Ezinne Kalu Named in Paris 2024 All-Season Team, A’ja Wilson is MVP

*Wakama is Best Women’s Team Coach of the Tournament

Duro Ikhazuagbe Live in Paris

Nigeria’s D’Tigress Ezinne Kalu has been named into the All-Season Team of the Women’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games Basketball Tournament.

Point Guard was phenomenal for Nigeria in D’Tigress history-making campaign at the Paris 2024 which ended yesterday in the French capital.

Although Nigeria lost to eventual eighth back-to-back champions USA 74-88 on Wednesday night, Kalu was a major force behind D’Tigress becoming the first-ever African team to play in an Olympic Quarter-Finals. 

She averaged 18.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

That performance has now moved Nigeria four ranks up from 12 to 8 on the FIBA power ranking table.

The Head Coach of the team, Rena Wakama was also adjudged the Best Coach of the women’s basketball Tournament here in Paris.

Wakama led the D’Tigress to beat world number 3 Australia as well as world number 5 Canada for Nigeria to reach the quarterfinals, an African record never previously attained by either male or female team.

Interestingly, on the day that Team USA narrowly defeated hosts France by just one point to win their 10 gold medal and eighth consecutive one, it was a double celebration for A’ja Wilson after the USA forward who was voted the MVP honours of Paris 2024.

Wilson showed why she is one of the biggest stars in the global game with another exceptional campaign. 

She was a dominant force in the Final, putting up 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the Gold Medal Game.

Throughout the competition, she averaged 18.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 59.2 per cent from the floor. 

That contributed to an amazing 25.7 performance efficiency valuation for Wilson who won her second Olympic Games basketball gold medal on the final day of the tournament here in Paris.