Nigeria Content Online

Nigerian
basketball player, Solomon Alabi has a chance to impress the entire
coaching team of the Toronto Raptors ahead of the upcoming 2010/2011
National Basketball Association (NBA) season.

The Kaduna-born
Alabi got the opportunity after the Raptors’ prized rookie Ed Davis
underwent arthroscopic surgery to fix a meniscus tear to his right knee.

Davis, who was
selected out of North Carolina with the 13th pick of this year’s NBA
draft, hurt his knee while playing a pickup game not sanctioned by the
NBA side a week ago and had to undergo surgery on Monday to fix the
tear.

Canadian newspaper,
The Toronto Sun reported that the 21 year-old will be out for close to
two months before he will be able to resume basketball-related
activities.

And with the club’s
training camp all set to commence next week, there is no way the 6 foot
9 inch power forward will return in time for the Raptors’ first
pre-season game in Vancouver on October 6, or for the commencement of
the new season which gets underway on October 26.

It was however a
blessing in disguise for Alabi, who was acquired at the last NBA draft
on June 24 from the Dallas Mavericks, as he now has a chance to make an
impression with the coaching staff and become a starter ahead of his
debut season in the world’s most competitive basketball league.

Selected 50th
overall in the 2010 NBA draft, the 7 foot 1 inch Alabi is renowned for
his defensive abilities but has in the past two months added offensive
qualities to his skills’ repertoire. The 22 year-old was discovered
seven years ago in Nigeria by the Raptors’ erstwhile assistant general
manager, and former Nigerian basketball star Masai Ujiri who is now
with the Denver Nuggets.

Udoka in Chicago

News out of Chicago
has it that Nigerian basketball player Ime Udoka had a workout with the
Chicago Bulls on Wednesday at the Berto Centre.

A report in
Chicagobreakingsports.com stated that no contract offer was made, but
that it’s possible that the 32-year-old Udoka, who spent last season
with the Sacramento Kings but who had previously played for the
Portland Trail Blazers and the San Antonio Spurs, could secure a
training camp invitation from the team that was led to six NBA titles
by the legendary Michael Jordan back in the 90s.

However out of the
start of training camp is Kelenna Azubuike of the New York Knicks who
is still recovering from patella tendon surgery in his knee from last
November.

“He’s got one of
the roughest injuries for a basketball player; the patella tendon,” New
York Knicks president of basketball operations Donnie Walsh said during
a pre-camp press conference. “He’s been here for three weeks, working
9-to-5 every day. Our trainers feel he can do it. But there’s always
the danger of a setback.

“I don’t think he’ll be ready for training camp but he could be ready for the regular season when that rolls around.”

Azubuike, a 6 foot 5 inch shooting guard, was born in London,
England to Nigerian parents but has yet to represent his country of
birth or Nigeria.