The seats and court are adorned in bright green, yellow, and blue, and the concession stands offer popcorn as well as bowls of spicy beef over French fries.
Growing basketball on the continent entails addressing the logistics and marketing challenges inherent in trying to scale any operation across 54 countries. Its international Basketball Without Borders program, which launched in Africa in , featured athletic development and training as well as leadership and wellness education. In , the league launched the first of 15 Jr. Yet fulfilling the promise that Stern saw required thinking beyond athletics or awareness and figuring out how the NBA could drive real economic growth.
The continent offers a unique opportunity for impact, notes Tatum, with 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30, according to the United Nations, which creates a rising need for employment. Creating an industry from scratch, though, required both capital investment and regional experience. For NBA Africa, scaling requires building local, on-the-ground relationships, region by region.
Named the CEO in August , Williams recalls that the offer came at a time early in the pandemic, when locked-down viewers turned to sports for respite. His two decades in banking had been focused on developmentβfunding bridges, dams, electrical power stations, agricultural installations, and manufacturing operationsβand he wondered if he would miss that sense of direct impact by moving to sports.
He likes to tell the story of being at a social event not long ago when a young child, maybe 10 years old, approached him. His face breaks out into a smile. For NBA Africa, scaling requires building these local, on-the-ground relationships, region by region. The NBA Africa business card always helps, says Williams, who was born in Sierra Leone, but building relationships can still require time.
