Michael Gbinije and
his Nigeria basketball team have won a spot in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Nigeria dethroned Angola in the final
of AfroBasket 2015, overwhelming the perennial African champion 74-65
today in Tunisia. The win means Nigeria not only won its first-ever AfroBasket
title, it also captured the automatic qualifying spot to the 2016 Olympic
Games.
"It's a big swag booster for
me," Gbinije said by message, "because I can refer to myself as
an Olympian."
Nigeria dominated the backboards
60-37 and outscored Angola 33-8 from the free throw line. Gbinije grabbed three
rebounds and continued to play solid defense in Sunday's game. The Syracuse
guard played 15 minutes, 16 seconds in the title contest. He shot 1-of-2 from
the floor and made both of his free throw attempts.
Champ Oguchi led the Nigerians with
19 points, seven rebounds.
Michael Gbinije was invited to try
out for the Nigerian team because his father, Frank, is a native of that West
African nation. Michael said today he wanted to "congratulate
Nigeria" and its president, Muhammadu Buhari, whom he met during the
AfroBasket tournament.
Mike Gbinije has never been to
Nigeria. That did not prevent him from happily posing for photos with his
Nigeria team members on the AfroBasket podium. Gbinije kept holding up his gold
medal and smiling.
"Playing on this team was a
unique experience for me," he said. "Overall, I enjoyed playing with
these guys."
Frank Gbinije watched today's game
via FIBA's live feed and was thrilled to see Nigeria win and his son contribute
to the team's push to Rio.
"I'm pretty excited," Frank
Gbinije said by telephone. "I'm glad he had the opportunity. I think it's
been a wonderful experience for him and something he can carry into his senior
season at Syracuse."
Michael Gbinije, his dad said, is
expected to arrive in the United States on Tuesday. He will then travel home to
Virginia and turn around the next day to make the trip to Syracuse.
0 comments:
Post a Comment