The National Basketball Association (NBA), in its latest move to aggressively grow overseas, will soon begin selling franchises for its league in Africa, Commissioner Adam Silver said. The NBA announced the creation of Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2019 two years before the first edition took place in Kigali. The institution now aims to sell 12 new teams alongside an opportunity to build home arenas for those franchises, Silver said last week at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum in New York. “It’s a continent where they’ve not experienced the same level of sports investment as other places in the world,” Silver said. The process of selling the teams will commence in the coming months, a league spokesperson said. The BAL, finishing its fifth season earlier this year, has a format of 12 teams from African countries competing against each other after winning their domestic leagues similar to the structure of the Champions League in European football. The new franchises would become the permanent teams competing in the BAL. A league with more established teams would build on a grassroots effort that’s increasingly delivering players to US franchises. Programs such as the Basketball Without Borders camp discovered and developed NBA stars Pascal Siakam and Joel Embiid. Khaman Maluach, a product of that program and the BAL, was the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft. The BAL does face hurdles. Africa lacks infrastructure for a pro basketball league, and the sport is far less popular than football on the continent. BAL has stumbled at times, with some teams struggling to pay players. Setting a price tag for teams across multiple developing economies that lack comparable sales could also be a challenge. Over the last few years, investors have poured money into professional sports franchises, including basketball. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers reached a deal this year to be sold for $10 billion, marking the most expensive team sale in history. Silver said the NBA continues to assess how to expand in Europe. In contrast to the Africa strategy, the commissioner said the approach in Europe will involve bringing in existing franchises and starting new teams, given the legacy leagues on that continent. With multiple global leagues, Silver said it would resemble something of a confederation, potentially with teams from Europe and Africa coming to the US for the midseason tournament known as the NBA Cup. Part of Silver’s global push involves identifying talent that can compete in the NBA, which has seen internationally born players account for an increasing number of its stars. The league’s last seven most valuable player awards have been won by players born outside the US.
