- Top NBA stars of African descent have lauded the introduction of the Basketball Africa League, which tips off on March 13 in Dakar, Senegal.
Top NBA stars of African descent have lauded the introduction of the Basketball Africa League, which tips off on March 13 in Dakar, Senegal.
The 12-team BAL, NBA’s first professional basketball league outside of North America, will have champions from national leagues in six countries – Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – guaranteed representation in the inaugural BAL season.
The remaining six teams, which come from Algeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda, secured their participation through BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Africa across the continent in late 2019.
“It’s amazing creating a league in Africa. Giving opportunities to African talent and African players to go out there and showcase their talent. I knew it was going to happen, and I’m pretty happy I was able to execute it with Nike and Masai (Ujiri) and all those people,” Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Greek basketball player of Nigerian descent, said at the NBA All-Star 2020 game in Chicago.
Toronto Raptors’ Cameroonian power forward Paschal Siakam added, “Yeah, I think it’s incredible for Africa. It’s definitely the next step. It’s something that we as a continent should be proud of, and it shows that the world is recognizing our talent. That league is going to be a big thing for us. We have to continue to bring that awareness to the game and make sure that we pay it forward.
Also, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid believes the emergence of BAL will help discover more talents on the African continent.
“I think having a basketball league in Africa is going to be great. As you can see through me, Pascal (Siakam), a couple of guys in the league, Serge (Ibaka), there’s a lot of talent over there. I think the NBA taking the initiative of opening a new league over there is great. There’s a lot of talent. We just need the right people to teach us and we’re going to be fine.
“I think it’s really important because there’s a lot of special talent that the world doesn’t know about. If you look at the guys in the league who have been able to make it, there’s probably somebody better than me or has the potential to be better than me in the future. So I think it’s a great initiative.”
