The Nigerian giant basketball team are now ranked 23 in the world and number 1 in Africa, apparently owing to their eye-catching performances in the last one year and have been rewarded for their efforts.

They became the first team in the world to qualify for the 2019 FIBAWC and did so unbeaten. In China, D’Tigers won three and lost two of the five games played to finish 17th of the 32 participating teams.

Nigeria’s D’Tigers also picked the continent’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic ticket by finishing as the best African team at the FIBAWC.

In second place behind Nigeria in the African rankings is Angola (WR – 32) followed by Tunisia (WR – 33) in third position with the highest jump moving up 18 places to close in on Angola.

Despite a disappointing outing in China, USA maintain their position at the top of the world rankings with reigning champions Spain also maintaining second position after closing the gap between themselves and the United States.