NBA commissioner Adam Silver announces new 12-team league in Africa beginning in 2020

In an effort to broaden the scope of the sport of basketball across the world, the NBA and FIBA announced today that they are planning to launch a basketball league featuring 12 club teams across Africa. NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the creation of the league during All-Star Weekend in Charlotte.

The league will reportedly feature 12 franchises that will begin play in January 2020, with existing African club teams having a chance to qualify for the league. The new league will be called the Basketball Africa League (BAL), and will be based on already existing team competitions that FIBA has organized throughout Africa.

“The Basketball Africa League is an important next step in our continued development of the game of basketball in Africa,” Silver said in a statement (via ESPN). “Combined with our other programs on the continent, we are committed to using basketball as an economic engine to create new opportunities in sports, media and technology across Africa.”

The NBA and FIBA also announced that they are planning on conducting qualification tournaments later this year in order to find the 12 best teams to represent countries including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. According to the statement, there will be no more than two teams from any single country in the league.

Along with the announcement of the league, the NBA also announced that by the start of the 2019-2020, a revamped direct-to-consumers offering of NBA games will be available for fans in Africa, along with FIBA also promising to dedicate financial support and resources toward the development of the sport in Africa, which will include money that goes to training players, coaches, referees, and infrastructure.

There are currently 12 players from African countries on NBA rosters. Joel Embiid, Luc Mbah a Moute and Pascal Siakam are from Cameroon; Bismack Biyombo and Emmanuel Mudiay are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Abdel Nader is from Egypt; Cheick Diallo is from Mali; Josh Okogie is from Nigeria; Serge Ibaka is from the Republic of the Congo; Luol Deng and Thon Maker are from South Sudan; and Salah Mejri is from Tunisia.

 

Donovan Mitchell, Michael Jordan only rookies with 53+ points in their first 2 playoff games

Utah Jazz Superstar guard Donovan Mitchell may not take home a Rookie of the Year award if the virtual coin toss favors Ben Simmons, but at least he’s being mentioned in the same sentence as Michael Jordan.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Mitchell joins Jordan as the only rookies ever to score at least 53 points in their first two career playoff games.

 

Donovan Mitchell has scored a total of 55 points in his first two playoff games, which is the most by a guard in NBA history.

The previous record holder is someone you may have heard of.

Even sweeter for Mitchell is the fact that he now holds the most points ever among rookies in their first two postseason games, as he had 55 total markers in that span. After having a 27-point output in Game 1 in a 116-108 loss to the OKC Thunder last Sunday, Mitchell added 28 points more in Game 2 on 10-for-25 shooting from the floor to lead the Jazz to a 102-95 win.

If there’s anything that’s not falling for Mitchell this postseason, it’s definitely his 3-point shot. As good as Mitchell has been in finding the bottom of the net in this series, he just could not get his stroke from deep. He shot 0-for-7 from downtown in Game 2 and is now 3-for-17 on his 3-point attempts thus far in the first round.

Nevertheless, expect the Jazz to ride on the hot hands of Mitchell, as they travel back home for Game 3. The Jazz have won all of their last four home games dating back to regular season.