Okogie strives to build a winning culture within Nigeria Basketball

TOKYO (Japan) - He might have been born in Lagos, Nigeria but since he was three years old, Josh Okogie was a Georgia boy, growing up in the small rural town of Snellville, just outside of Atlanta. His basketball dreams were decidedly American. You know, first college ball, then the NBA.

Growing to 6'4" (193 cm), he excelled in the game at Shiloh High School where his jersey now hangs in the rafters. Underrated by many scouts, he chose to stay close to home for college, playing at Georgia Tech where he proved them wrong, averaging over 16 points and 5 rebounds as a freshman, improving to 18 points per game as a sophomore.

Along the way, his success at Georgia Tech earned him a spot on the USA Basketball roster for the 2017 FIBA U19 World Cup in Cairo where the Americans won a bronze medal. He reveled in the chance to represent the country that he called home.

Underestimated no more, he stayed for only two years before he was drafted #20 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2018. He's started 60 percent of his 195 games over three NBA seasons.

Okogie wants others to be green with envy about Nigeria's basketball culture

Well before all this, a decade back when he was around 12 years old, Okogie was visiting family in Nigeria where an uncle remarked about his burgeoning basketball skills. "He said, if you have any opportunity to play with Nigeria, please do. We would love to see you play for the country," Okogie related to Minneapolis media before leaving for Tokyo.

Though he had already represented the USA on the junior level, when the chance came to represent his homeland in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China, Okogie knew that this was a chance to do something bigger, an opportunity to build something. The USA has never not been a basketball power. Nigeria is unfulfilled potential with a legacy waiting to be written.

"And that always just resonated with me and that's what actually pushed me to try to play with the Nigerian national team."

On what it felt like to don the green jersey at the World Cup, Okogie told FIBA, "Basketball-wise, it was one of the best experiences of my life, not only being able to play for yourself but being able to play and represent a whole country. I feel that's the greatest pride a player can play with."

Okogie was Nigeria's top offensive engine in China, averaging 12.6 points and 4.4 assists per game. They were a very balanced team with 11 of 12 players averaging five or more points per game. After losing their first two matches in the World Cup, they won their last three to take 17^th place, one ahead of Germany who D'Tigers will face in game two in Tokyo.

 While he's committed to winning every time out, Okogie, one of eight NBA players on the roster, knows that it is a work in progress. A rising power in African basketball, this is both Nigeria's third consecutive Olympic Games and third overall.

"For me, there's no losing, just learning."

"I don't ever think it's a surprise when we win or beat a team," referring to the amount of preparation put in by the coaching staff and players. "We don't prepare to lose, ever. We don't practice to lose, ever."

He knows that real success will be measured over the long term even though progress was clearly evident in the three games they played in Las Vegas before coming to Japan. They upset both the USA and Argentina before getting blown up by Australia.

Josh Okogie at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup

Nigeria's leading scorer at the World Cup, he is now being asked to run the offense to which he says, winning is more important than scoring.

"I actually didn't know how we were going to look because we've been beating up on each other in practice for the last two weeks but to come out here and play as one for the first time, I was really proud to be a Nigerian basketball player."

The win over the Americans was nice but not when it counts. Still, it was a big deal for the growing basketball country.

"My uncles and my aunts who still live in Nigeria have been texting me saying how proud they are that we won. For the country, it's definitely big that we were able to defeat the USA."

Okogie says that whatever happens in Japan, it will be another foundation stone for the future. After losing to the Boomers by 39 in Las Vegas, Nigeria cut that margin by half to 84-67 in their Olympic opener on Sunday. Even more than the win, Okogie sees something else in Australia's sustained success and that of countries like France, Serbia and Spain that he wants for Nigeria.

"We're trying to grow one of those teams where we have a great basketball culture. It starts with tournaments like this. For me (these exhibition games) have been a success. Whether we won all three or lost all three, the way we grew from where we started in training camp a couple of weeks ago until now, we've taken tremendous steps."

"The job is so far from being done. Even after the Olympics, the job is going to be far from done. We just have to set this tone, have a great showing in the Olympics, not just now but for future tournaments we have to set the standard on how Nigerian basketball is going to be played."

FIBA