airwolex wrote:
Bros Cellular,
When I was a rookie in Ebun Comets, we had a continental game in Algeria. A few of us were on the fringes, so you can imagine our consternation when some mercenaries from US College bball turned up in training.
I was already on the fringes so I knew automatically nothing for me. A few others were in the same boat and were very angry, as these guys were not even registered to be on the team. It was pure mago mago.
However, when
Tunji Awojobi (he was in Boston College) at that time started playing, I knew that I was playing only joke basketball. It wasn't really my fault, as I did not have the exposure he had, but deep down in me, I realized that I just wasn't good enough and to be even close to what Tunji was, I had to quadruple my effort. Tbh seeing these guys was one of the reasons that I knew top level bball might not be for me.
So really what I am trying to say is that the likes of Iwobi, V Moses, and real high quality Nigerian foreign-born talent can only add to the team. Trust me, the true intelligent and self-aware local players that have an opportunity to train with them can only be inspired.
Honestly, I'm not as pissed with Pinnick as you guys. This is what he feels he needs to do to be successful. I don't know about a quota for local players like you suggested. Quotas and sports do not work well together. If a local player is just the best of the rest, he needs to work harder to get to a level where he cannot be ignored.
The likes of Finidi George and Amokachi did it so it's not impossible.
BTW, Tunji at Boston University, not BC...
The same university where Emenalo (a defender in Naija) became all-time scoring leader.
Tunji was the FIRST basketball player in the entire history of college basketball in the entire New England area, which covers Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, to score 2000 points and grab 1000 rebounds (and bear in mind that basketball was invented in New England by Dr. Naismith).
Tunji is only one of about four Division 1 college basketball players in the entire 80-year history of NCAA basketball in the US to have at least 2000 points, 1000 rebounds and 300 blocked shots (the others being basketball hall of famers David Robinson and Alonzo Mourning, plus Derrick Coleman). He was also a four-year MVP in college and won both conference POTY and tournament MVP in his senior year.
Going by your theory, every player that Tunji dominated in his US high school senior year and college career just “did not have the exposure” to proper basketball education, training, equipment and residual knowledge - even though virtually all of them grew up playing organized basketball in the US while Tunji was running around the streets of Lagos playing at Rowe Park Yaba and so on, with little formal coaching.