Basketball in Africa is run by the

FIBA Africa FIBA Africa is a zone within the FIBA basketball association which contains all 54 national African FIBA federations. It was founded in 1961. FIBA Africa maintains offices in Cairo and in Abidjan. Members FIBA World Rankings Overview ...

. The major competition that FIBA Africa runs for national teams is the AfroBasket, while its biggest tournament for

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

s is the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league. The league consists of twelve teams, each qualified through their domestic competition, similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League. The league is a joint eff ...

(BAL). The

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) is investing millions to increase a foothold in the African market.

Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (; ; born January 21, 1963), nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian Americans, Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Ass ...

is considered to have been instrumental in developing and popularizing basketball in Africa.

History

Introduced to Africa around the 1960s basketball has become a very popular sport. After more people took notice and practiced, professional teams were formed. The managers of the first African National Federation decide to participate and compete in FIBA, which is the world basketball governing body. Held on 30 and 31 August 1960 the FIBA Congress allowed the Egyptian Basketball Federation to set up an institution in order to compete. This led to the integration of twelve African countries to join FIBA and the world stage. These countries include Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Morocco, Libya, North Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Togo. Currently, FIBA Africa grew to a point where every single country in Africa has a designated team, leading to 54 active teams in the institution. The activities of the youth program

Basketball Without Borders Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organized by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA. It presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport ...

in Africa, and program director

Masai Ujiri Masai Ujiri (born 7 July 1970) is a British-born, Nigerian-Canadian professional basketball executive and former player and is the president of basketball operations of the Toronto Raptors in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a m ...

, are profiled in

Hubert Davis Hubert Ira Davis Jr. (born May 17, 1970) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 19 ...

's 2016 documentary film ''

Giants of Africa ''Giants of Africa'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Hubert Davis and released in 2016.

''."Masai Ujiri building on hope with Giants of Africa: Arthur"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', September 2, 2016. Further youth developments have been done by

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

and the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

with the launch of the FIBA Africa Youth Camp in September 2021. On February 18, 2019,

and the

announced plans for a professional basketball league on the continent of Africa. The league was originally scheduled to start in January 2020, but the inaugural season was later scheduled for May 2021, when

Zamalek SC Zamalek Sporting Club ( ar, نادي الزمالك للألعاب الرياضية), commonly referred to as Zamalek, is an Egyptian sports club based in Giza. It is one of the most successful football clubs in Africa and the Middle East, an ...

were crowned the first ever champions of the

(BAL).

Major influences

Hakeem Olajuwon

One of the greatest African-born players to ever play the game of basketball,

was born in

Lagos, Nigeria Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, and his skills were great enough for him to be noticed by U.S. NCAA

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

teams. He was drafted into the

by the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

and with them he won two NBA championships. He was voted the most valuable player of two NBA finals, and he is both a Basketball Hall of Fame player and FIBA Hall of Fame player. His career success helped to pave the way for many international players to compete in the NBA, and also inspired many scouts to look for new talent in other places in the world besides the U.S.

References

{{Africa-stub