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Obama Launched Basketball Africa League

         Mr. Barrack Obama officiates Basketball Africa League or BAL for the African continent. Considering the NBA’s global populari...

         Mr. Barrack Obama officiates Basketball Africa League or BAL for the African continent.
Considering the NBA’s global popularity and penchant for staying ahead of the curve, Saturday’s announcement that the league is officially expanding toward Africa. The NBA and FIBA jointly announced their plan Saturday afternoon to launch a basketball league featuring 12 club teams across Africa.

The new league, which will be called the Basketball Africa League, or BAL in short, will be built upon the existing team and competitions, the FIBA organizing in Africa. The first scheduled will begin to play in January 2020. In order to determine which teams will be participating in the venture, the NBA and FIBA are jointly planning to conduct qualification tournaments later this year to identify potential members for 12 teams that would represent several countries — including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia. There will be no more than two teams from any single country in the league. But the biggest surprise comes the revelation that our forever president Barack Obama, whose affinity for hoops is well-documented, will be involved in the new league—as well as the NBA’s continued efforts in Africa— in an unspecified role.

The announcing and inception of the BAL, the NBA introduced two additional measures designed to expand the popularity of basketball on the continent: a revamped direct-to-consumer offering of NBA games by the start of next season and dedicated financial support and resources toward the continued development of the sport on the continent.

To include training for players, coaches, referees, and building infrastructure. “The Basketball Africa League is an important next step in our continued development of the game of basketball in Africa,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “Combined with our other programs on the continent, we are committed to using basketball as an economic engine to create new opportunities in sports, media, and technology across Africa.”