Originally written by Anthony Slater
On Saturday night, in Las Vegas, Nigeria's game to beat The United States, Mike Brown and his teaching assistants were leaving their mark from start to finish. Brown stressed the pressure on ball carriers throughout the game and played aggressively on the defensive end. Greg Popovich said after the game that the intensity of the Nigerian team's physical confrontation was indeed different from that of the United States team. The 20 three-pointers they made also helped them.
Nigeria's game was fast-paced enough to fly, shooting 42 three-pointers in 40 minutes of game time. They constantly created open opportunities in the conversion of fast attacks and half-court positions, using simple but efficient tactics (such as hand-to-hand shooting, etc.) to constantly burn down the U.S. defense. Before the game, people thought that the American team could win with a 30-point lead or more. The U.S. team tried to wake up in the final minutes to avoid a cold loss, but Nigeria still relied on Brown's tactical guidance to reach the final finish line. In the final 30 seconds, Nigeria led by three points, and Brown was very clever to let his team foul twice in a row, which prevented Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Zach Lavin from equalizing cleanly. They turned the game into a free throw shootout and won it.
Earlier in the first half, when Durant made his second free throw, the ball seemed to bounce into the basket, but Chimezier-Meitu jumped up and flew the racket before it bounced into the basket. In the NBA such behavior can be blown to interfere with the ball, but in international games, the ball is not blown, and Brown has prepared his team to take advantage of that.
Brown said: "I have to give the credit for winning to Sammy Gelfonder. Sammy Guerfonder is an analytical coach for the Detroit Pistons (and one of Nigeria's assistant coaches). He has been doing his best to teach us, including me, what the rules of basketball on the international court are, and he has helped us get through the rules adaptation period. He found us an explanatory video of the jamming ball. Under Sami Gelfonder's leadership, our understanding of the rules of international competition has become more and more profound, from the dribbling rules, to the rules of interference ball determination, to how to foul in the right way in our backcourt. ”
From the time Brown took over Nigeria, he knew it would take at least 5 years for the team to grow to the heights he wanted. There are a lot of players in the NBA from Nigeria, but not only have the best players never played for the national team, but there are also players like Bam Adebayo who have chosen to go to the United States. In addition to the United States, the best national teams like Australia or Spain, their core players have been playing together since they were teenagers, so every time they get together for an international competition, they show obvious chemistry.
Brown said: "We are trying to build this national team. This team has a really good young player named McKinsey Mbakau, who is now 16 years old. Ranked fifth among 16-year-old high school players in the United States (the high school ratings website Rivals ranked five-star high school student Mbaco fifth among the class of 2023). He's Nigerian and he's been at our bootcamp and he's been training with us. Aside from connecting with his teammates, he needs to go through everything once. For us, we have a new generation of players to build around the team and we will build a young national team as soon as possible that will drive basketball in Nigeria. Because we do have talent, our talent pool does have depth. ”
Nigeria's goal at the Olympics is to win a medal. Although they did achieve results on Saturday, this goal was a bit difficult for them. Brown tried to recruit some of the more well-known players in the NBA, such as Monte Morris, but in the end, Brown only recruited seven NBA players, none of whom averaged more than 6.3 points per game last season.
These players are: Chimezier Mettu (Kings), Jalil Okafor (Pistons), Presches Achuva (Heat), Gable Vincent (Heat), Josh Okoji (Timberwolves), KZ Okpala (Heat), Miye Oni (Jazz).
Saturday is just the beginning of the show, and next month's Olympic games will build momentum for the young team. Nigeria and Mike Brown have quickly gone viral on social media, and according to Brown, his phone was about to explode after the game. Even at his online press conference, an African journalist went into Zoom's live room and told Brown that the whole of Africa was excited about the victory.
Brown said: "If the whole of Nigeria is thrilled by this victory, that's really great. We want this to happen because we want people all over the world – especially Nigerians living everywhere – we want them to show that sense of excitement... Hopefully, more people will follow this trend. Friends who are interested in Basketball nigeria, please log on to our website and support us in a variety of ways, because we desperately need your love. ”
They need love and some financial support, like everything, and the more money they put in, the better the results. This victory will not only attract a lot of attention, but also bring economic benefits to this national team. It was the first time a national team from Africa had beaten the United States.
Without Brown, none of this would have happened. In the middle of last month, Brown used his connections with the Warriors to set up a Nigerian national team training camp in oakland, the Warriors' old training gym. They brought a wide variety of players to this team, which was the first step in laying the foundation for the Nigerian team. Brown then hired assistant coaches with NBA experience, including Jody Fernandez (Nuggets assistant coach), Geerfonder and Luke Roux (former Warriors player development coaches) and some of the Warriors' staff. They spent a few weeks more training than the U.S., which made them look more like the well-prepared team on Saturday night. Gabb Vincent, who scored six three-pointers throughout the game, mentioned in a post-match interview that the national team's hiring of Brown as head coach not only improved their game efficiency, but also increased the attractiveness of Nigerian basketball.
Vincent said: "For other Nigerian NBA players, the national team has an old face that they know, know, and know the roots, or it is very attractive, and they can come to the national team to experience this feeling." ”
Although it was just a warm-up game, Brown created the greatest basketball moment for Nigeria on his first national team game day.
Vincent said: "This is just the beginning. ”