Masai Ujiri, the Nigerian-Canadian president of Toronto Raptors, has said that Africa will struggle with its plans to host NBA games due to a lack of quality venues.
Ujiri is one of those that want to see NBA games played in Africa.
While talking to BBC Africa, he said a number of the NBA’s big names also want it to happen – but lack of good facilities is the biggest obstacle.
He said: “There is a big challenge in Africa – a lot of these countries don’t have arenas.
“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.”
The NBA and the International Basketball Federation established the Basketball Africa League (BAL), where teams from across the continent come to a location for a series of matches with the overall winner being crowned the African champions.
The close connections between the two competitions meant that the president of BAL, Amadou Gallo Fall was able to announce recently that discussions have been taking place around potentially bringing a pre-season NBA game to Africa for the first time.
Ujiri said finding enough venues to sustain the plan beyond a season is a challenge. He added that he was especially frustrated that there was nothing he thought was appropriate in Kenya, whose capital he visited as part of his Giants of Africa project.
He said: “We need an arena in Kenya.
“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.”
He added that if the NBA makes the plan work, he wants the Raptors to be involved.
He said: “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 added that other elite NBA names were also interested in the idea.
He said: “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 successfully experimented with playing fixtures outside the US, notably American Football’s NFL, which sees games at Wembley Stadium in London annually.
The Giants of Africa project has committed to building 100 basketball courts across Africa.
26 have been unveiled so far, including the latest three in Nairobi.
Ujiri said: “We feel that the next opportunity is infrastructure.
“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.”
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