Happy frolicking with the Ducks
Olumide Oyedeji might be in a dilemma over his status with D'Tigers, the Nigerian national team he dumped in August 2003, but the reverse is the case with his club career, which has received a mighty boost at the Beijing Ducks in China.
Denied of sufficient playing time in his short NBA career, first with Seattle Supersonics and later at Orlando Magic, Oyedeji headed back to Europe two years ago to revive his club career. He had stops in Germany and Greece, yet the former Dodan Warriors and Ebun Comets centre found no fulfilment in his profession.
"I became tired of sitting on the bench and I had to do something about it," says Oyedeji, who will forever be grateful to Seven-UP Bottling Co Plc for its sponsorship of Premier League, Nigeria's first attempt at a credible basketball competition, which took off in 1995. "I made money in the NBA but I was a sad person with the limited time I had in matches. "Money is not everything and I could not play as I wanted." This forced the gangling 6'11" lad to return to do a soul searching, and he headed for China, the land that produced Yao Ming for the NBA's Houston Rockets. There he found the Ducks, and has just completed his second season there. "I'm so happy now playing basketball and making money," says Oyedeji, who helped the Ducks to the second position in their conference in China for the first time in their history at the end of the regular season last April. His performance for the Ducks has led for calls for him to be drafted to the Chinese national team, and he has even played an exhibition game for the national team. "I won't mind returning to China to play with the Ducks," he says. "The league there is growing and even Americans are going there from the NBA. Since I'm enjoying myself, I see no reason why I can't return there." But Oyedeji will only return to China if the other deals he is working on - including NBA deals - fail to materialise in the months ahead. Although he radiated happiness during our recent meeting in Lagos - he was working out with one of Nigeria's leading teams, Comets, who were preparing for the soon-to-start Premier League season - a heartrending dejection still pervaded the atmosphere. Don't grope too long. It had to with Nigeria - more like his decision to quit playing for the national team after Angola beat Nigeria by 20 points in the final of the FIBA Africa Championship 2003 in Alexandria, Egypt, a result he felt was caused by the poor attitude and preparation of D'Tigers by the Nigerian authorities. "I took that decision because the authorities don't treat Nigerian players with respect," he says, a furious tone creeping into lines. "It is not that I can't change my mind, but since I made the announcement, nobody in the hierarchy of the Nigeria Basketball Federation has contacted me. His decision, which is rather unpopular in the Nigerian tennis community, started building up when Oyedeji represented Nigeria in the 1999 seventh All Africa Games in South Africa. He had an injury which the Sports Ministry refused to treat. After undergoing operation at the cost of $10,000, Oyedeji is inconsolable that nobody has refunded the money till now. He also puts the intractable in fighting in the Nigeria basketball board as one of the causes for his decision, which has decimated the ranks of the national team that will soon be fighting for one of the three qualifying tickets to the FIBA World Championship 2006. "Everyday I get mails and calls that I should rescind the decision," he says in his drawl that he picked up while in the United States. "The pressure is enormous and there are times I put off my computer so that I won't see the mails." Will he change his mind? He could. Fiba.com 0
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