Available at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the team recorded even more stunning feats defeating world number four and five basketball teams, Lithuania and Greece.

Long before the tourney, nobody gave the team a chance to do well until it recorded an impressive 86 - 80 victory over Great Britain in a friendly game as part of the build-up to the qualifying tournament just a few days before the event dunked off. But the little hope roused by the victory over GB was quashed by the team's loss to host Venezuela in the opening game of the tourney.

The team however rallied and came back to beat Lithuania to make it to the quarterfinal stage and then went to defeat Greece to make it to the semifinals. It was here that it lost again to Russia, but having booked a place in the last four, it battled for crumbs in the third place match and emerged victorious over the Dominican Republic, yet another powerful basketball team.

In all, the D'Tigers' appearance at the Olympics is deserved and its performance as narrated above has been giving basketball pundits hope of a gold medal in London. However, the fact that the team is pooled alongside basketball giants, USA, and its Southern American counterpart, Argentina, seems to speak different volumes in the other direction. Also in the group are Lithuania (that would probably be gunning for revenge) and Tunisia, the African champions that Nigeria could not defeat back home at the Afrobasket ball event.

Clearly, making it to the Olympics does not already guarantee Nigeria a medal nor good result in the basketball event.

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