Lakers newcomer Gabe Vincent prefers to win Olympic gold medal for Nigeria than NBA title

Coming off an impressive playoff run with the Miami Heat this past season, Gabe Vincent is now the newest addition to the Lakers. In Los Angeles, he just inked a three-year, $33 million deal as he hopes to bring the 18th NBA title back to the purple and gold franchise. 

During his time as a professional hooper in the league, he’s been to the NBA Finals twice, but lost both. The first came against his new team in the 2019/20 campaign, and the last was this past June against the Denver Nuggets. The 27-year-old hopes his luck will change in California.

Nevertheless, it seems that there are more important things to him than winning the league title, as he made it clear in last week’s episode of “The Old Man & the Three” podcast with JJ Reddick and Tommy Alter. The guard shared that he rather win an Olympic gold medal for Nigeria than go all the way with the Lakers.

Click in the video link below if you’re interested in watching the complete interview with the former NBA players:

“For me personally, I have been really looking forward to raising that Larry O’Brien Trophy. But, knowing how much it would mean to the 400 million-plus people in Nigeria, let alone the one point something billion in the continent of Africa,” he confessed.

“That’s a hard one to pass up, you know getting a gold medal, especially in this sport where you know African teams haven’t had much a footing,” he added. “Not only would it be fulfilling and great in its own way, but I think legacy wise, it would stand taller, stand a little longer. So, I’m gonna reluctantly have to say gold medal with Nigeria, I think that would just be epic.”

Putting African sports on the map is an idea that is very appealing for Vincent, who beat Team USA 90-87 with Nigeria in the 2020 Olympics. That victory meant the first time that the United States basketball squad loses to an African nation.

NBA insider explains in detail why the Lakers management were so impressed by Vincent and decided to sign him for next season

NBA insider Mark Medina believes that it was the philosophy with which GM Rob Pelinka and head coach Darvin Ham spoke about which led to Vincent signing with the Lakers. “I was told that Rob Pelinka and Darvin Ham really impressed Gabe Vincent, which is how genuine they were with his interest,” he started.

The 27-year-old played 113 games in Miami, averaging 12.8 points off of 40.9% from the floor and 37.6% from beyond the arc, to go with 2.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

“They really outlined the role that he fulfills a lot of needs with his potential for being a really good three point shooter, a good perimeter defender, a team oriented guy,” Medina shared.

Gabe Vincent would choose winning an #Olympic gold medal for Nigeria over an #NBA title because it would mean a lot to 400 million plus Nigerians.

Via @OldManAndThree#NBA #Lakers #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/qCJjk0xlsT

— NBAWire (@officialNBAwire) July 23, 2023

“While they didn’t promise playing time or starter roles or anything like that, they really sold him on the idea that ‘look, we want to win, we think you’re a winner, we think that you can be one of the players that really helps establish that culture that we’ve been trying to implement of having team-first type guys that are adjustable to roles’, and that really resonated with Gabe,” the insider explained.

Even though Vincent went undrafted in 2018, he performed two seasons for the Sacramento Kings’ G-League affiliate squad, the Stockton Kings, which catapulted him into a two-way contract with the Miami Heat three years ago.