Africa will struggle with its efforts to host NBA games due to a lack of quality venues, Toronto Rapids president Masai Ujiri has said.
Nigerian-Canadian Ujiri, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Ontario team, is one of the champions of efforts to see NBA games played on the continent.
He told BBC Sport Africa that a number of the NBA’s top names also want it to happen – but finding facilities good enough is the biggest obstacle.
“There is a big challenge in Africa – a lot of these countries don’t have arenas,” he said.
“That’s what President Kagame did – he built an arena in Rwanda (opened in 2019), and President Macky Sall built an arena in Senegal (completed in 2018). And those are the places that are getting the games.”
Nairobi’s need
The NBA, together with the International Basketball Federation, created the Basketball Africa League (BAL), in which teams from across the continent come together in one location for a series of matches, the overall winner being crowned the African champions.
These close links between the two competitions meant that the BAL’s president Amadou Gallo Fall was recently able to announce that discussions have been happening around potentially bringing a pre-season NBA game to Africa for the first time ever.
But finding enough venues to sustain that plan beyond one season is a challenge, Ujiri said, adding that he was especially frustrated that there was nothing he felt was appropriate in Kenya, whose capital he was visiting as part of his Giants of Africa project.
“We need an arena in Kenya,” he said.
“This creates jobs, it creates revenue. It builds the ecosystem of sports, it builds the ecosystem in our environment.
“We need this badly. Nairobi is one of the most vibrant places in the world. These arenas will host concerts, events, fiestas, games, leagues.
“We need one big one here, we need one good one in Nairobi” said Ujiri.
100 courts
Ujiri added that if the NBA does make the plan work, he hopes the Raptors are involved.
“We have a lot of African players, and there’s priority there that we need to grow this continent and also give ourselves opportunity here with basketball,” he said.
He added that other elite NBA names were also keen on the idea.
“Adam Silver, Amadou Fall, Victor Williams – these guys are right at the front of it, they want to grow the game on the continent big time.
“As you know, the Basketball Africa League is growing, spreading around Africa.
“So then one of the next things I’m sure will be a basketball game.”
Other major American leagues have begun successfully experimenting with playing fixtures outside the US, notably American Football’s NFL, which yearly sees matches at Wembley Stadium in London.
The Giants of Africa project has made a commitment to build 100 basketball courts across Africa.
So far 26 have been unveiled, including the latest three in Nairobi.
“We feel that the next opportunity is infrastructure,” Ujiri said.
“We come and do basketball camps and basketball clinics, but they also need the space, a safe space to play.
“This is a safe space for them right in the middle of Umoja 11 community and this youth need this. And for them to have high level basketball facilities or sports facilities. Now they are going to be better in what they do.”
