Basketball in Africa

Here he emerged as a star, forming a formidable duo with Clyde Drexler, that came to be known as "Phi Slamma Jamma," en route to back-to-back NCAA championship games.

In 2019, the Toronto Raptors, featuring African players Pascal Siakam (Cameroon) and Serge Ibaka (Republic of the Congo), and general manager Masai Ujiri (Nigeria), defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA title.

"[8] Speaking further to the role Olajuwon played in highlighting the pathway basketball could present to African prospects, Dikembe Mutombo, fellow Hall of Famer and an eight-time NBA All-Star from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, shared, "Hakeem is my idol.

"[9] Olajuwon, despite his Nigerian roots, opted to play for the United States in international competition at the senior level where he claimed a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

It is currently led by CEO Victor Williams and was modeled on the highly successful NBA China entity, which is estimated to have a market value of $5 billion.

[17] NBA Academy Africa, based in Saly, Senegal, opened in 2018 as an elite facility to streamline and professionalize development of the continent's most promising talents.

While the NBA's investment in African basketball has generally received a positive reception, the league was criticized for its decision to host the inaugural 2021 season of the BAL in a "bubble" environment in Kigali, Rwanda due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[1] This decision sparked global media backlash due to concerns over Rwandan president Paul Kagame's authoritarian leadership and questions surrounding his government's human rights record.

[19][20] Critics sought to portray the NBA in a hypocritical lens given the concurrent political stances the league took in 2020 in the United States in response to major police violence incidents: both the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The BAL's model is in many ways analogous to association football's popular UEFA Champions League, which pits the best club teams across Europe against each other.

[24] The 2022 iteration of the tournament was reported to have had over 50,000 atendees, highlighted by a sold-out crowd of 10,000 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda for the matchup between U.S. Monastir and Petro De Luanda.