London Lions have signed experienced Nigerian international Olumide Oyedeji, who had a three-year spell in the NBA over a decade ago.

The 33-year-old was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in 2000 and played a total of 93 NBA games with his third and final season spent at Orlando Magic.

He’s had a storied career starting professionally in Russia and Germany where he was the Bundesliga Defensive Player of the Year before he was drafted by Seattle. After his NBA experience he went on to play in the top divisions of no-less than 8 different countries, Greece, Slovenia, China, Puerto Rica, South Korea, Jordan, Italy and Japan.

Way back in 1999 he was voted the Defensive Player of the Tournament in the Under 18 World Championships. It is also reputed that he’s never lost a Dunk Contest that he’s entered.  In 2006 he represented Nigeria at the same Commonwealth Games where Fab represented England.

He was MVP of the Nigerian League when he was only 16 years old and played in All-Star games in Germany, China and Korea twice where he was MVP in the 2007 game.

Oyedeji represented Nigeria at the 2012 Olympics and also holds a British passport. He made his Lions debut in their 86-80 victory against Sheffield Sharks, scoring 3 points in 10 minutes of action in Friday’s BBL Trophy clash at the Copper Box Arena.

The 6’10” centre played more minutes than Ian Salter and Laurent Irish as the trio provide the Lions with depth to support dominant starter Makal Stibbins and will certainly be one that Eagles need to watch on Friday night.