D’Tigers Captain Ike Diogu has disclosed that he was shocked to hear the news that Alex Nwora has been replaced by the Assistant Coach Of Golden State Warriors, Mike Brown as Head Coach of the team despite his achievements for the side.
Diogu said this while featuring on the BCOS TV Sports Programme Saturday Breakfast Sports Show anchored by Boluwaji Ogunmola and produced by Adewale Tijani.
The D’Tigers Captain, who speaking from his base in Phoenix, Arizona USA via Skype, however believed that Mike Brown has the resume to take the team to the next level.
Mike Brown, whose appointment was trailed by heated reactions, will take charge of D’Tigers at next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Ike Diogu said, “I was shocked just like anybody else when I heard the news that Coach Alex wasn’t going to be coming back, as I have a very close relationship with him. I enjoyed playing for Coach Alex, and his record speaks for itself”, Diogu said.
“Since he became our coach, he’s won a lot of games, he qualified us for the World Championships and the Olympics. So it was tough to adjust the change of coaching crew but I’m happy he’ll still go to the Olympics with us because he’s earned that right,” the U.S born basketball star concluded.
Coach Mike Brown led The Warriors to a 11-0 record during the 2016-17 NBA playoffs when their Head Coach, Steve Kerr was absent for health reasons.
Before then Brown had worked with the likes of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and late Kobe Bryant.
Alex Nwora was dropped as D’Tigers Head Coach after qualifying the team for Tokyo Olympics.
Answering questions on the rumour of a possible switch of allegiance by Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, Ike Diogu said he has not had any conversation with the Brooklyn Nets guard and was not sure of the authenticity of the report.
“I’ve not had any conversation with Spencer, I’ve heard stories just like everybody has, I don’t know if that’s accurate or not” he concluded.
Last month, it was reported that Spencer was making plans to play for the Nigerian national team in next years Tokyo Olympics.
The report said Dinwiddie is working to acquire a Nigerian passport so that he can play for D’Tigers in the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics next year.
The Tokyo Olympics were originally billed to hold this summer but were postponed to 2021 due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
