During the All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the creation of a professional league in Africa named “Basketball Africa League”.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) announced their plan to launch the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a new professional league featuring 12 club teams from across Africa.
The BAL will be built on the foundation of current club competitions FIBA is organising in Africa. Scheduled to start in January 2020, the BAL would mark the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside of North America.
The NBA and FIBA plan to conduct qualification tournaments later this year to identify the 12 teams that would represent several African countries, including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia, with no more than two teams from the same country able to qualify.
