Africa’s premier basketball competition is back, and it’s looking to build on the solid foundation it’s laid headed into its third season.
On Wednesday, Basketball Africa League — a partnership between FIBA and the NBA — announced the dates and venues for its 2023 season that will once again feature the 12 best teams from 12 African nations.
BAL’s Sahara Conference will play its 15 group phase games at the Dakar Arena in Dakar, Senegal, from March 11-21, while the Nile Conference will play its group phase at the Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo, Egypt, from April 26-May 6.
The top four teams from each conference will advance to an eight-game, single-elimination playoffs and finals at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 21-27.
Dakar, Cairo, and Kigali will host BAL games for a second consecutive season after the league expanded in 2022.
In the league’s originally planned inaugural 2020 season, group phase games would be played in six different countries — but COVID forced all games to be played in Kigali in 2021.
“The caravan format envisioned when we launched the BAL allowed more fans to experience the excitement of this world-class league up close and in-person,” BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall said in a statement. “We look forward to building on the success of our second season and continuing to deliver an authentic, African sport and entertainment product that inspires and connects people across the continent and around the world.”
Last season, Tunisia’s US Monastir defeated Angola’s Petro de Luanda 83-72 in front of a 10,000-strong sellout crowd to claim its first BAL title. Egypt’s Zamalek were champions in 2021.
The Rwanda Development Board, Nike, Jordan Brand, and Wilson will return as BAL Foundational Partners.
BAL has been key to the NBA’s ambitions of growing both in Africa and around the world.
After opening its African headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2010, it added satellite offices in Dakar and Lagos, Nigeria — and is adding one in Cairo for early 2023. The league formally launched NBA Africa in 2021.
