The inaugural edition of the much anticipated Basketball Africa League -BAL – will take place in December this year.
The tournament which will have Africa’s best basketball clubs in attendance was earlier scheduled to take place in March in Dakar, Senegal, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A source within the organisation of the highly anticipated showpiece, revealed that the tournament will take place ‘most likely’ in the second week of December.
“A tentative timeline has been set, and Kigali has been confirmed as the host for the whole competition. Unless some changes happen in the coming days, the tournament is scheduled for December 5-20,” said the source.
Six cities across the continent were penciled down as hosts of regular season games while Kigali, Rwanda, hosts the post-season games – known as the final four.
But due to the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions on international travel, the organisers have voted in favour of hosting the entire tournament in one city.
“The NBA and FIBA have confidence in the country and the serious measures it has employed to contain the virus. [I believe] that it is why organisers decided to host the whole tournament in Rwanda.”
The BAL, a joint partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), is a professional league featuring 12 clubs from across Africa. It marks the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America.
NIKE and Jordan Brand are the exclusive outfitter of the new professional league.
The 12 clubs set to compete at BAL 2020 include Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique), GNBC (Madagascar), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Petro de Luanda (Angola), AS Douanes (Senegal), AS Police (Mali), FAP (Cameroon), Union Sportive Monastir (Tunisia), AS Sale (Morocco), GSP (Algeria), Patriots (Rwanda) and Zamalek (Egypt).