The NBA recently announced the introduction of its first league outside the Americas, the Basketball Africa League headed by former NBA VP, Amadou Gallo Fall. The league which will feature 12 teams, will travel to 7 different cities over the course of its inaugural season.
The cities include Cairo (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal), Lagos (Nigeria), Luanda (Angola), Rabat (Morocco) and either Monastir or Tunis (Tunisia) where the inaugural BAL regular season will take place and Kigali (Rwanda) as the host city for the first-ever BAL Final Four and BAL Final.
NIKE and Jordan Brand have also been named as the exclusive outfitter of the league expected to tip-off in March 2020.
The announcements were made by BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall during a reception at the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, along with current and former NBA and WNBA players like Joel Embiid, Gorgui Dieng, Malcom Brogdon, Chris Bosh and Tacko Fall, who have headlined this year’s Basketball Without Borders in attendance.
“Today’s announcements mark another important milestone as we head into what will be a historic first season for the Basketball Africa League,” said Fall. “We now have seven great host cities where we will play and our first partnership with a world-class outfitter. We thank our first partners NIKE and Jordan Brand for supporting us on this journey and ensuring our teams have the best uniforms and oncourt products.”
Beginning in March 2020, the six cities will host a regular-season that will feature 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 for a total of 30 games, with the top three teams in each conference qualifying for the playoffs. The six playoff teams – the “Super 6” – will play in a round-robin format to determine the four teams that will advance to the BAL Final Four and BAL Final in Kigali, Rwanda in late spring 2020. The BAL Final Four and BAL Final will be single-elimination games.
Featured Image: New York Times