US basketball team suffer historic loss to Nigeria

Jul 12, 2021 06:00 am

Nigeria shocked the US 90-87 in a pre-Olympic basketball friendly in Las Vegas yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Nigeria, with six NBA players and former NBA head coach Mike Brown at the helm, became the first African nation to beat the US, who were playing the first of five tune-up games before the Tokyo Olympics.

The United States , who were without three players still active in the NBA Finals, had Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant leading them with 17 points.

Nigeria, which had 12 NBA players in its 49-man training camp in California and seven in uniform on Saturday, were led by Gabe Vincent with 21 points.

"I'm kind of glad it happened," said US head coach Gregg Popovich, noting Nigeria had been training together since late June while the US had assembled just four days earlier. - AFP