A Look Back at the 2023 BAL Combine

In the run-up to Season 3 of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), the bal.nba.com takes you through to the memory lane of the 2023 BAL Combine.

Over the course of two days last month, The One Ball Training Center in Paris, France, was the centre stage for 12 BAL teams looking to strength their rosters from a pool of 30 aspiring players.

The 2021 NBA All-Star Game and former Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder has served as BAL Combine camp director.

During the two-day event, players underwent anthropometric and athletic testing, positional skill development and 5-on-5 games in front of NBA and independent scouts, coaches, and executives from the 12 club teams.

Addressing the media, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall recalled that: “As we continue to grow the BAL into a world-class professional basketball league, our goal is to attract top talent from across Africa and around the world.”

Players came from all corners of the globe with 70% of them having African descent or being from the  African diaspora.

Interestingly enough, the majority of the players, who came from 12 different countries, had NCAA and G League experience.

But former BAL players made their presence felt too.

Bamba Diallo, who featured for DUC in Season 2 and played for AS Douanes in Season 1, and Adonis Filer who starred for Rwanda Energy Group were among the players chasing a spot in a BAL team.

It didn’t take long before Cape Town Tigers signed Zaire Wade, Abidjan Basket Club lured South Sudanese Chuder Bile, and REG re-signed Filer.

Each of the 12 BAL teams will have up to 13 players, at least eight of whom will be citizens in their

respective team’s home country and up to four of whom can be from other countries, with no more than two players per team from outside of Africa.

One roster spot on each team is reserved for an NBA Academy Africa prospect as part of the BAL Elevate program, which will once again provide an opportunity for the next generation of African prospects to participate in a professional league, showcase their talent on a global stage and help their respective teams compete for the 2023 BAL Championship.

This was the second BAL Combine after its inaugural edition held in December 2019 at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) Training Center – the official practice facility of the Brooklyn Nets – in Brooklyn, New York.