The Nigeria Basketball Federation this week named NBA coaching veteran David Fizdale as the new head coach of the D'Tigers, the country's senior men's national basketball team.
The 51-year-old, who has spent more than two decades working in the NBA, where he has won two Championships with the Miami Heat, coached Hall of Famers, and held a front office role, takes over a programme that has fallen off their perch in recent years.
Fizdale has set his sights on turning things around, with his sights set on not just qualifying for, but medalling at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
"We have to make getting to Los Angeles our mission," he said in an interview with M4S TV in Nigeria.
"That is my ultimate goal, to get this team to those Olympics. And not just get there. I want to win."
David Fizdale, who has two NBA rings as coach, was appointed Nigeria's men's head coach and tasked with leading them to both the FIBA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images D'Tigers, suffering the consequences of the never-ending leadership troubles that have plagued Nigerian basketball, have suffered some undignified losses and currently sit third in Group C of the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers, which is the first step of their route to the Games.
They were beaten by Tunisia and Guinea and could only manage an overtime win over Rwanda.
Fizdale added: "We can't set short goals. We can't just say, 'Oh, we're happy to be in the Olympics.' That is not acceptable. We have to set higher goals. We have to set the same goals as the U.S. team, the same expectations as the U.S. team.
"Can we reach it? I don't know. But if we're shooting for that and working in that way, pushing ourselves and holding ourselves accountable to be on that level, only good things can come out of that.
"I guarantee you one thing, the guys I've talked to who want to play and are working to get eligibility, they're not going to be happy just to be at the Olympics. They're going to want to win a medal."