The Angolan centerYanick Moreirawas sent off for accumulation of fouls in the 2022 final of theAfrican Basketball League(BAL). His team, Petro de Luanda (capital of Angola), lost a close match against the Tunisian squad US Monastir. And Moreira, with extensive experience in the main European leagues, was left with a thorn in his side. The following season he played in Greece, then he signed for a few months with a team in Israel and, at the end of 2023, he returned to Petro to be under the orders of the Granada coach.Sergio Valdeolmillos . In June, Moreira and his team won the BAL after competing in thefinal in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, against the Libyan Al Ahly Ly formation. The fourth edition of the most important basketball championship in the history of Africa had ended.
Moreira and the IvorianJust Diabatesymbolize one of the strategic focuses of this competition co-organized by the NBA, which is its owner, and by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA): attracting African players with successful careers outside the continent to give luster to the championship and serve as a reference for young promises. Interviewed in a Madrid hotel – Petro traveled to Spain in September to play a summer tournament – their silhouettes draw a strong contrast. Diabate is a rock of muscles that barely exceeds 1.80. Moreira moves her slender figure of more than 2.10 with parsimony.
With a solid track record in France and China, Diabate – who won the 2022 final against his current teammate – explains his decision to get involved in the BAL. He says he feels an identity responsibility. A call to set an example for the new generations. “There are many boys who admire me. As an African, I wanted to help their development.”
There are many boys who admire me. As an African, I wanted to help their development
Solo Diabate, Ivorian player for Petro de Luanda
In the long term, it is about creating an attractive product that instills passion for basketball. And, simultaneously, promote structures that stop the drain of talent, both by retaining players from the 12 teams that participate in the competition, and by expanding their positive influence towards the national leagues. “The goal is for basketball to grow in Africa and for our young people to be professionals without having to go abroad,” the Senegalese explained via videoconference.Amadou Gallopresident of the BAL, a league “100% controlled by the NBA,” he adds.
Rwanda, an uncomfortable partner
The American company – owner of the eponymous championship – has gone all out to make the BAL look almost as good as its parent company. “We do not share financial data, but I assure you that the investment is being very strong,” says Gallo. Valdeolmillos recounts trips in style, “super luxury hotels” and perfectly equipped stadiums. “I have played in the Euroleague [la máxima competición europea] and in world championships, but this is another level,” he says. The matches are an incessant carousel that combines dunks and feints with musical performances, acrobatic entertainment and fashion shows. The broadcasts exude color and pinpoint production, a hallmark of the televised NBA. The logo unmistakably refers to the global icon that identifies the North American competition. Kits have been designed for this different from those that the teams wear in their respective leagues. Everything in the BAL is imbued with that vocation oftotal showthat sells the best league in the world.
But controversy has not escaped this visual feast. A shadow of doubt hangs over Rwanda’s strong role in the competition. Without much basketball tradition, the small country has a guaranteed place in the BAL. Several of the sponsors are Rwandans. All teams wear the slogan “Visit Rwanda” on their shirts. And Kigali has hosted all four playoffs disputed so far. This has fueled suspicions about favoritism and connivance of the NBA with the authoritarian regime of Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda since 2000. A recent documentaryof the North American network ESPN reported that Kagame is using the BAL as part of a strategy of sportwashing:wash the image of institutions or companies through the hypnotic joy of sport. The case generated the interest of two US senators, who sent a letter asking the NBA for explanations. This he defended himselfwith a declaration of good intentions in which, for the rest, he referred to the official US guidelines on business with other countries, which do not contemplate restrictions in the case of Rwanda.
Perhaps the championship seems like a bubble of ostentation on a continent where basketball has, as a rule, squalid media. Its takeoff is long in coming, constrained by low- and middle-income economies, cornered by the football quasi-monopoly. The contrast between the BAL and the national leagues is brutal. So big that it invites you to think about the metaphor of the house on the roof. However, its creation in 2021 was one more step in the long-distance race that the NBA undertook in 2010, when it decided to go all-in on Africa. Since then, activity has been frenetic, a continuation of a lot of work on the ground and some milestones to win over the general public. “We have organized a multitude of youth tournaments, trained local coaches and collaborated with many governments,” explains Gallo.
Exhibition matches have also been played – the NBA Africa Games – attended by American stars such as Chris Paul, Africans such as Cameroonian Pascal Siakam and top players with roots in the continent and a European passport, notably the Greek superstar (of Nigerian parents ) Giannis Antetokounmpo. In 2015 and 2016, brothers Pau and Marc Gasol participated in two friendlies, thus activating a curious Spanish connection with high-level African basketball. Of the four editions of the BAL, three have been won by Spanish coaches. The last one, by Valdeolmillos and his Petro. Those of 2021 and 2023, by North African teams led by Barcelona-born Agustí Julbe.
Minor teams in Europe
Despite having the protection of the NBA, the BAL faces, in its desire to prevent the continent’s basketball players from emigrating at the first opportunity, a persistent enemy. It is about that mentality—so embedded in African youth—according to which the train passes only once in a lifetime.
Moreira and Gallo know of dozens of cases of kids who have opted for the mystery of signing, at the slightest point in their careers, for a very minor team in Europe. “They think it is better to play in the Portuguese third division than in the Angolan first division. I try to talk to them, tell them to be patient, but they don’t listen,” Moreira laments. Even when the young man has stood out in the BAL, the siren songs from the other side of the Mediterranean sometimes sound too tempting. Gallo mentions a Senegalese player, barely a teenager, who, after performing well in the last BAL, decided to go to the French fourth division. “It makes me very sad,” he admits before regaining his optimism: “We are going to reach a point where these kids decide to stay at home and where the BAL competes with the best leagues in the world.”
Many kids think that it is better to play in the Portuguese third division than in the Angolan first division. I try to talk to them, tell them to be patient, but they don’t listen.
Yanick Moreira, pivot angoleño of Petro de Luanda
For this to materialize, Valdeolmillos believes, the competition would have to be extended over time and host more teams. “A bit like the Euroleague, which lasts throughout the season, instead of the two 15-day periods that the BAL lasts,” he maintains. In the first, which is held in March, the 12 clubs are divided into three conferences (Nile, Sahara and Kalajari) of four formations that face each other twice. Eight teams advance to the playoffs,which take place at the end of spring and follow a classic single-match format: quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
According to the current format, of the 12 participating teams, six enter directly as champions of the national league in respective countries chosen by the NBA based on sporting (historical importance of basketball) and commercial (size and market potential) criteria. The other six come from qualifying phases open to all African States. Five countries have had a permanent place in the four editions held so far: Angola, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria and Senegal. The default sixth place corresponded to Morocco in 2021 and Rwanda since then.
The expansion of the BAL would represent an organizational challenge. And more money. “There are no limits, we are very ambitious, but growth will come in due time,” declares Gallo. For the moment, Diabate estimates, its impact is already being felt on the continent’s fields: “Clubs want to invest and structure themselves to be able to participate. The level increases every year.”
Unlike other mass sports, basketball has a powerful intangible ally in the region: the clear Afro accent that, at least since the 1970s, has reigned among the basketball elite. Most present and past global legends have roots—albeit distant—on the continent. No one doubts that African Americans stand, collectively, as undisputed kings of the NBA. The racial component in the highest echelons of thebasketIt is a reason for pride and celebration. Gallo assures that the BAL “is generating great interest among the African diaspora, with many viewers in places like Brazil or the Caribbean.” And Valdeolmillos expresses evidence: “You don’t see the physical potential of the players here in Europe, Asia or Latin America.”
