Bringing Basketball Africa League back to SA is crucial for NBA's growth

The NBA believes the hosting of the Basketball Africa League in South Africa is a critical step in cementing its ties to the country, while also building its brand and growing basketball across the African continent. 

The fourth season of the BAL tips off at the Sunbet Arena in Tshwane on Saturday involving teams from South Africa — the Cape Town Tigers — Angola, Morocco and Burundi, as part of the first leg of the 12-team tournament. 

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said hosting the Kalahari Conference — as the four-team leg will be officially known — represents a full circle moment for the NBA. “In many ways this is where the NBA started its journey on the continent,” said Tatum.

The NBA’s head office for its operations in Africa is based in Sandton, while of the 20 Basketball Without Borders development programmes it has held in Africa, 15 have taken place in South Africa. As a result, Tatum explained, it was critical that the organisation, the third wealthiest sports body in the US after the National Football League and Major League Baseball, brought its biggest foreign expansion back to South Africa.

“[South Africa] is the only place on the continent where we actually played NBA Africa Games. It is critical for us to now bring the BAL to South Africa for the first time. It symbolises an expansion of the BAL into this market place,” said Tatum. 

Those three Africa Games, the first of which was played at Ellis Park Arena in 2015, were the NBA’s initial steps in testing the market for a league on the continent and featured some of the sport’s biggest names including Chris Paul and the NBA’s current Most Valuable Player, Joel Embiid. The last NBA Africa Game was played at Sunbet Arena in 2018.

Just as important was stamping the league’s brand in South Africa, which in the last few years has taken off not just through development initiatives like the junior NBA programme, which runs at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng, but the commercial and lifestyle growth, which saw the NBA open three stores across the country. 

“The work we are doing with Basketball SA and the continued investment in South Africa in basketball is to make basketball at some point, the No.1 sport in South Africa and the continent. We know we have a little ways to go to get there, but it is events like (BAL) and bringing a live game experience to South Africans so that more people get to experience that high level of quality competition live, we think that will inspire the next generation.”

Teams in each of the three Conferences will play six games, after which eight teams will qualify for a playoff and final series in Kigali which will run from May 24 to June 1.

After hosting comedian Jimmy Carr last week, the Sunbet Arena has been transformed into a basketball court, which contains all the spark and colour of an NBA facility, including a four-sided big screen that hangs over the centre of the court. 

While Saturday’s two games are sold out, there are still tickets available at BAL.NBA.com and Ticketmaster.co.za for Sunday’s games from R75 allowing access to both games.

The competition will also be broadcast live on various platforms including streaming on the BAL’s YouTube channel.