Perspective from Sport

The Olympics is here at last, there is no better place to be than London, I feel privileged to be living in this beautiful city, moreover I live some 15 minutes away from the Olympic park, No one would have thought Stratford would be this transformed some odd 15 years ago .Stratford is situated in the eastern part of London, I remember my very first experience of Stratford, the place looks so dilapidated,the shopping mall at the time was practically a market,very cold and you could tell from the environment that it was a poverty stricken area. Stratford is under the London Borough of Newham . Newham was said to be the among the 5 poorest  borough in London as February 2012. But irrespective of this fact, Stratford and some of it neighbouring areas have witnessed significant transformation in its outlook. New properties spring up and the Westfield Shopping Centre which is said to be the biggest in Europe. Local businesses, particularly shops and property agent will also want to take a

Basketball has suddenly taken the centre stage after the impressive and surprising qualification of the Nigerian Basketball team to the London 2012 Olympic Game.This has given Nigerian some lift particularly when football is in an all time low. The qualification could potentially begin a new era of the game in Nigeria. The Basketball team has generated quite a number of Nigeria followers in the last one week following the performance of D' Tigers as they are known. Basketball has the potential of almost getting as close to football in terms of patronage in Nigeria .  The game gained some sort of popularity in the Nigeria in the 80's through different platforms. Akeem Olajuwon ,one of the best centres in the NBA history, was from Nigeria so his participation gained some interest.Chuka Momah's  Saturday evening broadcast of the NBA tagged Sports Spectacular increased the awareness at the time. We had basketball teams like Leventis Buffaloes of Lagos Plateau Peaks of Jos ,Ni