Gabe Vincent: Winning Olympic Gold with Nigeria is greater than an NBA Championship with Lakers

Nigerian-American professional basketball player Gabriel Nnamdi Vincent is back in the news.

Vincent recently joined the Los Angeles Lakers on a reported 29 billion naira deal during NBA free agency.

Born to a Nigerian father Gabe Vincent of the LA Lakers is a national representative for the D’Tigers.

Nigeria's D'Tigers did not qualify for the  2023 FIBA World Cup, but the newest Lakers star places winning on the international competition greater than winning the NBA title.

Vincent gave an explanation of why he prefers winning the World Cup to receiving an NBA ring in a conversation with JJ Redick for the podcast The Old Man and the Three.

He said, "For me personally, I've been looking forward to raising that Larry O'Brien trophy.

"But knowing how much it would mean to the 400-plus million people in Nigeria, let along the 1-point something billion in the continent of Africa, that's a hard one to pass up. Especially in this sport where African teams really haven't had much of a footing.

"I think that'd be, not only would it be fulfilling, and great, in its own way, but I think legacy wise, I think it would stand taller, stand a little longer. 

"So, I'm gonna reluctantly have to say the gold medal with Nigeria. I think that would just be epic."

Vincent rose to stardom when the D'Tigers recorded a shock victory against the USA in a friendly ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

At the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, where the D'Tigers finished 17th, Vincent played his first game for the team.

Despite not having much basketball success, Nigeria has qualified for the last three Olympic tournaments.

It is unclear if Vincent will now feature for the D'Tigers in the 2024 Pre-Olympic qualifiers in Lagos.