The Egyptian sports club won in the final 76-63 over the Tunisians of US Monastir. The 2019 Egyptian champion in search of a continental title since 1992, the year of her victory in the African Cup of Champions Basketball Clubs, is the first team to register her name in the Basket Africa League. Sporting logic has therefore been respected. But in the very particular and worrying context of the global health crisis, the essential was elsewhere.
A 1st Basket Africa League (BAL) under pressure from Covid-19
Indeed, the competition should have been launched in March 2020 in Dakar and be played during a regular season in Cairo, Dakar, Lagos, Luanda, Rabat and Monastir with a Final Four in Kigali. But the coronavirus has been there, freezing the sport planet in many uncertainties. The BAL leaders, constrained by the restrictions, have adapted the format so that it can still be held within the framework of a fairly strict health protocol.
All the teams were gathered in Kigali for a 15-day mini-championship. The players, staffs and officials, tested several times a day, were placed in a bubble with barrier measures
increased (Photo 1). Anyone else was excluded. The organizers have put in place very important logistics to avoid the slightest case of Covid. The organization has succeeded in its bet. Apart from a single positive case in the bubble, quickly identified and isolated, all the tests were negative.
An audience galvanized by the performance of the local club
Basketball is unique in that it is a sport that needs the show of the players, who in turn feed on the fervor of the public. In this context, we could have some concerns about the quality of the sports spectacle. With an audience of between 500 and 1000 people per game in a 10,000-seat enclosure, was the atmosphere going to fade and degrade the commitment of NBA Africa?
The Rwandan public, deprived for several months of an event of this type, was receptive and very enthusiastic, boosted by the good course of the local team, the BBC Patriots, reached the ½ final. Masked fans, but happy to live exceptional moments in contact with the best of African basketball and to approach the former African glories of the NBA who had made the trip to Kigali.
A real baptism of organization for the all new NBA Africa
The presence of this task force had a very specific goal: to give more weight to the announcement of the official creation of NBA Africa, in charge of the organization of the BAL in partnership with FIBA, the International Basketball Federation. ball. The purpose of this new entity is to develop the game on the African continent, but above all to consolidate its financial investments and ensure the profitability of this emerging market.
During the launch video conference, NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed Nigerians, Babatunde Folawiyo, CEO of the Yinka Folawiyo group, as well as Tope Lawani, of Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation at the head of this project valued at 1 billions of dollars. To complete the round table of former NBA glories like Dikembe Mutombo, Grant Hill, Luol Deng or Joakim joined the Nigerian duo. The ambition is high for all these actors who hope to dethrone football and make basketball the first sport in Africa within 10 years. Unrealistic?
A first edition that bodes well for a promising BAL
The NBA has become a colossus of world sport with a very spectacular championship. The North American Professional League has demonstrated its know-how in organizing the Basket Africa League in Kigali. This set out to establish itself as a very high level continental competition from its first edition, despite the highly restrictive sanitary conditions. A performance appreciated by Emmanuel Macron and Paul Kagamé.
Indeed, the Rwandan president and his French counterpart created the event by attending the qualification of the Rwandans of the BBC Patriots in the semifinals against Ferroviário Maputo. The presence of the two heads of state ignited the stands. They were surrounded by the president of the Toronto Raptors Masai Ujiri, Amadou Gallo Fall, president of the BAL, Victor Williams and Will Mbiakop, respectively president and director of the NBA Africa. The icing on the cake: the meeting had an air of a US final where the objectives of the reporters are resolutely turned towards the stands.
What to think of this first edition of the BAL? The least we can say is that the results are rather positive. The organization of this inaugural season in Kigali was carried out with a masterful hand. This suggests and even to bet that with a return to normal illustrated by arenas filled with an enthusiastic and complete audience, freed from health restrictions, the next BAL will keep all their promises.

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