New basketball league could bring hope to Africa
As the global basketball elite descended upon Charlotte for all-star weekend, the most critical news coming from North Carolina was Adam Silver’s announcement that the National Basketball Association would be helping to establish a professional league in Africa.
It’s worthwhile remembering that only 25 years ago, South Africa — one of 12 countries to be represented in this new endeavour — was still a country ruled by apartheid. In this context, it would have been inconceivable for the world’s greatest basketball league to be responsible for one of the most significant cultural, social and political milestones in Africa’s nascent sporting history.
What’s more, this story has a uniquely Toronto flavour to it. Raptors President Masai Ujiri, through his Giants of Africa program, has been seen as a critical ambassador for creating partnerships with key stakeholders across the continent. Ujiri has been able to leverage the successful blueprint of the Raptors, which has branded itself as a team representing a nation, into a model the NBA is hoping to replicate across the Atlantic.
There is no doubt that in our turbulent times, sport may be a catalyst for unity. In the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks in Kenya, fraught elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a myriad of other issues, the Basketball Africa league may represent a medium for hope and aspiration.
Africa has the world’s fastest growing population. Bill and Me- linda Gates remarked in their latest annual letter that the continent is poised to have the largest global population of people under 35. The Basketball Africa league, therefore, has the potential to directly shape the lives and attitudes of generations of young Africans.
The economic impact for these countries, if harnessed in the right way, could be substantial. Entire industries would grow from this injection of legitimacy, including entertainment, media and other cultural showcases. Combined with the endorsement and support of global leaders like Barack Obama, the league might also have a deeper and more meaningful role to play in global geopolitics.
And while the rest of us wonder whether Kawhi will stay a Raptor past July, or LeBron can pull off another miracle by dragging his Lakers into the playoffs, the NBA is clearly playing the long game.
In its quest to become the dominant global sport, the NBA has identified a cultural motherland that it sees as a kindred spirit for a pipeline of new and untapped talent. In so doing, it might just be part of the antidote for removing existing barriers, curbing regional hegemony and addressing conflicts in a place that has known little else.
This league could be the most important lens through which Africa’s history of vibrant talent, culture, history and beauty is celebrated. It might just be the world stage Africans have long dreamed of, and patiently waited for. Adam Kassam is a resident physician who writes about health care and popular culture. Karim Lalji is a Nairobi-based lawyer.