Here’s the introduction of an article that appears in the Summer 2023 issue of Legends Magazine, the National Basketball Retired Players Association’s official publication.

Basketball Africa League

With Assist from NBA Legends, BAL Bolsters NBA’s Presence and Cultural Footprint in Africa

By Ed Odeven

For the second straight May, the Basketball Africa League (BAL) crowned a continental champion in Kigali, Rwanda. This time, Egypt’s Al Ahly defeated AS Douanes 80-65 to win the 2023 BAL on May 27.

The 12-team 2023 BAL season featured six nations’ domestic league titlists (Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia) and automatic berths for another half dozen (a team apiece from Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda) that earned spots via the BAL Qualifying Tournaments throughout the continent.

A year ago, Tunisia’s US Monastir beat Angola’s Petro de Luanda 83-72 at BK Arena before a full-capacity crowd of 10,000 in the Rwandan capital. That title game put the finishing touches on a successful second season that showcased the league’s enormous global reach — broadcast coverage of games aired in 214 countries and territories in 14 languages.

Two six-team conferences competed in the 2023 campaign before the playoff extravaganza in Rwanda. Staging games in Dakar, Senegal (Sahara Conference, March 11-21), and Cairo, Egypt (Nile Conference, April 26-May 6), before eight teams advanced to Kigali, underscored two ever-presents aspects of the fledgling league’s long-term strategy: planting the seeds for growth and bolstering its popularity.

“We want the BAL to be a Pan-Africa product, and so as we go forward, we’re also going to be looking at other potential markets,” NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams said in a May interview with Legends Magazine.

The objective, he said, “is to spread it around the continent and make something that all Africans can identify with.”

Indeed, the BAL’s talent pool encompasses not just Africa but the world. The 156 players on the 12 teams represented 22 countries in Africa, Europe, Oceania and North America, according to a BAL news release published on May 18.

Recent conversations with Williams and BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall shed light on the novel league’s ambitious goals and dedication to promoting the sport and developing basketball talent in Africa.

Williams and Fall exude enthusiasm for the BAL’s mission to be recognized as a world-class league with a thriving fan base and a flourishing economy. 

And enthusiasm for the BAL shared by some of the sport’s biggest influencers adds credibility and a promotional boon throughout Africa and elsewhere. For example, three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade’s picture accompanied numerous articles in May, showing him rooting for his son Zaire’s BAL team, the Cape Town Tigers. Wade, who has 9.5 million Twitter followers, also retweeted a video of him hugging his son in Cairo during the Nile Conference.

Adding some electric buzz in the run-up to the BAL championship game, the league’s official Twitter account shared a short video of ex-NBA standouts Luol Deng and Joakim Noah playing one-on-one in Kigai. Call it a conversation starter and plenty of free publicity.

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Continue reading the full story on the Legends Magazine website.