Basketball Africa League

• 1. Kigali, May 2021

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  The Basketball Africa League played its first game on the 16th of May 2021, inside the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. The entire inaugural season ran inside a bio-secure bubble, with limited attendance permitted. Two weeks later, Zamalek of Egypt claimed the first championship. The league had arrived behind schedule, but it had arrived. In five seasons, five different clubs have won the title. A player from the competition was chosen 10th overall in the 2025 NBA draft. How the BAL came to exist, and what it is still becoming, traces to a partnership struck between two of basketball's governing bodies.

• 2. The Founders' Vision

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  On the 16th of February 2019, the National Basketball Association and FIBA announced plans for a continental professional basketball league in Africa. The announcement came at a press conference during the 2019 NBA All-Star weekend. NBA commissioner Adam Silver used that occasion to sketch the competition's scope. Qualifying rounds would be held later in 2019. Teams would be drawn from countries including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia. Silver also suggested that former U.S. president Barack Obama might take on a role with the new league, though no specifics were offered.

  By May 2019, Amadou Gallo Fall had been appointed by the NBA as the BAL's first president. In September, the league confirmed venues and cities for the inaugural season, with a Final Four set for the Kigali Arena in Rwanda. On the 15th of October 2019, qualifying tournaments began, with clubs from 32 African countries taking part. The start of competition itself was still far off. Two postponements delayed the league's debut. The COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the timetable that the organizers had built. The competition that emerged shared key structural principles with the Basketball Champions League in Europe. The CAF Champions League in African football had established similar qualifying formats.

• 3. A Continental Structure

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  Twelve clubs compete each BAL season, from March through June. The competition divides those clubs into three conferences: the Sahara Conference, the Nile Conference, and the Kalahari Conference. Each team plays every other club within its conference in a round-robin format. The two highest-placed teams from each conference, along with the two best third-placed sides, advance to the playoffs. A single-elimination tournament then determines the champion. The BAL champion each season earns automatic qualification for the FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

  Countries with established basketball histories and larger commercial markets qualify one club directly, without any preliminary rounds. Angola, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria, and Senegal have consistently held those direct spots. Rwanda joined that group from 2022 onward. Morocco held a direct place only in the inaugural season of 2021. The remaining places are filled through the Road to BAL. In that qualifying pathway, clubs from across the continent compete in groups, with the top finishers advancing to an Elite 16 round. Further group-stage play follows before single-game semi-finals and finals decide the last participants in the regular season. The rules governing the nationality of each club's roster were as carefully defined as the qualification routes that earned a place in the competition.

• 4. Rosters and the Elevate Program

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  From the league's first season in 2021 through 2024, each club was limited to four foreign players on its roster. At least eight spots on every squad had to go to local players. Of those four foreign slots, at least two had to be filled by players from other African countries. That left a maximum of two spots for players from outside the continent entirely. Since the 2024 season, clubs have had more flexibility in how many foreign players they can field.

  Ahead of the 2022 season, the BAL launched the Elevate program in partnership with the NBA Academy Africa. The program places a player from the academy directly onto one of the league's team rosters each year. Players who share a nationality with a BAL team are automatically assigned to that club. The remaining academy players are matched to teams from a pool. Elevate players do not receive a share of competition prize money. That condition preserves their amateur status. The academy placements offered the most direct early measure of how BAL competition could prepare individual players for a professional career.

• 5. Five Seasons, Five Champions

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  US Monastir of Tunisia won the 2022 BAL final 83-72 over Petro de Luanda, at the BK Arena in Kigali. That season had also introduced an expanded format. Group-stage play spread across two conference venues for the first time. The Sahara Conference met in Dakar; the Nile Conference convened in Cairo. Monastir had finished as runner-up in the inaugural edition. The 2022 title meant they had converted that loss into a championship within a single year.

  Al Ahly of Egypt claimed the 2023 title, beating AS Douanes 80-65 at the BK Arena in Kigali. Three editions in, the championship had gone to Egyptian and Tunisian clubs exclusively.

  The 2024 season added a third conference, the Kalahari Conference. Petro de Luanda of Angola won the final 107-94 over Al Ahly Ly. They became the first club from Sub-Saharan Africa to claim the BAL championship. Later that year, Ulrich Chomche of Cameroon was selected in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft. He became the first former BAL player ever chosen by an NBA team.

  Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya won the 2025 championship. The final, at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, ended 88-67 over Petro de Luanda. Pretoria was the first city outside Rwanda to host the BAL finals. Al Ahli Tripoli also set a competitive first. No previous champion had advanced through the full qualifying rounds and then gone on to win the title. On the 25th of June 2025, Khaman Maluach was selected in the first round of the 2025 NBA draft. He became the highest-ranked former BAL player ever chosen by an NBA franchise. Solo Diabate and Michael Fakuade each won two BAL championships across the competition's first five years. They are the only players to hold multiple titles. Chris Crawford sits at the top of the league's all-time scoring chart, having accumulated 341 points in three seasons. Within months of the 2025 final, the league's leadership began considering a structural change. That change would reshape how clubs earned their place in the competition at all.

• 6. Toward Permanent Franchises

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  In September 2025, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the BAL plans to move to a closed league format with permanent franchises. That shift would mark a fundamental departure from the qualification-based model that has governed the competition since 2019. Under the existing structure, a club earns its place in the league through domestic performance each season. Permanent franchises would replace that with fixed membership. A total of 34 clubs have played in or qualified for the BAL since it began in 2020. The competition that emerged from a 2019 founding announcement may soon operate under rules bearing little resemblance to those of its first five years.