Basketball Africa League

Godlove is the head coach at the NBA Basketball School in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Godlove is originally from Cameroon, where he discovered and coached Ulrich Chamche, who was the first former Basketball Africa League player to be drafted into the NBA.

In this conversation, Godlove shares his first business venture he took on when he was just 13 years old to try to help out his family, the way that his journey was transformed by people who were willing to take a chance on him, and the specific characteristics that tell him a prospective player has what it takes to succeed at basketball or life.

So here you are, my conversation with Godlove Cham.

There was a point I used to think he...

Doesn't even want Nairobi City Thunder to progress in the BAL.

But I actually noticed, and I've also said it, he does want, because when he went for the watch party back in, when they were in the BAL, their first game, the official watch party in Kovo, just here in Kilimani.

He would celebrate when

the good shots are being made.

So

right now, if Nairobi City Thunder go and play just one game, just ask yourself how many people are benefiting around that.

In the BAL? Even

American senators want answers from the NBA, Senegal reshuffles their national team staff and the road to BAL transfer market is keeping busy.

Hi, I'm OG and welcome to the Afro Playbook Daily.

It's Friday the 30th of October.

CNS led by 7 at the half, then won the third quarter 26-4 to take control.

Both finalists had already secured qualification through their semi-final wins, so CNSS and FAP are heading to Cairo for the Women's Basketball League Africa in December.

On the road to BAL, Republic of Congo champions Avenir Durrell finished Group C unbeaten.

Their 62-59 victory over Cameroon's FAP completed a 3-0 campaign in Brazzaville.

Now, attention turns to Group E in Lusaka, which starts today.

We've seen the FIFA series start out in Kigali.

We've seen the Basketball Africa League start out in Kigali.

We've seen Visit Randa as an African brand on Arsenal t-shirts and now on the Aston Villa t-shirt, but also like in the NBA basketball, in the National Football League, in the NFL.

So Randa has had some way, a plan, a plan to take advantage of sports tourism, and that's because of so many other factors.

and there's if there's one continent that has lagged behind when it comes to professionalization of the sports sector and yet it's a very huge consumer of sports it's africa so i think more than anything the african grand prix that is going to be hosted in kigali random uh at the bujasera track is uh going to be a landmark infrastructure for the continent.

How is Rwanda aligning its investments and partnerships with international sporting opportunities to drive economic transformation?

I think something that is forgotten more often than not is regarding what else comes with events or sporting events or events of this magnitude like, you know, Formula One, the Basketball Africa League and the NBA community.

um i think it's it goes beyond just sporting opportunities it is uh to be fair the decision makers in many economies are going to be at these events uh the people who move the venture capital money the private equity money are going to be at these events this is where uh money talks to money and ronda being an international kigali being an international finance center uh this complements it perfectly this complements uh ronda's dream of being the go-to ifc especially for this region so that means family offices private equity companies vcs um the best startups in the world all will the leaders of all those uh will be in attendance at so many of these events as we've seen in the past but also in the future so uh this this fits in perfectly with what kigali is trying to be as international finance center with ronda trying to be a sports hub so everything fits into everything

The road to BAL starts today.

But here's a question.

Was the road to BAL created for the Basketball Africa League? Or did African club basketball already have its own road to continental glory? Hi, I'm OG and welcome to the Afro Playbook Daily.

Today, I'm going to take you to where it all began.

Close your eyes.

Imagine everything is in black and white.

And we're going to go way back to 1972.

No BAL, no NBA partnership, no fancy franchise discussions.

Let's start with the trophies, because Egyptian clubs have certainly been collecting them.

On the men's side, Zamalek won the inaugural Basketball Africa League in 2021, followed by Al-Ali in 2023.

And Egypt's success goes beyond the BAL.

Al-Itiad Alexandra have won seven Arab club championships competing against teams from across the Middle East and North Africa.

Thank you.

And, you know, looking at, you know, opportunity within sport, what was the milestone that helped you realize, because we also have Basketball Africa League, between Basketball Africa League, NBA Africa, what was the milestone that you and your team had that aided in realizing that this was more than just a sporting competition?

Well, for me, maybe two levels.

The first level is, you know, as a partner, you know, because I came from Visit Rwanda and Visit Rwanda through the Rwanda Development Board is a partner of BAL, in fact, a foundational partner from the very beginning.

Yeah.

Uh, they host the Basketball Africa League.

There's a cycling race that they have annually.

And Paul Kagame has opened up his purse, and he's about to build an F1 track from scratch.