CLAUDE:
You’re listening to Limitless Africa, the podcast that looks at how Africa and America can work together for shared prosperity. It’s sponsored by the US Department of State and the Seenfire Foundation.
DIMPHO:
On Limitless Africa today: the NBA is the home of basketball, and a place for African talent to shine.
CLAUDE:
But as promoters look to other growing markets, can Africa become the new home of the sport?
DIMPHO:
And finally how the combination of African and American talent is leading to a golden age of basketball.
NDEYE DIARRA:
Sports in Africa is a nascent industry. There’s so much to be built there. You know, when you look at what the U.S. has been able to build as an industry, We’re the infancy of that on the continent. And I think the earlier you can form consumer habits, the earlier you can build the infrastructure, the better and the greater value you can generate around an asset in the future.
CLAUDE:
African athletes have been responsible for some iconic moments in NBA history.
AMADOU GALLO FALL:
Hakeem Olajuwon being drafted number one overall in 1984 was the precursor of a lot of oh what’s happening over on the continent and the growth of the game,
CLAUDE:
That’s Amadou Gallo Fall, the president of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) a professional men’s league founded by NBA Africa.
AMADOU:
Hakim becoming one of the greatest players ever to play the game of basketball. He’s a Hall of Famer, a two-time NBA champion…
CLAUDE:
Hakim’s not the only iconic African player…
AMADOU:
We also have Dikembe Mutombo, who’s also had a Hall of Fame career… and also Manute Bol from South Sudan, who you know but had a tremendous impact in the game.
CLAUDE:
And there are more…
AMADOU:
They inspired players like Luol Deng, a two-time all-star from South Sudan. We have Joel Embiid from Cameroon. He was a recent MVP of the NBA.
CLAUDE:
There are so many future icons
AMADOU:
Last season on opening day rosters, there were 17 players born in Africa on NBA rosters. And this year’s 2025 NBA draft, we have a young man, Khaman Maluach, from South Sudan who grew up in Uganda,
CLAUDE:
Africa is just getting started….
DIMPHO:
And part of the growth on the continent has also been fuelled by the work of NBA Kenya lead Michael Finley, who launched the NBA’s newest Africa office in Nairobi in 2023. He spoke to Claude.
MICHAEL FINLEY:
Africa is the largest talent pool on this planet for basketball.
Look, three of our last seven or eight MVPs over the last seven seven or eight years, three times it’s been Africans. Joel Embiid, well, it was Giannis Antetokounmpo twice and Joel Embiid once.
DIMPHO:
African players are contributing to a business worth over $10 billion for the US economy. Think of what that kind of money could mean for Africa. But on the continent itself, there hasn’t been much development of the basketball industry. Michael says that’s finally changing – and not a moment too soon…
MICHAEL:
It’s almost like a sin or a crime that basketball, as an example, is the is a multi-billion dollar business across the globe, right? Everywhere except where the largest talent base exists which is in Africa so that that’s that’s changing dramatically governments financial institutions uh and individual investors are all realizing this and are now moving to make a sport a business on the continent. And the NBA is is leading the charge, along with entities like CAF, entities like the PSL, entities like um South African Rugby, where American venture capitalists ah are coming in and buying up teams or buying into teams like the Sharks, etc.
DIMPHO:
Quick note: CAF is the Confederation of African Football and PSL the Premier Soccer League
MICHAEL:
The NBA has set the tone. Like I said, it’s the tip of the spear of the development of the industry of basketball on the African continent. And because of the amount of money we’re spending, because of the amount of international attention that we’re bringing to the game on the continent, what’s happened is, Amadou has often said, and he’s made sort of a mantra inside of the NBA Africa, you know, and this is not his saying, but he repeats it so often: Rising tides raises all ships. And that’s what is happening with basketball on the continent.
CLAUDE:
And what is at the tip of that spear of development? Well, it’s the NBA Africa’s BAL, a league run with FIBA, the International Basketball Federation. BAL’s most recent season was played in Morocco, Senegal and Rwanda. Back to BAL president Amadou Fall.
AMADOU:
The NBA has had a presence on the continent for many decades. I first moved to South Africa in 2010 to start NBA Africa office. And then we’ve spent a lot of time just building the game, focusing on grassroots level ah to make it accessible to more young people who want to play the sport.
So all these activities led ultimately to the launch of the Basketball Africa League, which is a Pan-African professional league with 12 teams from 12 different countries.
So we opened the headquarters in 2021 in Dakar and the league actually launched in 2021 Kigali in the middle of the pandemic.
CLAUDE:
The league has now completed its 5th season. 156 players from a record 28 countries competed. The games were broadcast around the world in 214 countries and in 17 languages.
AMADOU:
And this is what this league is going to continue to provide, a platform where talented players will get a chance to showcase their talent, to monetize their talent, to earn a living.
Coaches will earn a living, referees. And the best players, you know, will always have a chance to go to the best leagues. You know, I mean, obviously, the NBA is a dream of every player, basketball player, no matter what part of the world they are in.
Again, our goal is for this league to be an economic growth engine for the continent that is going to create jobs and that is going to also drive tremendous kind commercial economic interest for the continent. We did this economic impact studies where after four years, the League have generated or contributed in the of $250 million dollars to GDPs across Africa, and then 27,000 jobs.
And this trend is going to continue to rise with the level of interest we’re seeing across the board.
CLAUDE:
But development is a slow process. Let’s go back to Michael who says it’s all about the long game.
MICHAEL:
But the reality is the NBA, if the NBA was strictly focused on how to make a quick buck in Africa, I don’t think the NBA would have ever come here um and made the investment that’s being made over the last 15 plus years.
This is a long game for the NBA. And so, you know, if this were a handful of guys that were trying to run a league in Africa and you looked at, you know, where the league was financially after a few years, yeah, as a small investment group, you’d go like, you know what?
This is not going to pay off in the next two to three years. So, you know, you might not have the appetite or the stomach for it. The NBA is looking at this as a play over decades. And So from that perspective, things are on track.
DIMPHO:
The NBA is doing pioneering work in Africa. To find out more, Claude spoke to Ndeye Diarra, the founder of Africa Scores, a US-based consultancy firm for those looking to invest in sport in Africa. She started off by explaining how basketball’s success has opened the door to other major American sports like American football, baseball and hockey.
NDEYE:
The NBA were or the trailblazers on the continent. When Amadou Galo Fall, who I know is also going to be part of this episode, ah you know sort of like planted the and NBA flag um on the continent, he was the first sort of you know representation of like an American major league, we call them the big four. He was one of the first representative of a big four doing so, right? And it then prompted um now everybody else to realize like, oh, my goodness, there’s things happening in Africa. We need to get on it.
CLAUDE:
But then if we start thinking about it from a business perspective, how do you think collaboration in sports actually increases prosperity, both on the African continent and in the United States?
NDEYE:
And so to me, when you ask me about collaboration in sports, it’s very straightforward because sports touches just so many different sectors that you can just bring all these sectors together and create prosperity.
I think ultimately athletes now today are no longer satisfied with just being you know great in their sports they also understand that they are part of a much bigger business ecosystem and they want a piece of that business rightfully so if I may add and so you have a lot of ah well, you have a lot, first of all, you have a lot of African athletes in the U.S. making moves. And I would have to quote, like, I have to cite Yanis Antetokounmpo with his, you know, Build Your Legacy Ventures that is investing in, not just in sports, he has, I think he’s he’s invested in a um in a in a soccer team, he’s invested in the golf league, but he’s also investing in sports tech.
And so I think that shows you how these athletes are considering their own contribution to sports as an ecosystem. They’re really looking at the entire value chain.
If I had to quote an American athlete ah who’s also an investor is Serena Williams, because she is investing in Africa. And I think actually the fact that she is doesn’t get sufficient attention, but I know, you know, she’s invested in Nestcoin, a firm that was that was founded by a good friend of mine, Yele Bademosi
She’s also invested in Stears, which is an African intelligence company, business intelligence company. So I think this is once again a proof.
CLAUDE:
She’s one of my partners as well. At the Equity Alliance, venture capital firm, Serena Ventures.
And one of the things that Serena and I were talking about um a few months ago was the potential in Africa, because she’s all in when it comes to Africa.
NDEYE:
Exactly. And so see, like, I think like, this is a perfect example of collaboration, because you have arguably one of the greatest athletes of all time, you know, now investing in tech and also investing in tech, but in Africa, like, this is the proof of collaboration that sports can bring,
CLAUDE:
I’m pretty sure a lot of your clients at Africa Scores ask you about these opportunities. What do you say to them?
NDEYE:
The only thing I would say that the conversations I constantly have is that if you want to invest in sports in Africa, you have to be patient. And I think maybe that’s the one component we’re missing. It’s actual patient capital.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, you know, the NBA became the NBA as we know it, and it took it like 75 years. Rome was not built in a day. You will not, you know, have immediate like returns if you invest in sports in Africa. It’s not your typical venture capital return cycle.
So I would say investing in sports in Africa is all about early exposure. I think it’s more about discovery right now than making like high returns. But I like to people, think about the fact that in 25 years, 25% of the world population will be African, 25%. Twenty five percent. That’s one out of four people in a room.
CLAUDE:
Well, that’s that’s a huge number.
NDEYE:
You don’t You don’t want to scramble and try to understand Africa in 25 years. You want to start understanding Africa now. And I think being around African sports gives you such a great understanding and great grasp of how to do business in Africa, the different cultures that we have on the continent. And so, yeah, to me, it’s ah it’s a great entry point ah for even people that are interested not just in sports, but for people that are interested in other sectors.
DIMPHO:
Basketball is a classic American sport. But the work of BAL and the NBA Africa show what can happen when Africans and Americans work together. Let’s finish with Michael Finley who’s doing great work to promote basketball on the ground in Africa.
MICHAEL:
And we’re now doing all we can with many others, with FIBA, with local federations and corporates that to to create enough supply, if you will, to build enough courts, to create enough leagues, etc, for kids to enter the game. So I think that’s what’s happened. it’s the The love of it has exploded. The love of the NBA has exploded. Now you have a professional league in Africa.
Now you have a professional league in Africa, the BAL, which is something that any young hooper aspires to play in Africa. And they realize, you know, I don’t have to be a superstar that goes overseas. I can become a star on this continent by making it to the top league in Africa. And so, you know, it everything has changed over these 30 years. And now the game has momentum and who knows where it’s going to go but it’s going to be massive on this continent.
DIMPHO:
And that’s a limitless opportunity for shared prosperity and for talent, wherever it’s found, to shine.
CLAUDE:
Thanks for listening. Limitless Africa, the podcast that looks at how Africa and America can work together for shared prosperity. It’s sponsored by the US Department of State and the Seenfire Foundation.
