12 basketball teams across Africa would be featuring in the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a partnership between FIBA and the NBA.
The new league which begins in March 2020 would be played in six African countries including Cairo (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal), Lagos (Nigeria), Luanda (Angola), Rabat (Morocco) and Monastir (Tunisia) while Kigali (Rwanda) will host the first-ever BAL finals.
The new league signals the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America.
Announcement about the NBA and FIBA’s launch of the BAL was made at the NBA All-Star 2019 Africa Luncheon in Charlotte, USA on February 16.
To coordinate the activities of the game, the NBA and FIBA in May 2019 named Senegalese Amadou Gallo Fall, the NBA Vice-President and Managing Director for Africa as President of the new BAL.
Fall said beyond playing for prizes, the participating teams across Africa would be supported to improve on their professionalism to catch up with the global standards.
At the briefing were former NBA players, Olumide Oyedeji and Obinna Okezie.
Fall disclosed that the six cities will host a regular season that will feature the 12 teams divided into two conferences, with each conference playing in three cities.
The regular season will see the 12 teams play five games each, with the top three teams in each conference qualifying for the playoffs.
