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SALY, Senegal – Timothy Ighoefe is an intimidating advocate, weighing 6 feet 11 inches and weighing 245 pounds. Nevertheless, the Nigerian knows he needs to improve if his decision to play basketball instead of playing football pays off and takes him to the NBA.
Ighoefe, 18, has committed to playing for Patrick Ewing at Georgetown University next season, just three years after playing basketball in his hometown of Lagos.
"I have to work at my speed, moving from one base to the other," Ighoefe said this week at the unveiling of a new training center at the African Academy of NBA in Senegal. "My left hand, I have to improve, to finish with my left hand."
In other words, there is potential but it's a work in progress – just like Africa itself for the NBA.
"It is a continent of over a billion people, with rapid economic growth and rapid growth of the urban youth population. It's a good recipe for the NBA in the long run, "said NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, also in Senegal at the opening of the training center.
The NBA has big plans for Africa. An office was established eight years ago in South Africa. There is an annual show match featuring NBA stars.
Now the top NBA officials say Africa is ready for more. Tatum has announced the creation of a pan-African league in which will participate the existing professional clubs. The preseason and regular season games of the NBA will be held on the continent "in the next two years".
The new training center, built on the campus of a football academy in a coastal resort 45 km south of the Senegalese capital, is another step. Saly, a former Portuguese trading post, is now a place of retirement for the upper class of Dakar and is home to many French.
Both floors were imported from the United States. The simple fact of being inside and with air conditioning makes it probably the best basketball center in Senegal. A tent-like fabric is sewn together on steel trusses, and short-faced reused shipping containers are used for weight training.
The academy is one of seven in the world, with three of them in China. It includes full-time education and training. It can accommodate 24 boys selected in English-speaking and French-speaking African countries. The NBA is organizing camps for African elites, but there is still no center for them.
"All you have to do here is just to focus on basketball and school," Ighoefe said. "You do not have to worry about anything else in Lagos, it's different, there are a lot of distractions."
Teens start their day with a light workout at 5:30. Then it's breakfast, school, lunch, school and gym. They are coached by former NBA and NCAA players and have traveled to Australia, Europe and the United States.
Amadou Gallo Fall, vice president and general manager of the NBA for Africa, said that the NBA is building from the ground up, just like Jr. NBA programs expanding on the world. the whole continent.
"We are only scratching the surface," said Fall, a Senegalese national who founded the nearby SEED Academy, which works closely with the African NBA operation. "We are giving more money to young people through basketball, and in doing so, elite talent will become known and enter the NBA, as well as feed into other leagues around the world and our future league on the continent. "
This season started with 13 players of African descent registered on the NBA list.
Tatum said the details of the Pan-African league will be announced in a few months. This will involve the cooperation of FIBA and existing professional leagues, he said.
"We are trying to find a way to do it quickly, to work with some of these leagues, to work with our partner FIBA, to get something going as soon as possible," said Tatum.
Africa lacks good infrastructure, but Tatum cited the new Dakar arena, as well as Rwanda's plan for a new facility, as an incentive for the NBA to stage matches here. He described the Dakar Arena as a "world-class center" but did not confirm the earlier announcement by the Senegalese Minister of Sports that the country will organize the NBA exhibition next year.
South Africa has hosted the first three NBA Africa exhibitions, but West African countries such as Senegal and Nigeria seem more inclined to adopt basketball.
Football is by far the most popular sport in Africa. Groups like Liverpool and Barcelona have fan clubs across the continent. Departure times in Europe make it easy to watch live.
Ighoefe discovers the success of his favorite player, Joel Embiid, of the Philadelphia 76ers, the mornings after the matches. He watches on YouTube and follows the Cameroonian star on Instagram.
African children can play football with just a balloon and any space, even a street. But finding a basketball court, even just half a cement pitch and a rim, is difficult.
Ibrahima Ndiaye, director of the Flying Star Academy in Dakar, which has produced several NCAA Division 1 players, said the NBA could dramatically increase youth participation by building land – a lot of it. between them.
"This is what we need here in Africa to develop basketball in all neighborhoods," Ndiaye said in a phone interview. "We need more and more usable infrastructure. This is the only way to increase the number of children who practice.
China is a huge success for the NBA. It is therefore often compared to league initiatives in Africa.
"We have been in China for 30 years," Tatum said, adding a perspective. "We opened our office here on the continent, in South Africa, just eight years ago."
Tatum said the figure of 13 African players on the NBA start list could double by a decade.
"For us," he said, "it's a long-term investment and a long-term game."
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