The NBA and FIBA are both combine planning to launch a professional basketball league in Africa which will be named as the Basketball Africa League. This new league will feature 12 teams from the African continent.
The schedule for the launch of the league is due for January 2020. This is going to be their first league that will be created outside of North America with collaboration from the NBA. What’s more exciting is that the former US president Barack Obama, who is an avid basketball fan is to have the hands-on role for this new league.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver in a statement said, “The Basketball Africa League is an important next step in our continued development of the game of basketball in Africa. Combined with our other programs on the continent, we are committed to using basketball as an economic engine to create new opportunities in sports, media, and technology across Africa.”
The 12 teams will be determined after a qualifying event. The rule is that no two teams can be qualified for the league from one same country. NBA is already invested in China and India for talent; they think that there is also some hidden talent in Africa that is yet to be discovered.
The announcement about this new league’s launch was made on Saturday last week at a luncheon in Charlotte with the prestigious members like Silver, FIBA secretary-general Andreas Zagklis, FIBA Africa President Hamane Niang, Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, Toronto Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum; NBA vice president and managing director for Africa Amadou Gallo Fall and Raptors president Masai Ujiri.
At the video announcement, Barack Obama made his appearance and said, “Through sport, if you put in the effort, you will be rewarded.”
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