BAL: Season 5 gets underway with Dikembe Mutombo honored all season

Basketball Africa League (BAL) enters its fifth season with its first visit to Morocco, where Rabat will host the four-team Kalahari Conference at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex from Saturday, 5 April to Sunday, 13 April.

It is the first time Morocco will host BAL games, although it already hosted two BAL Combines in 2024 and 2025. The Kalahari Conference will feature hosts FUS Rabat, Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers, Egypt's Al Ittihad and Mali's Stade Malian.

The premier men’s club basketball competition is set to honour the late African basketball and NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo throughout its fifth season. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer’s “DM55” jersey patch will be on all players' jerseys worn this season.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for more news

Mutombo, who died from brain cancer in September 2024, wore jersey 55, and his number was retired by the Denver Nuggets and the Atlanta Hawks. The late BAL ambassador and investor will also be honored with a moment of silence before the league’s group play begins in Rabat, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; and Kigali, Rwanda.

Details of new English-based player in Kenya U20 AFCON camp revealed

NBA commissioner Adam Silver unveiled the NBA Africa Dikembe Mutombo Humanitarian Award on Saturday, 15 February in San Francisco at the 10th annual NBA Africa All-Star Luncheon.

The NBA described the award as “a new annual honor that will recognize a person or an organization that works to advance health, education, or economic opportunity across the continent of Africa.”

Following his retirement from the league in 2009, the Democratic Republic of Congo native was the NBA’s first global ambassador, as appointed by late NBA commissioner David Stern.

After a 13-day break, BAL Season 5 will resume with the Sahara Conference in Dakar. From Saturday, 26 April to Sunday, 4 May in the Senegalese capital, hosts ASC Ville de Dakar will take on reigning BAL champions Petro de Luanda of Angola, Kriol Star of Cape Verde, and perennial Tunisian champions US Monastir.

After the first 24 games of the season, the campaign will resume in Kigali for the Nile Conference from Saturday, 17 to Sunday, 25 May.

Armees Patriotique Rwandaise (APR) will host the Nile Conference and will play Al Ahly Tripoli of Libya, Made by Basketball (MBB) of South Africa, and Nairobi City Thunder of Kenya.

The 2025 BAL Playoffs and Finals will be held in Pretoria, South Africa, where eight teams will compete for the grand prize.