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The National Basketball Association, in its latest move to aggressively grow overseas, will soon begin selling franchises for its league in Africa, Commissioner Adam Silver said. The NBA, which created its Basketball Africa League in 2019 and played its first season two years later, aims to sell 12 new teams alongside an opportunity to build home arenas for those franchises, Silver said last week at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum in New York.
Adam Silver imagined a future midseason “NBA Cup” in Europe that could essentially create a worldwide “confederation” of teams from multiple continents, extending possibly to clubs from NBA Africa. “You could imagine teams from Europe, potentially Africa, competing in that tournament,” Silver said. “You possibly could see teams coming into our playoffs, top seeds from other leagues. But over time, I think, for example, certainly in Europe as plane travel gets faster… I’m reading all the time about more opportunities in aviation. When I think of the flight from New York to LA for example, there’s no reason if we had four teams in Europe, you couldn’t travel, play the Knicks or Nets, travel to London, play three, four times in Europe, come back home. So I think it’s very doable in our league."
With NBA Europe virtually imminent, as JP Morgan and the Raine Group currently try to set the market price for franchises, Silver again said the rationale, from a business perspective, is the lack of basketball commercialization overseas. “From a commercial standpoint, we haven’t seen the kind of development you’ve seen, particularly in the United States,” he said at the Bloomberg Global Forum. “There are not many state-of-the-art arenas in Europe. It’s like even for those who were over in Paris last summer for the Olympics, we had fantastic basketball competition in the Bercy Arena in Paris. They revitalized it to a certain extent for the Olympics. But if you’re in the industry, everything seems fine if you’re in the seats and watching the competition on the floor, but it doesn’t have the suites, the restaurants, the back of house room to do larger events”
Mike Vorkunov: What could NBA ultimately do with the new league it's building in Europe? Adam Silver: "We have something we call the NBA Cup... You could imagine teams in Europe, potentially Africa, competing in that tournament. You possibly could see teams coming into our playoffs, top seeds from other leagues."
A new $26 million sports-themed hotel in Rwanda that aims to tap into the country’s growing hospitality market will be a template for expanding other sporting businesses across Africa, the former National Basketball Association executive that spearheaded the project told Semafor. Masai Ujiri, former vice president of NBA franchise Toronto Raptors and a retired basketball player, plans to build a collection of hotels in Africa following the opening of Zaria Court, his company’s first hotel property, in the Rwandan capital Kigali in July.
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Kawhi Leonard spent four days in Rwanda, beginning on August 3, with a focus on youth development and a high-level conversation with President Paul Kagame about investing in education and sports across the country. The two met privately for roughly two hours in Kigali to discuss ways athletics can open doors for young people, then reconnected later at a Giants of Africa camp, where Kagame addressed the players and praised Leonard for making the trip.
While in Kigali, Leonard unveiled a new outdoor basketball court he designed at St. Ignatius School as part of Giants of Africa’s “Built Within” initiative, which aims to construct 100 courts across the continent. The court features messages drawn from Leonard’s childhood—“Play Hard, Have Fun,” “You Are Stronger Than You Think,” and “Be Great”—and color choices inspired by his middle and high school alma maters. The goal is to give thousands of local kids a place to play and a daily reminder to keep going.
The former NBA executive's focus now shifts to his Giants of Africa organization, which instills and develops leadership among Africa's youth through the game of basketball. But as for what comes next in the NBA, Ujiri is uncertain. "Now, it's day to day with the family," Ujiri said. "It's a time to really look at it from the top, and I know there are great things coming."
Countless African kids are staying up watching Siakam again in these Finals. “For me, coming in as a young player, not really having played any basketball, having to learn on the fly, at that time it was mostly like when you were a big guy from Cameroon, you came in, you was a big, you ran, you dunked,” Siakam said. “That’s pretty much what it was. For me, I can see that evolving now with guys my size being able to do different things.”
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NBA Africa's commitment to build 1000 courts on the continent over the next decade continued in Rwanda on Monday, with NBA legend Luol Deng in attendance, as they unveiled a court in Nyamata. The NBA's African operation, in partnership with nonprofit Opportunity International, opened the court at Highland School, with a second court opening scheduled for Tuesday, May 27 at the Loiswell Academy in Nairobi, Kenya.
Just weeks after projected No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg or another prized rookie debuts for the Toronto Raptors at NBA Summer League, their chairman and president Masai Ujiri will proudly make his way to Rwanda for the Giants of Africa Festival 2025 to highlight African youngsters. Ujiri is hosting the GOA Festival in Kigali, Rwanda, from July 26 to Aug. 2. The GOA Festival is projected to bring 320 young men and women from 20 different African nations together for a week of community, fellowship and competition. GOA Festival 2025 highlights culture, basketball, education, fashion and entertainment, with the goal of serving as a unifying force to inspire change across Africa. “There are so many things going on in this eight days and it goes fast,” Ujiri told Andscape. “But it was an incredible feeling being at the last one we had. And we’re hoping to make this even better.”
The Nigeria native has long been devoted to promoting and developing the game of basketball throughout Africa. He founded the Giants of Africa organization in 2003 in hopes of creating opportunities through basketball and education. Since then, GOA has built over 37 basketball courts in 11 countries, had over 6,000 kids attend its camps that taught basketball and life skills, and impacted more than 40,000 youth across Africa. GOA was also highlighted in a documentary in 2016 and in December of 2023 celebrated its 20th anniversary in Toronto. The inaugural GOA Festival took place in Rwanda in the summer of 2023. It included eight days of programming with the likes of famed singers Davido and Tyla performing, more than 14,000 spectators in attendance, more than 2,000 youth participating and more than 50 paid internships. GOA said the event invested $1.5 million U.S. dollars to the local economy in 2023. The GOA Festival 2025 expects to induce $3 million of investment to the local economy over eight days at Kigali Sports City. There will be an opening ceremony, youth boys and girls basketball competitions concluding with All-Star games, sports business forums, coaches clinics, a fashion show, a concert and more. Ujiri is also excited to unveil Zaria Court, a new urban development project in Kigali that he has invested in that has a luxury hotel, restaurants, community space and athletic facilities.
“It’s about seeing Africa as one, and having these kids actually come and really see the other cultures,” Ujiri said. “And we have culture, food, education, entertainment, everything that brings all of us together on the continent. We have talent that shows our strengths. The real talent of Africa is the people, all the people of the continent and its youth. “The demographic of Africa is incredible. And bringing the youth together through sport is just something that’s special. And the Giants of Africa Festival was very special a couple years ago, and we decided that we would do it again.”