Basketball Africa League (BAL) president Amadou Gallo-Fall, has indicated that the growing number of African players joining the National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the achievements worth celebrating on the league side. Fall was speaking at a media event organised on the sidelines of the BAL 2025 Nile Conference taking place in Kigali. According to Fall, of the 25 percent of players coming from outside of the United States to join NBA, 10 percent are from the African continent. “The percentage of Africans joining the NBA is huge compared to any other country globally, especially for a continent that started with no infrastructure like us in the history of basketball,” he said. Various youth camps that gather African players, such as Basketball Without Borders, which has operated in Africa since 2003, have nurtured talent across the continent. Notable examples include Pascal Siakam, currently playing for the Indiana Pacers, and Joel Embiid, who was scouted and invited to the NBA's Basketball Without Borders camp in 2011 after he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2014 NBA draft. ALSO READ: NBA Africa unveils new basketball court in Nyamata This is not the only successful program, with the NBA Academy Africa also paving the way for African players. A recent example is Cameroon’s Ulrich Chomche, a product of the academy, who rose to stardom through BAL and was directly drafted by the Toronto Raptors in 2024, becoming the first prospect from the academy to do so. “BAL as a grand stage is creating an internal identification of talents across Africa, and as far as possible, many others are being detected. For instance, Khaman Maluach from our academy is now at Duke University and committed to the 2025 NBA draft. Others are also excelling from the NBA Junior clinics to different programs in Africa,” Fall explained. Other prospects from the NBA Africa Academy who have joined Duke freshman center Maluach include Florida sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu, who pulled his name for the draft after winning the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and Thierry Darlan, currently playing for the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League. Fall said that the growth has accelerated even further last five to 10 years and, in partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and through a network of talent scouts and various federations, they are able to take more players to the NBA Academy for exposure. “In general, we are doing great. It will grow as we go further, but for now, it's better,” he noted.
