{"id":60907,"date":"2026-05-26T03:44:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T01:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/2026-basketball-africa-league-season-by-the-numbers\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T03:44:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T01:44:55","slug":"2026-basketball-africa-league-season-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/2026-basketball-africa-league-season-by-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 BASKETBALL AFRICA LEAGUE SEASON: BY THE NUMBERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"press-body-in\">\n                            <span><br \/>\n                                                            KIGALI, Rwanda, May 25, 2026\/APO Group\/ &#8212;<br \/>\n                                                        <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Basketball Africa League (BAL) (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4e7Abt9\" rel=\"noopener\">www.BAL.NBA.com<\/a>) Playoffs tipped off on Friday, May 22 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, and will culminate with the 2026 BAL Finals on Sunday, May 31 at 6:00 p.m. CAT.\u00a0 For the complete schedule, click here (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4dL0rt5\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4dL0rt5<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Eight teams have qualified for the Playoffs: Al Ahly (Egypt), Al Ahly Ly (Libya), ASC Ville de Dakar (Senegal), Club Africain (Tunisia), Dar City (Tanzania), FUS Rabat (Morocco), 2024 BAL champion Petro de Luanda (Angola) and the RSSB Tigers (Rwanda), with the top four teams advancing to the single-game semifinals and Finals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Playoffs and Finals are livestreaming to fans around the world on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/43s3JfN\" rel=\"noopener\">www.NBA.com<\/a>, the NBA App, and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4e7Abt9\" rel=\"noopener\">www.BAL.NBA.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Tickets are on sale now at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4e7Abt9\" rel=\"noopener\">www.BAL.NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Below are facts and figures about the 2026 BAL season:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>722,000,000<\/strong> \u2013 Heading into the Playoffs, the BAL\u2019s social media channels had generated more than <strong>722 million<\/strong> views this season, a record for group phase play.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1,073<\/strong> \u2013 On April 5, Petro de Luanda\u2019s Childe Dund\u00e3o became the all-time BAL record holder for minutes played with <strong>1,073<\/strong> minutes across all six BAL seasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>75,000 <\/strong>\u2013<strong> Nearly 75,000 fans attended the Kalahari Conference and Sahara Conference group phases in South Africa and Morocco, respectively, a record for group phase play in those countries.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1,000<\/strong> \u2013 BAL games have generated a <strong>1,000<\/strong>% year-over-year increase in total watch time on BAL.NBA.com and the NBA App.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>215<\/strong> \u2013 Al Ahly Ly and Dar City combined to score a BAL record <strong>215<\/strong> points in Al Ahly Ly\u2019s 118-97 victory on March 31.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>214<\/strong> \u2013 BAL games reach fans in <strong>214<\/strong> countries and territories, including all 54 countries in Africa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>200<\/strong> \u2013 The BAL celebrated its 200<sup>th<\/sup> game on April 1 when Petro de Luanda defeated Nairobi City Thunder 97-70.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>54<\/strong> \u2013 RSSB Tigers guard Craig Randall II scored a BAL-record <strong>54<\/strong> points in a loss to Dar City on April 4.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>30<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>Thirty<\/strong> players who competed at FIBA AfroBasket 2025 are participating in the Playoffs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>22 <\/strong>\u2013 A record 22 marketing, merchandising and institutional partners have supported the BAL this season: AB InBev; Afreximbank; Air Senegal; Amazon Web Services; Bank of Kigali; F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Royale Marocaine de BasketBall; FLEXX; the French Embassy of Senegal; Greenride Africa; Hyundai; the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sport; Office National Marocain du Tourisme; PUMA; Qatar Foundation; QAVS; Rwanda Development Board; RwandAir; Rwanda Events; ServiceNow; South African Tourism; Wave; and Wilson.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>11 \u2013 Eleven of the 16 teams that competed at FIBA AfroBasket 2025 have at least one player in the Playoffs.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>8 <\/strong>\u2013 A record <strong>eight<\/strong> former NBA players have competed in the BAL this season: Damion Baugh and Donovan Williams (Al Ahly Ly), Michael Foster Jr. (Dar City), Mangok Mathiang (RSSB Tigers), Kevin Murphy (Al Ahly), Chasson Randle (Petro de Luanda), Hasheem Thabeet (Dar City) and Axel Toupane (ASC Ville de Dakar).\u00a0 Toupane is the first NBA champion to play in the BAL, having won the 2021 NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>5 <\/strong>\u2013 <strong>Five<\/strong> players have competed in all six BAL seasons: Abdoulaye Harouna (FUS Rabat), Ater Majok (ASC Ville de Dakar), Gerson Domingos (Petro de Luanda), Dund\u00e3o and Solo Diabate (ASC Ville de Dakar).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>3<\/strong> \u2013 Baugh became the first player in BAL history to record a <strong>triple<\/strong>-double in his first BAL season, finishing with 11 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds in a 110-72 win over Dar City on April 4.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>2<\/strong> \u2013 On May 3, Al Ahly defeated FUS Rabat 77-71 in the <strong>second <\/strong>double-overtime game in BAL history.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bal.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/2026-basketball-africa-league-season-by-the-numbers?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KIGALI, Rwanda, May 25, 2026\/APO Group\/ &#8212; The 2026 Basketball Africa League (BAL) (www.BAL.NBA.com) Playoffs tipped off on Friday, May 22 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, and will culminate with the 2026 BAL Finals on Sunday, May 31 at 6:00 p.m. CAT.\u00a0 For the complete schedule, click here (https:\/\/apo-opa.co\/4dL0rt5). Eight teams have qualified for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bal.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/210773ba62abd3f","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bal.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/210773ba62abd3f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}