Claim that Nigeria’s basketball team, D’Tigers now rank 4th in the world is MISLEADING

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IN JULY, Nigeria’s basketball team, otherwise known as D’Tigers was in the news after back to back victories over the USA and Argentina teams.

However, many Nigerian blogs claimed that the team has been ranked 4th best team in the world by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

The news, which was published on Vanguard newspaper [archived here and BSN sport [archived here] claimed that the team has moved from 22nd position to 4th on the global (FIBA) ranking.

“The latest ranking released Friday afternoon see the Nigerian side moved from 22nd to 4th in the world,” the news read on Vanguard.

Similarly, a Twitter user, Mohammed Jammal with the username @whitenigerian also tweeted the claim on his verified Twitter page on July 17.

However, Jammal came back after he was corrected by his followers that his claim was faulty.

“Correction: We were ranked 4th out of 12 Olympic teams. Not 4th in the world,” he tweeted, quoting his previous tweet.

THE CLAIM

D’Tigers now 4th on FIBA ranking

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

According to the latest ranking by the FIBA world ranking, Nigeria’s men basketball team, D’Tigers occupies the 22nd position in the world.

The ranking was last updated in March, after the February 2021 window of the FIBA Continental Cup qualifiers.

However, FIBA has adjudged D’Tigers as the fourth-best team out of the 12 countries that will compete in basketball at the Tokyo Olympics starting July 23. This  ranking is a power ranking which covers only teams participating in the Olympic.

In this ranking released on FIBA’s website on July 16, Nigeria ranked above Argentina, and the trio of Australia, Spain, and the US.

The power ranking, which places Nigeria on the 4th position, is different from the FIBA World Ranking.

The power ranking is based on the teams’ recent form. It is determined by dividing the sum of all the winning points, tie points, schedule points, and bonus points by the number of games played.

D’Tigers ranked 4th of the teams participating in Tokyo Olympics because of their recent victories over  US and Argentina teams in the Olympics tune-up held in Las Vegas.

THE VERDICT

The claim that D’Tigers now rank 4th on FIBA ranking is MISLEADING. The team ranks fourth-best team out of the 12 countries that will compete in basketball at the Tokyo Olympics but still maintains 22nd position in the world

UPDATE:

July 28, 2021: The FactCheckHub, however, reached out to the Vanguard Newspaper Online editor, who noted that the claim in the news was erroneously published and the report was eventually corrected.

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