Al Ahly took for the 2023 BAL championship on May 27.
Season three of the BAL has come to a close, with Al Ahly cruising to an 80-65 victory over AS Douanes Saturday in Kigali, capturing their first championship as a result.
Former Baylor Bear Nuni Omot, who had been on the New York Knicks roster this preseason, earned the Hakeem Olajuwon MVP trophy after scoring 22 points in the win and averaging almost 19 points per game throughout the season.
The Egyptian basketball club’s decisive victory in the BAL final doesn’t do justice to the overall competitiveness of the third BAL season. After its inaugural year in 2021 and 2022’s format experiment, this season showcased the promising potential of BAL and African basketball as a whole.
Storylines and primetime performances were in abundance over the past two and a half months. Here are a few that are worth noting as we await the kickoff of season four next Spring.
Site Rotation Works
20 days of Sahara and Nile Conference play was broken up between Dakar Arena in Senegal and Dr. Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo respectively, as the single elimination finals concluded in Kigali over the weekend.
The untraditional format of rotating the BAL season through three locations gives domestic and international fans the ability to see firsthand the unique differences of each African country and their fanbases. This outline also allows the opportunity for professional basketball exposure in Africa, being extremely beneficial as club basketball on the continent continues to expand and evolve.
The Stars of Stade Malien
Aliou Diarra of Stade Malien earned the Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year award for the BAL.
The dynamic duo of Aliou Diarra and Souleymane Berthe might have been the most potent one-two punch in the BAL this season. Diarra’s statline of 18 points, 13 rebounds, and two blocks per contest were good enough to garner First Team All-BAL honors, also winning the Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year.
Berthe’s 16 points, 4 rebounds and four assists per game average solidified him as a versatile threat that’ll be playing professional basketball for years to come. The Malian prospects led Stade Malien to a third-place finish and may test the Summer and G League waters due to their play this season.
BAL Elevate
This was the second year of the BAL Elevate program – an arrangement of 12 prospects from six African countries who were selected to play on their respective BAL teams. The prospects currently attend NBA Academy – an elite basketball training center in Senegal for the top high-school prospects on the continent.
The most notable from the Elevate program was 7-foot-2 16-year-old center Khaman Maluach on AS Douanes. Maluach worked his way into the startling lineup, playing a vital role in AS Douanes second place finish. The program will continue to be an innovative pathway for the next generation of African players to develop into pro prospects.
Egypt’s Dominance
Agusti Julbe is the first coach to win the BAL title twice, leading Zamalek to victorious heights in 2021 and now Al Ahly in 2023. With almost 30 years of coaching experience – mostly in Spain – Julbe is slowly establishing Egypt as a powerhouse when it comes to African basketball, as Al Ahly was consistently dominant all season.
