u2019s female basketball team, D\u2019Tigress with Mali for the upcoming FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup 2022 that will take place in Belgrade, Serbia.<\/p>\n

FIBA added that it will announce whether there will be more decisions related to Nigeria’s participation in other FIBA competitions and any potential disciplinary measures in this regard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time for change is now,\u201d Ujiri wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know all athletes, leaders and stakeholders in African sport will not give up on Nigerian basketball, and we will not give up on the youth. It\u2019s time for us to move forward. We need a new slate and a new narrative. To do this, all of the leaders that have held on to the realms of the Nigerian Basketball Federation for the past several years must all step down,\u201d He added<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Masai Ujiri, the President of Toronto Raptors has spoken out about the decision by Nigeria\u2019s government to withdraw its basketball teams from international competitions for two years. Ujiri, who hails from Nigeria, penned an open letter to the federation, calling for the resignation of its officials so that the game can have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-19200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nMasai Ujiri criticizes Nigerian basketball federation - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Masai Ujiri, the President of Toronto Raptors has spoken out about the decision by Nigeria\u2019s government to withdraw its ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Masai Ujiri criticizes Nigerian basketball federation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Masai Ujiri, the President of Toronto Raptors has spoken out about the decision by Nigeria\u2019s government to withdraw its ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T15:00:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-07T15:23:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_37.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"857\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"467\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Masai Ujiri criticizes Nigerian basketball federation\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-07T15:00:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-07T15:23:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\"},\"wordCount\":298,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_37.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/masai-ujiri-criticizes-nigerian-basketball-federation\",\"name\":\"Masai Ujiri criticizes Nigerian basketball federation - 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