₦airaland Forum

FIBA denies Ogwumike’s bid to play for Nigeria
17th October 2025


Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike’s dream to play for Nigeria at the Olympics is over.

The international basketball federation turned down her application to compete for the African nation at next year’s World Cup and at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

It was the third time that FIBA had denied Ogwumike’s appeal to play for Nigeria.

She had been trying to play for the country, where her parents were born, since the Tokyo Games in 2021.

“After the second time trying to appeal, I made my peace with it. The third time, I was like, let me say I gave it my all. I’m kind of at the point where I’m very much over it.

“It’s unfortunate, but there are just certain things you can’t control,” Ogwumike said in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

“My involvement with the USA is for them, their strongest point, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense that it does to the individual who’s being penalised for it.

“You guys are going to continue using this excuse over and over again. I’m not about to beat a dead horse. I gave it an honest try ,so I feel fine about it,” she added.

FIBA said in a statement to the AP that Ogwumike’s petition was denied.

Her first application was turned down because FIBA said she tried to switch from the U.S. to Nigeria too close to the start of the Olympics.

The governing body then said her appeal to play in last year’s Paris Games came after the deadline and that she had been an important part of the U.S. national team in its victories in the 2014 and 2018 World Cup.

FIBA stated that it tried to discourage athletes from playing for more than one senior national team in their careers.

USA Basketball gave its blessing for Ogwumike to try to play for Nigeria. She was left off the American team at the Tokyo Games team despite being one of the best players in the WNBA because of a knee sprain she suffered in June that year. Her recovery time would have had her back in time for the Olympics.

Ogwumike, who averaged 18.3 points and 7.0 rebounds this season for Seattle, wasn’t the only U.S. player to be denied a chance to play for Nigeria.

Elizabeth Williams also had sought to play for them, but she, too, was denied. Ogwumike’s younger sister, Chiney, had her application approved with reservations.

“Because Chiney never played on a world championships team, that’s why there are different statuses. They also told me that if I had gotten my passport a little earlier, then my chances would have been better,” Ogwumike said.

Ogwumike said that when she was younger, she was told by USA Basketball not to try to get a passport from another country.

“It would hurt our chances of playing for the USA. I wasn’t even trying to get it for basketball. I was just trying to get it because my parents are Nigerian. And I’m the first generation born here, so they kind of scared us into not getting passports from other countries from which our families were from,” Ogwumike said.

Nigeria has been one of the up-and-coming teams in international play in recent years.

The country became the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics at the Paris Games before losing to the U.S. The addition of Ogwumike would have potentially given the team a better chance to advance even further, which is something that the 35-year-old former MVP feels hurt her case.

“That’s kind of the undercurrent of what they weren’t necessarily saying directly to us, but we assumed was happening,” Ogwumike said.

Ogwumike hopes that her fight to try to play for Nigeria will help shed some light on the process and “how people decide to pick their nationalities when they want to represent their country.”

lordm:
What a touching story. Keep trying

nairalanda1:
The fact that we are looking for overseas Nigerians and foreign born Nigerians to play for us shows the poor state of basketball in this country.

No grassroots basketball programs, no high school programs, weak university basketball programs, etc etc.

We don't take sports seriously in this country except for the national football teams.

Stolen:
fiba done dey kolomental

FreeStuffsNG:
How many Argentine team players that won world cup play in Argentine league and why is it that England and Spain never win world cup despite having very lucrative league?

She had been trying to play for the country, where her parents were born, since the Tokyo Games in 2021.

FreeStuffsNG:
https://punchng.com/fiba-denies-ogwumikes-bid-to-play-for-nigeria/

FreeStuffsNG:
It's like you want the book of lamentations all to yourself.

You are just ignorant by thinking that if your citizens play in foreign leagues it now means your national sports is backwards. You don’t know anything about sports development at all

nairalanda1:
The fact that we are looking for overseas Nigerians and foreign born Nigerians to play for us shows the poor state of basketball in this country.

No grassroots basketball programs, no high school programs, weak university basketball programs, etc etc.

We don't take sports seriously in this country except for the national football teams.

FreeStuffsNG:
Ogwumike hopes that her fight to try to play for Nigeria will help shed some light on the process and “how people decide to pick their nationalities when they want to represent their country.”

Ogwumike said that when she was younger, she was told by USA Basketball not to try to get a passport from another country.

She had been trying to play for the country, where her parents were born, since the Tokyo Games in 2021.


Eeya..
I blame her parents and I hope others who raise their children not to identify as Nigerian can see the folly of their actions.

It's a spiritual thing; if you deny the land, it will deny you too and if you bless it, it will bless you too.

While Ashley Plumptre, with mixed race parentage, identified as a Nigerian right from her childhood, her parents got her her Nigerian passport early and she eventually played for Nigeria, Nneka, with 100% Nigerian parentage, both parents born and raised in Nigeria, was raised to be a Non-Nigerian by Nigerian parents, was eventually denied to play for Nigeria. Smh.

Many of you will learn las las that inferiority complex can deny you of a lot of things in life. Your adopted countries know that if you can abandon your own land, you are a rolling stone who will abandon them someday too

I sincerely hope that she will raise her own kids to be Nigerians.

FreeStuffsNG:
Ogwumike hopes that her fight to try to play for Nigeria will help shed some light on the process and “how people decide to pick their nationalities when they want to represent their country.”

Ogwumike said that when she was younger, she was told by USA Basketball not to try to get a passport from another country.

She had been trying to play for the country, where her parents were born, since the Tokyo Games in 2021.


Eeya..
I blame her parents and I hope others who raise their children not to identify as Nigerian can see the folly of their actions.

It's a spiritual thing; if you deny the land, it will deny you too and if you bless it, it will bless you too.

While Ashley Plumptre, with mixed race parentage, identified as a Nigerian right from her childhood, her parents got her her Nigerian passport early and she eventually played for Nigeria, Nneka, with 100% Nigerian parentage, both parents born and raised in Nigeria, was raised to be a Non-Nigerian by Nigerian parents, was eventually denied to play for Nigeria. Smh.

Many of you will learn las las that inferiority complex can deny you of a lot of things in life. Your adopted countries know that if you can abandon your own land, you are a rolling stone who will abandon them someday too

I sincerely hope that she will raise her own kids to be Nigerians.

miketayo:
Do we really take the national football team seriously. There is always one clash with NFF before or after every tournament

FreeStuffsNG:
Ogwumike hopes that her fight to try to play for Nigeria will help shed some light on the process and “how people decide to pick their nationalities when they want to represent their country.”

Ogwumike said that when she was younger, she was told by USA Basketball not to try to get a passport from another country.

She had been trying to play for the country, where her parents were born, since the Tokyo Games in 2021.


Eeya..
I blame her parents and I hope others who raise their children not to identify as Nigerian can see the folly of their actions.

It's a spiritual thing; if you deny the land, it will deny you too and if you bless it, it will bless you too.

FreeStuffsNG:
It's all over for her. Even her younger sister, Chinenye, has been affected by the horrible and unpatriotic choices of her parents.

There are many Nigerians in diaspora who will learn this lesson in a bitter way with the way some of them run down Nigeria because of the hate they used to raise some of them.

They raised her to be American and she is just a victim of decisions she later realized was unfavorable to her.

She has regularized her Nigerian citizenship, albeit late, and she has an opportunity to correct the mistake her parents did with her by raising her own children to identify as Nigerias.

Ucheamani:
The question you should've asked is " to who's disadvantage? Ogwumike who's an accomplished athlete or Nigeria?

nairalanda1:
Many international sporting federations don't like senior players playing for one country

Some years ago, fifa allowed it, and all of a sudden Qatar showed up with three brilliant Brazilian players. That led to fears that rich countries would buy players to play for them

Fiba prefers that at the end countries develop their homegrown talent, not bring it from abroad. That way basketball becomes even more popular worldwide, and countries like Nigeria don't use foreign players to cover their defective local basketball programs

fabolouz1:
If this is not racism ,I wonder then what it is.
How do you deny someone her wish with flimsy excuses ?

Ucheamani:
The question you should've asked is " to who's disadvantage? Ogwumike who's an accomplished athlete or Nigeria?

Stolen:
A Nigerian should be allowed to play for Nigeria.