NBA agent Bill Duffy and a Nigerian-born agent who works for him have launched what is thought to be the first professional basketball league in Africa.
The African Basketball League is set to tip off March 4 with six teams playing in four countries. The league is the creation of Ugo Udezue, who has worked as an NBA agent for Duffy’s BDA Sports for 15 years.
Duffy is a creator of, and adviser to, the ABL, but does not have an ownership stake in it. Udezue, Nigerian businessman Ralph Tamuno, and former NBA player and BDA Sports client Obinna Ekezie are the founding owners of the league.
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Ugo Udezue (below) stands above with Obinna Ekezie and other ABL league and team executives.
Photos: COURTESY OF AFRICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE
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“The ABL is the first-ever professional basketball league in sub-Saharan Africa,” Udezue said. “In the history of the continent there has never been a pan-African sports league, period. The ABL will create jobs, promote African culture and sports tourism, and will be an added value to our cities.”
There are plans to expand in the future, but for the first year the ABL will consist of teams in Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Libreville, Gabon, and three teams in Lagos,
Nigeria. All are in West Africa except Libreville, which is on the west coast of Central Africa.
The league is based in Lagos, the largest metropolitan area in Africa, with a population estimated at 21 million.
Teams will have 12 players and will play 20 games each through June, Udezue said. In the first year, the players will be paid at a scale comparable to players in the NBA’s D-League, he said.
Udezue was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and came to the U.S. to play at the University of Wyoming. After college, Udezue went to work as an agent at BDA Sports. Udezue’s current clients include Warriors center Festus Ezeli, Thunder guard/forward Andre Roberson and Wizards power forward/center Nene Hilario.
Duffy said that Udezue has made about 50 trips to Africa, pursuing his dream of starting a league there. “He’s been working as an agent here in the NBA, while he’s been working part time on this,” Duffy said.
“He has helped thousands of individuals come over here,” Duffy said. “He has been an ambassador for his continent.”
Duffy chose not to become a team owner in the league because he could represent players on its teams, but added that his motivation was to help Africa develop something that could provide widespread benefits to its people.
The league, which has 12 employees, will sell tickets priced from $5 to $50. The largest arena, in Abidjan, holds about 4,500 people.
It is using an outside agency to sell sponsorships. Cornerstone Insurance, one of the largest insurers in Nigeria, is a sponsor, and the ABL is in discussions with Rezidor Hotel Group, which operates more than 1,000 hotels, including the Radisson brand.
Ekezie, also a Nigeria native, said there is interest in the league from the African business community and that he expects more investors to allow the league to expand in the near future. “The time is right,” said Ekezie, who was a second-round pick in the 1999 NBA draft and played in the NBA and Europe until 2007.
Lamine Savane, owner and founder of the Dakar Rapids, said there has been a void of sports business on the continent. The NBA played its first exhibition game in Africa last summer in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Savane said the ABL is already getting good reviews from stakeholders. “The sky is truly the limit,” he said. “Way more than just a basketball league, this is about entertainment, opportunity for jobs, capacity building and bringing about the best Africa has to offer to the forefront.”
