Diamniadio (Senegal) (AFP)

Wearing an NBA jersey, a young basketball player tries a three-point on the floor of the Dakar Arena. This is where the hopes of 29 African countries are introduced to the "good methods" of the famous North American Basketball League, eight months before the launch of a professional championship on the continent.

"I do not want someone to make a pass and stay still, you have to move! Movement!" Shouts a supervisor to young girls. On the other part of the field, reserved for boys, a defender against a dunk attempt.

For three days, 60 young African basketball players, boys and girls aged 17 and under, are enrolled in a camp supervised by professionals from the NBA, the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) and the Senegalese federation, in Diamniadio, city new near Dakar.

During this 60th edition of the initiative "Basketball without borders", the 17th to be held in Africa, the apprentice-basketball players could rub shoulders with stars of the NBA, including Cameroonian winger Pascal Siakam, NBA 2019 champion with the Toronto Raptors, or Senegalese pivot Gorgui Sy Dieng (Minnesota), as well as star coaches like Kenny Atkinson (Nets), Doc Rivers (Clippers) and David Fizdale (New York Knicks).

The NBA, which develops continuously outside the United States, will launch in March 2020, with Fiba, the African League of Basketball (or BAL, according to the acronym), championship which will gather 12 clubs divided into two "conferences".

Five cities have been selected to host the regular season: Cairo, Dakar, Lagos, Luanda, Rabat while a doubt remains about the Tunisian laureate, between Monastir or Tunis. The Final Four will be played in Kigali.

Some 40 current NBA players, about 10 percent of the workforce, are either born in Africa or have at least one parent born there, according to NBA boss Adam Silver. Joining in their footsteps remains a dream for many young Africans.

- "Show my talent to the world" -

"I want to use this camp to show my talent to the world," AFP told AFP camp participant Samuel Aryibi, a 17-year-old Nigerian playing in a Lagos academy.

"I want to improve my defensive abilities, better communicate with my team-mates and better understand the game," adds the young player who, of course, "wants to play in the NBA". "My dream is also, after the NBA, to return to develop basketball in Nigeria and Africa," he plans already.

The trainers "teach us to play faster and better shot, because in Africa, we are not good shooters," says Ahara Naigan Réana, 16, the "Swallows", in the first division of Togo, who would like join the WNBA.

"This camp is a platform for young Africans to learn to play using the right methods, and children, the best players in their respective countries, have the opportunity to train with coaches from around the world. NBA and Fiba, "stresses NBA-Africa operations director, Burkinabé Frank Traoré, lamenting" amateurism and lack of competition in Africa ".

Fiba and NBA leaders also inaugurated on Tuesday in Guediawaye, a popular suburb of Dakar, two refurbished fields thanks to the NBA, which also offered a hundred balloons.

"We are going to recruit 100 youngsters from 4 to 16 years old to train them, these fields are a good thing because we did not have where to train", despite the craze for basketball in this area, said a local coach, Sheikh Aliou Seck.

"It will be our legacy to hatch young talent," said the boss of the future African Basketball League, the Senegalese Amadou Gallo Fall.

© 2019 AFP