Basketball: Masai Ujiri pushes for more infrastructure in Africa
Masai Ujiri wants to see African basketball grow, which he believes requires building quality facilities.
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From now on, the NBA takes some games to Paris every season. This January it was the Chicago-Detroit fixture. So, could a game from the North American league be staged in Africa? That does not appear to be the view of Masai Ujiri. The Toronto Raptors president pointed to the lack of basketball infrastructure on the continent. In his view, that is what is holding back the growth of African basketball.
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"There is a big challenge in Africa - many of these countries don't have arenas. That is what President Kagame did - he built an arena in Rwanda (opened in 2019) and President Macky Sall built an arena in Senegal (completed in 2018). And those are the places that host the games", Masai Ujiri said initially to BBC Sport Africa.
Getting NBA stars involved
Africa therefore wants to be an integral part of the global basketball landscape. Recently, Amadou Gallo Fall, the president of the Basketball African League (BAL), also said that talks were under way to stage an NBA pre-season game in Africa. That would of course be a historic first. The BAL is, incidentally, a joint venture between the NBA and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). To drive new projects forward, Masai Ujiri wants to get involved himself and to involve Africans playing in the NBA.
" We have a lot of African players, and our priority must be to develop this continent and also give ourselves opportunities here (in Africa) with basketball ", he says. Masai Ujiri is not the only one who wants to change things. In recent news, other players have declared their desire to help African basketball grow. That is notably the case for Hamidou Diallo, the Guinean who plays for the Detroit Pistons. It remains to be seen how these projects will take shape.
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