The maiden edition of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) was originally penned for a 2020 unveiling but the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic made that impossible and only an NBA themed bubble setting turned out to be the competition’s saving grace.
As one half of a multi-pronged partnership involving Africa’s basketball governing body (FIBA- Africa), the NBA’s success with a well laid out bubble structure in Orlando that saved the NBA 2019-2020 season served as a great learning source to get things right in the midst of chaos.
Beyond overcoming the pandemic, the BAL generated a ton of publicity for the wrong reasons at least from a purely basketball point of view by registering Grammy Award winning rapper, J. Cole, as a player.
Cole played for Rwandan side Patriots Basketball Club in the BAL’s inaugural season and caused quite a stir in the tabloids.
However, for a professional sports league not named football or soccer at its infant stage, this was a wrong move as it failed to attract the necessary seriousness to the tournament. From the outside looking, having J. Cole play very few minutes across a few games and bolting for the US with the excuse of exiting the league to sort out family issues, smacked of a gimmick league. (Click highlighted text to read full article story)
From the sporting side, having Cole pick a roster spot ahead of players who have dreamt of having such opportunities and competing on such stages taken from them, was of equally poor taste. Season two of the BAL went smoothly but got lost in the hysteria of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification playoff games. As such, the tournament failed to generate enough talking points to place the BAL on the African sports conversation.
The third time’s a charm expression fits perfectly into how things are panning out for the BAL’s third season to really show out even if there won’t be a representative from Africa’s most populous country (Nigeria) featuring at the playoffs stage and it is mainly down to the son of NBA Hall of Famer, Dwyane Wade. Zaire Wade is in the early stages of his basketball career with the huge shadow of his father’s greatness in the sport lurking wherever he turns.
Even after leaving the Salt Lake City Stars- the minor league affiliate of the NBA’s Utah Jazz- Wade still can’t shake off his father’s greatness. The older Wade has minority ownership in the Jazz and according to multiple reports, the team’s value has jumped from $1.75 billion to $2.25 billion two years after the former Miami Heat star joined Utah’s ownership group.
The younger Wade’s venture into Africa’s premier basketball tournament comes on the back of Dwyane Wade’s tabloid headlining visit with his wife Gabrielle Union to the continent. The couple with daughter Kaavia, visited Ghana, South Africa, Zanzibar and Namibia to celebrate Union’s 50th birthday and the visit made quite an impression on them with Union stating “my soul has never felt cleaner or lighter” after her visit to Ghana.
Dwyane Wade on the other hand, had the name “Kwesi” given to him when he visited Ghana and the South African flag tattooed on his body. By registering to compete in the BAL, Zaire Wade has given the Basketball Africa League a solid semblance of legitimacy beyond the headlines his surname generates. Wade is an actual professional basketball player and not a caricature pro baller J. Cole is when he featured in the BAL.
Games in the Sahara Conference are done with four teams (AS Douanes from Senegal, Stade Malien from Mali, Rwanda Energy Group from Rwanda and Abidjan Basketball Club from Ivory Coast) booking their place in the playoffs.
The remaining quartet of spots in the playoffs is to be settled later this month via the Nile Conference with games taking place in Cairo, Egypt and Zaire Wade’s Cape Town Tigers are up against heavy hitters like Al-Ahly of Egypt and Petro de Luanda from Angola for place in the playoffs in May. With his son competing at the top level, it would be shocking if Dwyane Wade does not show up in Cairo to witness some games with Union by his side.
Since Wade is a member of the Banana Boat Club, having him around the BAL could just be the magnet that pulls fellow club members Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony to court side seats of BAL games to watch Zaire play. While it might be a bit of a stretch, Anthony’s 16-year-old son, Kiyan, might fancy a run out in the BAL in the near future to test his readiness for the big leagues.
Their presence gives BAL the media presence it desires while keeping the competitive level of the tournament intact via the play of the man who brought it indirectly. On the court, season three of the Basketball Africa League has aced the test thus far with defending champion US Monastir of Tunisia failing to progress to the playoff stage because of the elevated play of teams in the tournament.
In an era of gender equity, the BAL is scoring major points more than any basketball league in the world by having Liz Mills lead Abidjan Basket to the playoffs after leading Kenya to the 2021 AfroBasket- its first AfroBasket appearance after a 28-year absence.
The Basketball Africa League has had to deal with a ton of challenges with none bigger than a full blown pandemic but the competition is well on its way to becoming a full blown feature on the African sports calendar and having a basketball player with the surname and pull of an NBA Hall of Fame inductee like Dwyane Wade will help a ton.