2021 BAL season

The 2021 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 1, was the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Established as a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA, the BAL is the highest tier continental league of Africa, replacing the FIBA Africa Basketball League.^[1] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BAL held its inaugural season one year later as planned, with the season beginning in 2021.^[2][3] Initially the league planned to play in six venues in six countries; however, due to the pandemic the season was held in a bio-secure bubble in Kigali, Rwanda. The season began on 16 May 2021 and ended on 30 May 2021.^[4]

2021 BAL season
League	Basketball Africa League
Season	2021
Dates	16 – 30 May 2021
Games played	26
Teams	12
Regular season
Season MVP	Walter Hodge (Zamalek)
Finals
Champions	Zamalek (1st title)
Runners-up	US Monastir
Third place	Petro de Luanda
Fourth place	Patriots
Statistical leaders
Points Terrell Stoglin (AS Salé) 30.8 Rebounds Ibrahima Thomas (Police) 12.0 Assists Myck Kabongo (Ferroviário) 6.8
Records
Biggest home win	47 points GNBC 66–113 US Monastir (12 May 2021)
Winning streak	6 games Zamalek
Highest attendance	1,789 US Monastir 63–76 Zamalek (30 May 2021)

The qualifying rounds for the season were held from 16 October to 21 December 2019, with national champion of each African country has the opportunity to qualify through the qualifying rounds. Meanwhile, six national champions directly qualified for the regular season to make a total of twelve teams in the main tournament.

Zamalek won the first-ever BAL championship after beating US Monastir in the finals and going undefeated over the season.^[5]

Organisation

The plans to establish the BAL by FIBA and the NBA were first revealed in February 2019 during the 2019 NBA All-Star Game.^[6]

In August 2019, the seven host cities for the BAL season were announced.^[7] Additionally, it was revealed that the inaugural BAL Final Four would be played in the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall, later announced at the NBA All-Star 2020 Africa Luncheon in Chicago, that the season was planned to tip off on 13 March 2020.^[8] On 20 February 2020, it was announced that the 12 teams were to be drawn in two conferences, named the Sahara and Nile Conferences.^[9]

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Africa

On 3 March 2020, the BAL announced it was postponing its inaugural season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[10] The decision was made following recommendations of the Senegalese government.

In November, the start of the inaugural season was delayed for a second time and the new season was moved to a later to be announced date in 2021.^[11] In March it was announced the league would commence in May 2021. The complete event was rescheduled to be held in the Kigali Arena and the regular season changed its format from two groups to three groups of four.^[4] All twelve teams were hosted in a bio-secure bubble in which all players were regularly tested for COVID-19. All games were broadcast live by ESPN Africa.^[12]

Qualification

The twelve teams for the inaugural BAL season had to qualify in their domestic competitions to be able to play in the league, similar to other FIBA-organised competitions. Six teams qualified directly as their national champions while an additional six teams qualified through regional qualifying tournaments.

Direct qualification

FIBA announced that the national champions of six member associations would be directly qualified for the regular season. These teams are from countries which are also hosts cities for the regular season, except for Final Four host Rwanda.^[7] On 23 October 2019, AS Douanes won the Senegalese national championship, becoming the first club to qualify.^[13]

Directly qualified teams

No. Country Team Notes 1  Angola Petro de Luanda Directly Qualified 2  Egypt Zamalek 3  Morocco AS Salé

No. Country Team Notes 4  Nigeria Rivers Hoopers Directly Qualified 5  Senegal AS Douanes 6  Tunisia US Monastir

Qualifying tournaments

Main article: 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

Each of the FIBA Africa member associations was able to register one team from its country to participate in the qualifying tournaments. A total of 31 teams played in the first round, which was divided into six groups in six different host cities.^[14] The qualification tournaments started on 16 October and will end 21 December 2019.

Teams and countries playing in the 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

No. Country Team Notes 1  Algeria GS Pétroliers Qualified 2  Benin ASPAC 3  Botswana Dolphins 4 Burundi Dynamo 5  Cameroon FAP Qualified 6 CAF Abeilles Withdrew 7  Comoros Usoni 8 DR Congo ASB Mazembe 9  Ethiopia Hawassa City 10  Gabon Manga 11  Ghana Braves of Customs 12  Guinea SLAC 13  Ivory Coast ABC 14  Kenya KPA 15  Liberia NPA Pythons 16  Libya Al-Nasr Benghazi

No. Country Team Notes 17  Madagascar GNBC Qualified 18 Malawi Brave Hearts Withdrew 19  Mali AS Police Qualified 20  Mozambique Ferroviário de Maputo Qualified 21  Namibia Lions Club 22  Niger AS Nigelec 23  Rwanda Patriots Qualified 24  Seychelles Beau Vallon Heat 25  South Africa Jozi Nuggets 26  South Sudan Cobra 27  Tanzania JKT 28  Uganda City Oilers 29  Zambia UNZA Pacers 30  Zimbabwe Mercenaries 31  Equatorial Guinea Virgen Maria de Africa

Teams

Qualified teams

Team	Home city	Qualified as	Qualified on
US Monastir	Monastir, Tunisia	Winners of the 2018–19 Championnat National A	1 May 2019
Zamalek	Cairo, Egypt	Winners of the 2018–19 Egyptian Super League	4 May 2019
Petro de Luanda	Luanda, Angola	Winners of the 2018–19 Angolan Basketball League	25 May 2019
AS Salé	Salé, Morocco	Winners of the 2018–19 Division Excellence	30 May 2019
AS Douanes	Dakar, Senegal	Winners of the 2019 Nationale 1 season	23 October 2019
Rivers Hoopers	Port Harcourt, Nigeria	Winners of the 2019 NBBF President Cup	17 November 2019[15]
GS Pétroliers	Algiers, Algeria	West Division winners	30 November 2019[16]
FAP	Yaoundé, Cameroon	West Division runners-up	30 November 2019[16]
AS Police	Bamako, Mali	West Division third place	1 December 2019[17]
Patriots	Kigali, Rwanda	East Division winners	21 December 2019
GNBC	Antsirabe, Madagascar	East Division runners-up	21 December 2019[18]
Ferroviário de Maputo	Maputo, Mozambique	East Division third place	22 December 2019

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Head coach	Team captain
AS Douanes	Pabi Gueye[19]	Alkaly Ndour
AS Salé	Said El Bouzidi[20]	Zakaria El Masbahi
AS Police	Babacar Kanouté[19]	Badra Samaké[21]
FAP	Lazare Adingono[22]	Ebaku Akumenzoh
Ferroviário de Maputo	Milagre Macome[19]	Custódio Muchate
GNBC	Lova Navalona Raharidera[19]	Francis Mory
GS Pétroliers	Sofiane Boulahia[23]	Mustapha Adrar
Patriots	Alan Major[24]	Aristide Mugabe
Petro de Luanda	José Neto[25]	Leonel Paulo
Rivers Hoopers	Ogoh Odaudu[19]	Belema Alamin
US Monastir	Mounir Ben Slimane	Radhouane Slimane
Zamalek	Augustí Julbe[22]	Haytham Elsaharty

Foreign players

In line with league rules, each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players.

Team
	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4
AS Douanes	Chris Cokley[26]	Hassan Attia[26]	Mohamed Sadi[26]	—
AS Salé	Ra'Shad James[27]	Terrell Stoglin[28]	Johndre Jefferson[27]	—
AS Police	Ibrahima Thomas[27]	Jawachi Nzeakor[29]	Mylo Mitchell[27]	—
FAP	Abdoulaye Harouna[30]	Marcus Thomas[30]	Matthew Hezekiah	—
Ferroviário de Maputo	Adjehi Baru[31]	Álvaro Calvo Masa[31]	Demarcus Holland[31]	Myck Kabongo
GNBC	Cameron Ridley[32]	—	—	—
GS Pétroliers	—	—	—	—
Patriots	Jermaine Cole[33]	Bush Wamukota[34]	Brandon Costner[33]	—
Petro de Luanda	Ryan Richards[35]	Antwan Scott[27]	—	—
Rivers Hoopers	Robinson Opong[36]	Chris Daniels[37]	Taren Sullivan[37]	—
US Monastir	Ater Majok[22]	Wael Arakji[22]	Chris Crawford[27]	—
Zamalek	Chinemelu Elonu[38]	Michael Fakuade[39]	Walter Hodge[22]	Mouloukou Diabate[40]

Venues

Kigali

Cairo

Luanda

Dakar

Lagos

Monastir

Salé

Location of venues of the 2020 BAL season.
Red: Sahara Conference; Yellow: Nile Conference; Grey: Playoffs & Finals.

On 1 August 2019, the NBA announced the seven host cities for the regular season.^[7] Six cities in six countries would host the regular season games, with three assigned to each conference. The Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda was announced as venue for the inaugural Final Four. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, it was later decided that the entire event was to be played at the Kigali Arena.^[4]

Proposed venues of the inaugural BAL season before the format change

Arena	Capacity	Location
Dakar Arena	15,000	Dakar, Senegal
Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex	16,500	Cairo, Egypt
Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000	Salé, Morocco
Kilamba Arena	12,270	Luanda, Angola
Kigali Arena (Final Four)	10,000	Kigali, Rwanda
National Stadium	3,000[41]	Lagos, Nigeria
Mohamed-Mzali Sports Hall	4,075	Monastir, Tunisia

Schedule

Phase	Round	Draw date	Games
Qualifying	First round	9 October 2019	15 October – 3 November 2019
	Elite 16	21 November 2019	26 November – 22 December 2019
Group phase		29 March 2021	16–24 May 2021
Playoffs	Quarter-finals		26–27 May 2021
	Semi-finals		29 May 2021
	Final and third place		30 May 2021

Qualifying tournaments

Main article: 2021 BAL qualification

The official reveal of the Basketball Africa League logo during the qualifiers in Kigali

In the qualifying rounds, 32 teams from 32 countries participated in the West and East Division. The first round began 15 October and ended 3 November 2019, with sixteen teams advancing to the second round. The second-round games began 26 November and will end 22 December 2019, with six teams qualifying for the regular season.

Rosters

Main article: 2021 BAL season rosters

Transactions

Main article: List of 2021 BAL season transactions

Group phase

Main article: 2021 BAL group phase

BAL players wearing masks due to the measurements taken against COVID-19 at the tournament

The group phase began on 16 May 2021 and ended on 24 May 2021. Initially, it was planned that in the regular season, the twelve teams would play in two Conferences with six teams each. Each team would play five games, one against each opponent, inside its conference. The top three teams from each conference would advance to the Super 6.^[42] The regular season would be played in six arenas divided over the African continent.^[42]

The format was changed to a group phase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was completely played at the Kigali Arena. In three groups of four each team plays the other one time and the first, second and best third-placed teams advance to the playoffs.^[4]

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		USM	PAT	RIV	GNB
1	US Monastir	3	3	0	303	211	+92	6	Advance to playoffs		—	—	91–75	—
2	Patriots (H)	3	2	1	236	223	+13	5			—	—	83–60	78–72
3	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	210	251	−41	4			70–99	—	—	—
4	GNBC	3	0	3	207	271	−64	3			66–113	—	69–80	—

Source: BAL
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		PDL	ASS	FAP	POL
1	Petro de Luanda	3	3	0	247	208	+39	6	Advance to playoffs		—	97–78	—	84–66
2	AS Salé	3	2	1	253	260	−7	5			—	—	87–84	88–79
3	FAP	3	1	2	235	218	+17	4			64–66	—	—	87–65
4	AS Police	3	0	3	210	259	−49	3				—	—	—

Source: BAL

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		ZAM	FVM	ASD	GSP
1	Zamalek	3	3	0	254	181	+73	6	Advance to playoffs		—	71–55	—	97–64
2	Ferroviário de Maputo	3	2	1	229	218	+11	5			—	—	88–74	—
3	AS Douanes	3	1	2	230	250	−20	4			62–86	—	—	94–76
4	GS Pétroliers	3	0	3	213	277	−64	3			—	73–86	—	—

Source: BAL

Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	FAP	3	1	2	235	218	+17	4	Advance to playoffs
2	C	AS Douanes	3	1	2	230	250	−20	4
3	A	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	210	251	−41	4

Source: BAL

Playoffs

Main article: 2021 BAL Playoffs

All eight qualified teams from the group stage were ranked and seeded to determine the match-ups. The play-offs games were played in a single-elimination format.^[4][43] The playoffs began on 26 May and ended on 30 May 2021 with the 2021 BAL Finals.^[44]

Bracket

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Finals
	27 May
	1 US Monastir	86
					29 May
	8 AS Douanes	62
					1 US Monastir	87
	27 May
					4 Patriots	46
	4 Patriots	73
									30 May
	5 Ferroviário de Maputo	71
									1 US Monastir	63
	26 May
									2 Zamalek	76
	2 Zamalek	82
					29 May
	7 FAP	53
					2 Zamalek	89
	26 May
					3 Petro de Luanda	71			Third place game
	3 Petro de Luanda	79
									30 May
	6 AS Salé	72
									4 Patriots	68
									3 Petro de Luanda	97

Final standings

Position	Team	Record
1	Zamalek	6–0
2	US Monastir	5–1
3	Petro de Luanda	5–1
4	Patriots	3–3
5	Ferroviário de Maputo	2–2
6	AS Salé	2–2
7	FAP	1–3
8	AS Douanes	1–3
9	Rivers Hoopers	1–2
10	AS Police	0–3
11	GS Pétroliers	0–3
12	GNBC	0–3

Awards

• Most Valuable Player: Walter Hodge (Zamalek)^[45]
• Defensive Player of the Year: Anas Mahmoud (Zamalek)^[45]
• Sportsmanship Award: Makrem Ben Romdhane (US Monastir)^[46]
• Ubuntu Award: Hicham Benayad-Cherif (GS Pétroliers)^[47]
• Scoring Champion: Terrell Stoglin (AS Salé)
• All-BAL First Team:^[48]
  • Omar Abada (US Monastir)
  • Walter Hodge (Zamalek)
  • Wael Arakji (US Monastir)
  • Makrem Ben Romdhane (US Monastir)
  • Anas Mahmoud (Zamalek)

Statistics

The following were the statistical leaders in 2021 BAL season.^[49]

Individual statistic leaders Category Player Team(s) Statistic Points per game Terrell Stoglin AS Salé 30.8 Rebounds per game Ibrahima Thomas AS Police 12.0 Assists per game Myck Kabongo Ferroviário de Maputo 6.8 Steals per game Bara Diop AS Douanes 2.5 Blocks per game Anas Mahmoud Zamalek 3.2 Turnovers per game Demarcus Holland Ferroviário de Maputo 4.3 Minutes per game 36.2 FG% Mohab Yasser Zamalek 69.7% 3P% Mouloukou Diabate Zamalek 59.1% FT% Kenny Gasana Patriots 94.1%

Individual game highs Category Player Team Statistic Points Terrell Stoglin AS Salé 40 Rebounds Jone Pedro Petro de Luanda 17 Ibrahima Thomas AS Police Assists Myck Kabongo Ferroviário de Maptuo 12 Steals Mokhtar Ghyaza US Monastir 5 Blocks Anas Mahmoud Zamalek 5 Three pointers Radhouane Slimane US Monastir 6 Aristide Mugabe Patriots

Team statistic leaders

Category	Team	Statistic
Points per game	US Monastir	89.9
Rebounds per game	FAP	42.0
Assists per game	US Monastir	24.4
Steals per game		11.0
Blocks per game	Rivers Hoopers	5.3
Turnovers per game	GS Pétroliers	22.0
Fouls per game		25.7
FG%	Zamalek	49.9%
FT%	Ferroviário de Maputo	78.9%
3FG%	US Monastir	36.1%

Controversies

The BAL has faced criticism by The Guardian over its close ties with the Rwandan government in organising the league, using the league as a vehicle for sportswashing by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, pointing to ongoing repression and human rights abuses under his regime.^[50]

On May 10, 2021, American rapper J. Cole signed a contract with the Rwanda-based Patriots.^[51] In three games with the team, he scored five points, had three assists and five rebounds in 45 minutes of gameplay. Terrell Stoglin of AS Salé states about the signing: "For a guy who has so much money and has another career to just come here and average, like, one point a game and still get glorified is very disrespectful to the game. It's disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this."^[52]