How Africa
Seven African countries will host the March 2020 professional league featuring 12 club teams from across the continent.
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) while making the announcement on Wednesday, said Cairo (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal), Lagos (Nigeria), Luanda (Angola), Rabat (Morocco) and either Monastir or Tunis (Tunisia) are the host cities where the inaugural BAL regular season will take place.
Kigali (Rwanda) will stage the first-ever BAL Final Four and BAL Final.
The revelations were made by BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall during a reception at the Musée des Civilizations Noires in Dakar.
“Today’s announcements mark another important milestone as we head into what will be a historic first season for the Basketball Africa League,we now have seven great host cities where we will play and our first partnership with a world-class outfitter.” said Fall.
The 12 teams will be divided into two conferences, with each conference playing in three cities.
The regular season will see the 12 teams play five games each for a total of 30 games, with the top three teams in each conference qualifying for the playoffs.
The six playoff teams – the “Super 6” – will play in a round-robin format to determine the four teams that will advance to the BAL Final Four and BAL Final in Kigali, Rwanda in late spring 2020.
The BAL Final Four and BAL Final will be single-elimination games.
The announcement about the NBA and FIBA’s launch of the BAL, which would mark the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside of North America, was made at the NBA All-Star 2019 Africa Luncheon in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, February 16.
