Former D’Tigers captain and NBA legend, Olumide Oyedeji, has lamented the poor treatment of the 2015 Afrobasket men’s winning team by the Federal Government, saying that the team deserved proper recognition.

D’Tigers, captained by Oyedeji, won the country’s first AfroBasket trophy in Tunisia in 2015 after several attempts, following a 74-65 win over favorites Angola in the final.

In a live Instagram interview with The PUNCH, the former Orlando Magic star said it was unfair how the government treated the team despite achieving a milestone.

Olumide said, “If it was football, we would have been more appreciated and rewarded.

“Even the money they gave us, we didn’t want to collect it; we wanted to show that we were there to serve the country.

“The Super Eagles that won the Nations Cup in 2013 were given N5m each and a plot of land in Abuja and were also awarded different national honors for a trophy that they were not winning for the first time.”

Oyedeji added, “We were not asking for lands or houses, we just wanted to be appreciated. We were given $1,000, $2,000 which was about N600,000 at that time, but they gave N1.2m to the U-17 team for winning the World Cup and gave us just N600,000 for winning the AfroBasket trophy.

“But we are good, we did it for our country.”