Israel Oyoro Otobo (born 31 May 2004) is a Nigerian professional basketball player who currently plays for the

City Oilers City Oilers is a basketball club based in Lugogo, Kampala, Uganda. The team competes in the Ugandan National Basketball League (NBL), where it has won 10 championships, the most in league history. The Oilers currently also play in the Basketball A ...

). Playing at Centre, he has played for the Nigeria national team since 2023.

Career

Growing up in the

Bayelsa State Bayelsa is a state in the South South region of Nigeria, located in the core of the Niger Delta. Bayelsa State was created in 1996 and was carved out from Rivers State, making it one of the newest states in the federation. The capital, Yenag ...

, Otobo dreamed of becoming a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, but switched to basketball at age 14. His father enrolled him at Patriot Academy, where he stayed two years before moving to

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

. He made his debut for Nigeria Customs in the

Nigerian Premier League The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) (formerly the Nigeria Professional Football League) is the highest level of club football in Nigerian football league system. The Nigerian Premier League has suffered like many others, from the financ ...

in 2022 and helped the Customs reach the finals, where they lost to the

Kwara Falcons The Kwara Falcons are a Nigerian basketball team based in Ilorin, Kwara. The team plays in the Nigerian Premier League and has won one championship in 2022. Following their national championship, the Falcons also competed in the Basketball Afric ...

. Otobo joined Burundian club

Dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

in the 2023 season and helped them win the domestic

Viva Basketball League The Burundian Basketball Championship (in French: Championnat National du Burundi), for sponsorship reason the Viva Basketball League, is a semi-professional basketball league that is the highest level of the sport in Burundi. The league is organi ...

over

Urunani Urunani BBC is a Burundian basketball club based in Bujumbura. Nicknamed ''"Sisi Wenyewe"'', the team plays in the Viva Basketball League (VBL). Since 1979, Urunani has won more than 17 national championships of Burundi (some years the national c ...

. Consequently, Otobo and Dynamo played in the

2024 BAL qualification The qualification for the 2024 BAL season, also known as Road to BAL 2024, was the 4th edition of the Road to BAL, qualifying tournaments for the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The tournaments were organised by FIBA Africa and are held from 3 Octob ...

. There, he averaged 14 points, 13.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists and had four double-doubles in eight games, as Otobo helped Dynamo become the first Burundian team in history to qualify for the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Each season typically r ...

(BAL). On 9 March 2024, Otobo made his BAL debut with 21 points and 13 rebounds in Dynamo's 73–86 win over the

Cape Town Tigers The Cape Town Tigers are a South African professional basketball team founded in Cape Town. The Tigers have played in the Basketball National League (BNL) and played in three seasons of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) between 2022 and 2024. ...

. However, Dynamo forfeited its following games as the team refused to wear the league's sponsor logo Visit Rwanda amidst political tensions between Burundi and Rwanda. In November 2024, he joined the

from Uganda.

National team career

Otobo made his debut for the Nigeria national team in February 2023 during the 2023 World Cup qualifiers. He averaged 7.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in three qualifying matches.{{Cite web , last=Alaka , first=Jide , date=2023-02-25 , title=FIBA World Cup: 'Stay hungry', Coach Odaudu tells D’Tigers , url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/sports/nigeria-sports-news/584134-fiba-world-cup-stay-hungry-coach-odaudu-tells-dtigers.html , access-date=2023-12-16 , website=Premium Times Nigeria

References

Living people 2004 births Nigerian men's basketball players Dynamo BBC players Centers (basketball) Nigeria men's national basketball team players Nigerian expatriate basketball people Expatriate basketball people in Burundi APR B.C. players 21st-century Nigerian sportsmen City Oilers players