The Basketball Africa League (BAL), a partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), is a new professional league featuring 12 club teams from across Africa. The BAL builds on the foundation of club competitions FIBA has organized in Africa and marks the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America.
The 12 teams have been divided into three conferences of four teams each. Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice. New this season, the home team in each market will play on every gameday, including on the weekends. The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Friday, April 19 - Saturday, April 27 at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, May 4 - Sunday, May 12 at the Dakar Arena in Dakar. The top two teams from each conference and the top two third-place teams from across the three conferences will travel to BK Arena in Kigali for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination Playoffs and Finals from Friday, May 24 - Saturday, June 1.