The prestigious North American league is launching a major operation in Africa, in the form of a championship bringing together the 12 best African clubs in Kigali, Rwanda.
Beyond the sporting aspect, it is above all a new market, potentially very lucrative, that the NBA wants to conquer.
It is an extraordinary sporting and commercial operation which is currently taking place in Africa.
The prestigious NBA, the North American basketball championship has decided to launch a new competition ... on the African continent with the 12 best clubs on the continent!
The NBA is therefore launching a major tournament in Kigali, Rwanda.
An extraordinary operation, with a very specific goal.
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So, the main idea of the project is to create a new basketball industry in Africa.
The creation of this competition is above all the culmination of more than 20 years of work by the NBA to conquer Africa.
On the continent, there are tens of millions of more or less regular practitioners, an appetite for this sport and therefore an emerging business that must be seized.
Potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in spinoffs
For dozens of years, the NBA has been preparing for its arrival. Because for a basketball business to exist, it was necessary to professionalize the practice in Africa. This is why, for years, the American league has been training coaches, players, sports doctors, helping clubs, improving infrastructure, with large grants. A soft power issue, an economic issue with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term benefits.
The project is supported by the biggest stars, Michael Jordan in the lead. It is an unprecedented step in the history of sport on such a scale. The NBA has structured a sporting practice, created a whole ecosystem favorable to the development and commercial exploitation of basketball in Africa. Against the backdrop for the NBA the ultimate goal of becoming an institution as powerful as Fifa for example