Another Nigerian Basketballer Lashes Out at ESPN's Stephen Smith For Disrespecting The National Flag

Deji Akindele has slammed ESPN reporter Stephen Smith following remarks made about Nigerian basketball stars

D'Tigers were victorious over the United States in an international friendly recently, the first in the country's history

The West Africans also recorded another win over their Argentine counterparts in another warm-up game before the Olympics

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ESPN reporter Stephen Smith is getting clap backs from professional Nigerian Nigerian basketball stars for his recent derogatory comments.

Veteran basketballer Deji Akindele is the latest player to call out the journalist who aired his frustrations on national television, where he spoke rudely about the D'Tigers following their victory over the United States.

The Nigerian D'Tigers recorded an emphatic 90-87 scoreline over the number four team in the world and the favourites to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics in a warm-up friendly recently.

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And while Stephens blamed the US team for letting the West African get a rare win over them, he made belittling remarks about the native names of Nigerian players.

This has caused reactions from the Nigerian Basket Ball Federation (NBBF) as well as members of the squad including Nnamdi Okoye and Josh Okogie have responded to the American.

It is now the turn of the '7ft1' player Akindele who hails for Ogun state, the western part of Nigeria, to give his own side of his words.

The 38-year-old who represented Nigeria at the 2007 and 2009 African Championships posted his reacted on Instagram:

"Stephen Smith or whatever your name is, as a proud Nigerian and as one of the guys that started the road to the Tokyo Olympics, for us to make it to the Games three times in a row and discredit us by saying we don't deserve to beat the US.

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"They lace up their shoes the same way, they have millions of dollars in their pocket, they are in the NBA but most of us aren't, but guess what, no everybody will be in the NBA.

"Those guys went out there and put everything they've got, so it's not our fault because you guys came out there and think it's supposed to be a walkthrough.

"Don't ever disrespect the flag because they put a lot of hard work into this to make it get to where it has got to now.

"If you don't have anything good to say to anybody please shut the h*ll up."

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that D'Tigers have individually responded to ESPN reporter Stephen Smith after disrespectfully making rants about their names, Yahoo Sports.

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The Nigerian basketball team pull out a major upset by defeating the United States team which had all NBA superstars in their line-up in a warm-up game to Olympics in Tokyo.

The West Africans were allowed to score an incredible 20 three-pointers and took control of the game, and at a point leading the number four team in the world by 24 points.