Basketball Africa League to kick off in South Africa

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) fourth season will kick off in March at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa.

The 2024 BAL season will feature the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries playing a record 48 games in Pretoria; Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; and Kigali, Rwanda over four months.

This will mark the first BAL games in South Africa and the first time the league will play games in four different countries.

During the 2024 BAL season, the 12 teams will be divided into three conferences of four teams each. Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in their conference twice.

The inaugural Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, 9 March – Sunday, 17 March at the SunBet Arena. The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Friday, 19 April – Saturday, 27 April at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, 4 May – Sunday, 12 May at the Dakar Arena in Dakar.

The top two teams from each conference and the two best third-place teams from across the three conferences will travel to Kigali for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination playoff and final series from Friday, 24 May – Saturday, 1 June.

COMBINE IN RABAT

The BAL is hosting a Combine in Rabat, Morocco from Friday, 5 January – Sunday, 7 January, marking the league’s first Combine in Africa after previous editions in New York City and Paris.

The three-day scouting event, which will be held at the Ibn Yassine Omnisports Hall, will feature 30 aspiring players from Africa, Europe, the US and around the world taking part in anthropometric and athletic testing, positional skill development, and 5-on-5 games in front of team executives, coaches and scouts.

Former NBA player Robert Pack will serve as Combine Camp Director.

“We are thrilled to play the first BAL games in Pretoria, South Africa and to return to Dakar, Cairo and Kigali, where we’ve seen tremendous fan engagement over the past three seasons,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall.

“As we get ready for the 2024 BAL season, we remain committed to continuing to improve the quality of our on-court product, and this Combine in Rabat will once again showcase top-flight players, including from across the African Diaspora, who can contribute significantly to BAL teams and further establish the BAL as a world-class professional basketball league.”

On 5 January, as part of the Combine, the BAL began a U23 “BAL4HER” identification camp that will bring together 20 female players and four female coaches from across Morocco to participate in on-court basketball development programming.

The camp is part of a series to identify 20 of the top female players from across Africa who will participate in a five-day camp in Kigali in conjunction with the 2024 BAL playoffs and finals.

The league will also host a coaching clinic for 200 local coaches. Fall, FIBA Africa and BAL Board President Anibal Manave, and 2011 NBA champion and BAL Ambassador Ian Mahinmi will attend the Combine and interact with all the participants.

During his 13-year NBA career, Pack played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Washington Bullets, New Jersey Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Hornets. He previously served as head coach of Rwanda Energy Group (REG) in the BAL and as an assistant coach for the LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards in the NBA.

Rwanda Development Board, NIKE, Jordan Brand and Wilson will return as BAL Foundational Partners. The league’s roster of world-class marketing partners also includes Afreximbank, Hennessy and RwandAir.

The 12 BAL teams, conferences, game schedule and additional information about the 2024 BAL season will be announced in the coming months.

Fans can register their interest in tickets to games in all four markets at BAL.NBA.com.