ESPN has everything you need to know about the NBA-affiliated Basketball Africa League (BAL) for 2025, from news to scores to interviews from players across the league.
South Africa will host the BAL playoffs and final in June 2025, taking over from regular finals host city Kigali, Rwanda, while Morocco has been added as a host nation and Egypt removed.
Dates and locations:
Kalahari Conference - Rabat, Morocco - April 5-13
Sahara Conference - Dakar, Senegal - April 26 - May 4
Nile Conference - Kigali, Rwanda - May 17-25
Playoffs and finals - Pretoria, South Africa - June 6-14
Teams:
Defending champions: Petro de Luanda of Angola
The champions of Egypt (Al Ittihad), Angola (Petro de Luanda), Senegal (ASC Ville de Dakar), Nigeria (Rivers Hoopers), Tunisia (US Monastir), Rwanda (APR) and Morocco (FUS Rabat) automatically qualified for the 2025 BAL.
Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya) and Stade Malien (Mali) have automatically qualified through the Road to BAL qualifiers. There will be three more teams, as yet undecided, at the final tournament.
News:
South Africa to host 2025 BAL finals
Interviews:
Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers don't want another BAL participation trophy
After finishing third at the last Basketball Africa League tournament in 2024, Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers want to go at least one better and reach the Final of next year's tournament... perhaps even win it. To get to the 2025 edition, the Kingsmen swept past all opposition to claim their sixth national championship, topping Hoops and Read 71-54 to claim the 2024 NBBF Final 8 title.