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Luol Deng & Clare Akamanzi: Building the NBA’s Future in Africa · Earn Your Leisure

0:01
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Speaker 2: Well, let's start with you. You know, your career, coming from
0:40
Speaker 2: the highest levels of basketball, right like playing in the NBA,
0:43
Speaker 2: being a star in the NBA. What made you, you know,
0:47
Speaker 2: want to do a three sixty move and come back
0:50
Speaker 2: home and you know take over South Sadan basketball, right
0:54
Speaker 2: as opposed to just you know, being a GM at
0:58
Speaker 2: an NBA team or you know, being a coach in college.
1:01
Speaker 2: Like you know that a lot of people probably would
1:03
Speaker 2: have took that path.
1:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, great question.
1:08
Speaker 4: You know, for me, coming back was important because obviously
1:15
Speaker 4: being from the continent and coming out of you know,
1:19
Speaker 4: South Sudan and you know, going to Egypt UK the
1:24
Speaker 4: path that you know, I talked about a lot, but
1:27
Speaker 4: it's important because I remember, just to go back. My
1:31
Speaker 4: first time back in South Sudan was twenty ten, right
1:36
Speaker 4: before the independence. I remember, I'm gonna do had a
1:40
Speaker 4: vision of you know, us doing basketball camps in five
1:46
Speaker 4: or six different countries every summer. In these camps we
1:51
Speaker 4: were doing outside outdoor courts. Whoever we wanted to tag along,
1:57
Speaker 4: we would come with us. And it just kept growing
2:00
Speaker 4: and then kept growing. And I just remember, and I
2:03
Speaker 4: said it the other day, I came from, you know,
2:06
Speaker 4: a background that's so similar to all these kids that
2:10
Speaker 4: we were trying to provide an opportunity for. And I
2:15
Speaker 4: just believe that the talent is there. You know, it's
2:20
Speaker 4: just about the organization and an infrastructure, the same things
2:23
Speaker 4: that we talk about, you know, And I've just got
2:28
Speaker 4: to have you know, I've learned so much from basketball,
2:32
Speaker 4: whether it's my high school coach, whether it's playing for
2:37
Speaker 4: Coach k whether it's playing in the NBA for scotscow Tipodeal.
2:42
Speaker 4: And as a player, I always try to read the
2:44
Speaker 4: game so I knew, you know, throughout my camps and
2:48
Speaker 4: everything that I was doing all over the years, the
2:50
Speaker 4: talent that we had and the opportunity that we had,
2:53
Speaker 4: and it was always been my dream, you know, to
2:57
Speaker 4: put South Sudan in a map, but also or to
3:00
Speaker 4: promote basketball and just to show people the potential in
3:04
Speaker 4: the continent.
3:05
Speaker 3: And the timing was just right.
3:07
Speaker 4: When I retired, U b a l obviously was you know,
3:12
Speaker 4: on its way, and I just knew that there was
3:14
Speaker 4: gonna be a lot of focus within the continent with
3:17
Speaker 4: the game of basketball.
3:19
Speaker 2: I was.
3:19
Speaker 4: I was part of the NBA game in South Africa.
3:24
Speaker 4: I just seen you know, the growth of it to
3:26
Speaker 4: where we are here now today, and I wanted to
3:29
Speaker 4: be a part of it, but also to have my
3:32
Speaker 4: input and you know what I can do in South Sudan.
3:35
Speaker 4: Obviously everybody knows the story, but when when I took
3:39
Speaker 4: over that program, you know, I knew that it's a
3:44
Speaker 4: lot to be done. But the one thing that I
3:47
Speaker 4: knew was that if we were able to have a
3:50
Speaker 4: great national team and compete, it will obviously bring excitement
3:55
Speaker 4: and joy to the whole continent, but it will also
3:58
Speaker 4: raise a lot of questions that needed to be answer
4:01
Speaker 4: and we're still working on those and how do we
4:04
Speaker 4: get there?
4:06
Speaker 3: You know?
4:06
Speaker 4: So I knew right away as soon as I retired,
4:08
Speaker 4: I needed to be back here and kind of put
4:11
Speaker 4: in my blueprint.
4:12
Speaker 1: And we thank you for that, my brother Claire. Let's
4:15
Speaker 1: talk about where we're at today, five years of the
4:18
Speaker 1: ba L. Congratulations, not one person clap. I'm not sure why.
4:25
Speaker 3: We talk about the vision for it.
4:28
Speaker 1: Right when you created the idea, we're coming up with
4:30
Speaker 1: the idea, there was a vision of blueprint for it.
4:33
Speaker 1: I want to ask you look five years post that.
4:36
Speaker 1: Has it met your expectations? Has it development going according
4:40
Speaker 1: to plan? What have been some of the struggles into
4:43
Speaker 1: this five year anniversary of b AL.
4:46
Speaker 5: Thank you, and first of.
4:47
Speaker 6: All, Rashad and Troy, welcome to ba L and welcome
4:51
Speaker 6: to the now conference. And thanks to all of you
4:53
Speaker 6: that are still here. We talked about resilience. You're such
4:56
Speaker 6: a resilient audience. You've been here the whole day. But
5:01
Speaker 6: back to your question. So, when NBA decided to invest
5:04
Speaker 6: in Africa, I think there were a.
5:06
Speaker 5: Number of things that were obvious.
5:08
Speaker 6: One of them that has been said, you know throughout
5:11
Speaker 6: the day is that there's talent in Africa. In fact,
5:14
Speaker 6: today in NBA, about ten percent of our players have
5:20
Speaker 6: either directly or indirectly some links to the African continent.
5:24
Speaker 6: Either one of their parents or both their parents are
5:26
Speaker 6: from the African continent. Ten percent and that's about fifty players.
5:30
Speaker 6: So already there's talent that's making its way to the NBA.
5:33
Speaker 6: Now imagine if we were to be intentional about identifying
5:38
Speaker 6: harnessing that talent, I think those numbers would be even
5:41
Speaker 6: more because Africa has has been said, the whole day
5:43
Speaker 6: has talent. But also we know that not everybody can
5:47
Speaker 6: go and play in the NBA. The NBA is about
5:49
Speaker 6: five hundred players and we have one point five billion
5:53
Speaker 6: Africans with a lot of talent, and not everybody will
5:56
Speaker 6: have a chance to go there. So how do we
5:57
Speaker 6: create opportunities for African players or talent to stay on
6:02
Speaker 6: the continent and play professionally in a league such as
6:05
Speaker 6: the bal that we have here. And that was one
6:07
Speaker 6: of the thought processes that went there. But also for
6:11
Speaker 6: those of you who have you know, great fans of NBA,
6:14
Speaker 6: you know that you have to wake up early in
6:16
Speaker 6: the mornings. You know, My husband is one of those
6:17
Speaker 6: who always works up to a m. Three and four
6:20
Speaker 6: m am to switch on the lights and watch a
6:22
Speaker 6: basketball game. But when you're here, you watch a basketball
6:26
Speaker 6: game in no more hours, right at two pm at
6:31
Speaker 6: seven pm, and you can go to bed in normal hours.
6:34
Speaker 6: And so that means we can actually give access to
6:36
Speaker 6: the game of basketball to a lot more people that
6:39
Speaker 6: don't have to work up at two a m Or
6:41
Speaker 6: three and who love the game of basketball. So bringing
6:43
Speaker 6: that opportunity as well to our funds to give them
6:45
Speaker 6: something that they can interact and access was also very
6:48
Speaker 6: very important. The other one who's also being intentional around
6:52
Speaker 6: building the talent. I mean, we've talked about NBA Academy.
6:55
Speaker 6: We've had about some of the players come and Maluach
6:57
Speaker 6: that was talked about in the previous panel, and a
7:00
Speaker 6: couple of others whol Reach chump Chi who's playing for
7:02
Speaker 6: Toronto Raptors. All of them went through NBA Academy and
7:07
Speaker 6: we expect to see even more coming out of that.
7:10
Speaker 6: We have other talent programs that we work very closely with,
7:14
Speaker 6: like Seed Academy in that Amadu founded in Senegal that
7:18
Speaker 6: has had a kind of good relationship with the NBA
7:21
Speaker 6: Academy in terms of supporting to nature the talent in
7:23
Speaker 6: a much bigger skill. So all of that is really
7:26
Speaker 6: about how do you identify that talent. But the last
7:28
Speaker 6: thing is something that my Deputy Commissioner likes to talk about,
7:32
Speaker 6: Mark Tatum. The first conversations they had when they came
7:35
Speaker 6: to Africa at the time more than five years ago,
7:37
Speaker 6: with heads of state, with policymakers, and it became very
7:41
Speaker 6: clear to them and the NBA that if you're going
7:44
Speaker 6: to positively impact AFRICAAN, you do to think about the
7:47
Speaker 6: youth of Africa and what do the youth of Africa need.
7:50
Speaker 6: We've had statistics like seventy percent of the African population,
7:55
Speaker 6: which is one point five billion people, are young people
7:58
Speaker 6: below the age of thirty. So if you're going to
8:00
Speaker 6: really impact Africa, you have to think about the youth
8:03
Speaker 6: and you have to think about how to support the
8:04
Speaker 6: creation of jobs for this youth. So outside the court,
8:10
Speaker 6: you know, apart from the talent those that will play basketball,
8:13
Speaker 6: also creating economic opportunities that will support the youth to
8:18
Speaker 6: get jobs and to support this ecosystem of basketball by
8:22
Speaker 6: having the bal in Africa in the countries that we play.
8:26
Speaker 5: Today, we're playing four countries.
8:28
Speaker 6: Our vision is to play many, many more countries, and
8:30
Speaker 6: you can only imagine and we playing many more countries,
8:33
Speaker 6: the impact will be even more.
8:34
Speaker 5: But today to fifty.
8:35
Speaker 6: Million dollars, thirty seven thousand jobs in just four seasons,
8:39
Speaker 6: imagine how much more transformation we will do if we
8:42
Speaker 6: play in forty countries instead of form in the next
8:46
Speaker 6: ten twenty years.
8:47
Speaker 5: You can just imagine.
8:53
Speaker 2: Well, that's actually my next question in both of you
8:55
Speaker 2: guys can answer this as far as how do you
8:58
Speaker 2: measure success? So looking at five years in the future
9:01
Speaker 2: or ten years in the future, right, what does success
9:03
Speaker 2: look like for this league and just basketball and hole
9:07
Speaker 2: when it comes to the continent Africa? Is it thirty
9:09
Speaker 2: teams across the continent? Is the grassroots program like AAU
9:13
Speaker 2: programs that we see in America? Like, how do you
9:15
Speaker 2: envision the content in Africa as far as a successful
9:19
Speaker 2: movement when it comes to not only NBA basketball, but
9:22
Speaker 2: basketball as a whole.
9:25
Speaker 4: Even both of you, yeah, I think if you look
9:29
Speaker 4: back to what I was saying maybe around twenty ten
9:33
Speaker 4: or even before me, I think if you look at
9:36
Speaker 4: how basketball has been developing, in the continent to begin with.
9:41
Speaker 4: You know, when I first came into the league, everybody
9:45
Speaker 4: was used to NBA. I mean African players being you know,
9:49
Speaker 4: big guys who just rebound and you know, blockshot. Obviously
9:53
Speaker 4: Hakeem Olajuan had the skill, but when he first came over,
9:57
Speaker 4: he was given the opportunity because of his height and
10:01
Speaker 4: so on. So guys, we're just looking for tall African
10:04
Speaker 4: players who you know, are athletic. As the game went on,
10:09
Speaker 4: I remember when I first came in the league, it
10:13
Speaker 4: bothered me that I was only, you know, the only
10:15
Speaker 4: I shouldn't say the only, but one of the few
10:17
Speaker 4: African players who are a primitive player and so on.
10:21
Speaker 4: And now if you look at the league now with
10:24
Speaker 4: you know, Siakam and Embiid and all these guys that
10:27
Speaker 4: are so skilled, it just shows you where the game
10:30
Speaker 4: is going and where the development is going. So I think,
10:33
Speaker 4: as much as you know, we are still improving, you
10:36
Speaker 4: got to give credit to where we are today. And
10:39
Speaker 4: as class said, how many players in the NBA or
10:42
Speaker 4: just around the world that are playing the game that
10:44
Speaker 4: have you know, roots back to the continent or you know,
10:49
Speaker 4: came directly from the continent. And now we're seeing guys
10:52
Speaker 4: like Command, my Ludge and so on coming straight out
10:56
Speaker 4: of you know, the academies in Africa, but also go back.
11:00
Speaker 4: I think we also need to focus on the grassroots
11:04
Speaker 4: side of things, on programs that have proven themselves, programs
11:09
Speaker 4: that you know, continuously keep on, you know, bringing on players,
11:15
Speaker 4: but also you know, developing not just the players, but
11:18
Speaker 4: the coaches, the referee and so on. And I always
11:21
Speaker 4: talk about I'm gonna does is a great example with
11:26
Speaker 4: CED Academy. As long as you know, I've been back
11:30
Speaker 4: in the continent, Seed Academy has existed, and Seed Academy
11:33
Speaker 4: has given so much to the game of basketball from
11:37
Speaker 4: the continent. How many players came out of there, how
11:39
Speaker 4: many players are playing in Europe and so on. Those
11:42
Speaker 4: type of program we need to protect and enhance and
11:46
Speaker 4: also make some type of connection with you know, the
11:49
Speaker 4: US and Europe, because no matter what, we have to
11:54
Speaker 4: admit that, you know, the game is more advanced in
11:56
Speaker 4: those places, and there's a lot of coaches that have
11:59
Speaker 4: so much information that they can you know, share and develop.
12:03
Speaker 4: And as far as I think, as far as B. A. L.
12:07
Speaker 4: I think we all see the vision, you know, there's
12:10
Speaker 4: great leadership within the B A L. I happen to
12:14
Speaker 4: be a part of it, and I see it every day,
12:16
Speaker 4: and I see that, you know the direction and what
12:19
Speaker 4: we're trying to accomplish as a league, And as Claire said,
12:23
Speaker 4: it's it's really amazing when you look at the BA
12:27
Speaker 4: L of how many opportunities it's creating the panel earlier
12:31
Speaker 4: people were asking questions on how to get involved and
12:34
Speaker 4: the way I see. I mean, obviously the NBA, it's
12:37
Speaker 4: a global and it's been going on for years, but
12:40
Speaker 4: when we look at BA L in the continent, and
12:42
Speaker 4: it's not just basketball, there's so much that comes with it.
12:46
Speaker 4: Even us sitting up here because of B A L.
12:49
Speaker 4: There's so much we're talking about that will motivate others.
12:52
Speaker 4: And we're talking positively consistently about the continent and we're
12:56
Speaker 4: creating jobs. But we're also connecting it with you know,
12:59
Speaker 4: with the culture. We're connecting it with the youth and
13:02
Speaker 4: so on. How can we pull more people in, not
13:05
Speaker 4: just the fans, but how can we create more jobs
13:08
Speaker 4: and so on? So I think the direction is clear.
13:13
Speaker 4: You know, everybody, everybody has an opinion, but I really
13:17
Speaker 4: got to trust on the leadership to where it was
13:19
Speaker 4: and where it is now and where it's gone.
13:25
Speaker 1: Claire, I want to talk about that as well. Right,
13:28
Speaker 1: infrastructure is important. It's funny I was watching the game
13:31
Speaker 1: on Sunday and I'm looking at an arena.
13:32
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a stale art arena.
13:35
Speaker 1: There's intentionality, the fans are engaged, but this is bigger
13:38
Speaker 1: than basketball, right, and not only are people visiting Rwanda,
13:41
Speaker 1: the people are investing in Rwanda. I know you've been
13:44
Speaker 1: a part of that process long before the BA l
13:47
Speaker 1: but talk about the intentionality to combine those two things
13:49
Speaker 1: to say, yes, this is basketball, but no, this is
13:52
Speaker 1: a place where you can come and invest and potentially
13:54
Speaker 1: see growth here.
13:56
Speaker 5: Thank you.
13:57
Speaker 6: Maybe before I come to that, your question about what
14:00
Speaker 6: does success look like? And I think we've talked about jobs,
14:04
Speaker 6: We talked about economic impact. We think, you know, BA
14:07
Speaker 6: will contribute five point four billion dollars in ten years.
14:10
Speaker 6: We think jobs will come to six fifty thousand.
14:12
Speaker 3: It is.
14:13
Speaker 6: But my real measure of success that I think about
14:17
Speaker 6: is I remember a few weeks ago, I went to
14:20
Speaker 6: hike in Kenya in a place called Gong Hills, and
14:24
Speaker 6: while there, I picked a conversation with a stranger and
14:27
Speaker 6: soon or later I told this person that I worked.
14:29
Speaker 5: For the NBA.
14:30
Speaker 6: And then she called her son quickly and said, this
14:33
Speaker 6: lady works for the NBA. And then the son says, oh,
14:36
Speaker 6: my god, you work with the NBA National Basketball Association.
14:38
Speaker 6: I said yes, and then he said, have you met
14:42
Speaker 6: Lebron James? Can you connect me to Lebron James. While
14:47
Speaker 6: my answer was not to both questions. My measure of
14:51
Speaker 6: success is hiking somewhere in China ten years from now,
14:56
Speaker 6: fifteen years from now. And I told somebody about my
14:59
Speaker 6: job in NBA, and they say, oh, have you met
15:03
Speaker 6: Node Happy Mana? Have you met Washira from Nairobi? Have
15:10
Speaker 6: you met Haruna from Dakara? And they say, And I
15:14
Speaker 6: hope then I can say yes to both.
15:16
Speaker 3: Answers and earners. What's up? Look?
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16:56
Speaker 6: Yes, I can connect you to Haruna too, because in
17:01
Speaker 6: China they're watching BAL and they're following every season of BL.
17:04
Speaker 6: So that is my measure of success many years from now.
17:07
Speaker 6: But maybe back to your question around intentionality, I think
17:11
Speaker 6: one of the reasons that the BAL partnered with Rwanda
17:15
Speaker 6: at the very beginning was because we found that we
17:18
Speaker 6: had a meeting of minds in how we were intentional
17:21
Speaker 6: about bringing something new to African fans. We had a
17:25
Speaker 6: vision as BA L to start a league, but to
17:28
Speaker 6: do that, we needed our countries to invest, even investors
17:31
Speaker 6: to invest in infrastructure in arenas, but also everything around basketball,
17:36
Speaker 6: the teams, the federation it is in. But we also
17:40
Speaker 6: knew that by coming to the market with NBA BA
17:42
Speaker 6: L was a big incentive for countries that had similar
17:45
Speaker 6: minds to invest in it because they trusted NBA with
17:48
Speaker 6: the truck record that NBA had done and they would
17:50
Speaker 6: trust what NBO was going to do with the BL
17:52
Speaker 6: as well. And so you know a few years down
17:55
Speaker 6: the road when you look at Randa for example, I mean, yes,
17:58
Speaker 6: I saw from the beginning when BL came, when thinking
18:00
Speaker 6: about what are we going to do with bl and
18:02
Speaker 6: if you look at it today, not only has Randa
18:04
Speaker 6: hosted five seasons, the economic impact has been great.
18:07
Speaker 5: I think we've talked about that.
18:08
Speaker 6: But one thing that I see a big improvement is
18:10
Speaker 6: that we hardly saw any competition from the federation too,
18:14
Speaker 6: is very low. But when you look at the teams
18:16
Speaker 6: in the federation, all of them investing one of the
18:19
Speaker 6: team's Tigers is you know, getting investment from the pension
18:21
Speaker 6: fund and I saw Louise from the pension fund. Here
18:24
Speaker 6: they're investing in one of the teams Tigers. I know
18:27
Speaker 6: Berd is investing in their patriots, you know, reg among
18:32
Speaker 6: other teams are also getting in investments from the local
18:35
Speaker 6: companies in Wonder, whether it's development banks or pension funds,
18:39
Speaker 6: and all of that is helping the level of competition
18:41
Speaker 6: at the local.
18:42
Speaker 5: Level go up.
18:43
Speaker 6: And when I meet the Tigers team, they're like, did
18:45
Speaker 6: you see that? Now we've come to number two from
18:47
Speaker 6: numbers you know, close to ten. And they're like, wait,
18:50
Speaker 6: next year we're going to come to bal That is
18:52
Speaker 6: the level of competition we're seeing not just in Wonder
18:54
Speaker 6: but in federations across the countries where we play. And
18:57
Speaker 6: whether it's Senegal or Morocco ag to render the level
19:01
Speaker 6: of player I think has been incentivized, among others by
19:04
Speaker 6: the bal being there. But we also know that in
19:07
Speaker 6: addition to building the talent or building this ecosystem, infrastructure
19:11
Speaker 6: is very key. And today in Africa, can you believe
19:14
Speaker 6: that there are only five arenas in the whole of Africa,
19:17
Speaker 6: in the fifty four countries of Africa that are ready
19:20
Speaker 6: to receive an NBA or BA l GAM. Can you
19:23
Speaker 6: imagine that just five out of the fifty four countries.
19:26
Speaker 6: But the many others that could just do with some
19:29
Speaker 6: work and you know I renovations, improvements, refurbishments that could
19:33
Speaker 6: bring the number much higher. The good news is that
19:36
Speaker 6: when we speak to heads of state, when we speak
19:39
Speaker 6: to the ministers of sports, when we speak to investors,
19:42
Speaker 6: more and more of them as seeing that investing in
19:45
Speaker 6: infrastructure and investing in sports is actually a.
19:48
Speaker 5: Good business for them.
19:49
Speaker 6: And I believe that in the next few years we're
19:51
Speaker 6: going to see more arenas. I know, Beninis, you know,
19:54
Speaker 6: building one, Legosi is building one, and goal as renovating one,
19:58
Speaker 6: and we're going to see many of those coming up
20:00
Speaker 6: across the continent and This is how we're going to
20:01
Speaker 6: see the economic impact and the talent impact grow even
20:05
Speaker 6: much more than we've seen today.
20:08
Speaker 2: Sure as well talking about investing in real estate, Loo,
20:11
Speaker 2: I know you you're having real estate investor. We have a
20:13
Speaker 2: mutual friend, David Growth. So what is your thoughts as
20:17
Speaker 2: far as investment on the continent and what are you
20:20
Speaker 2: currently involved in?
20:22
Speaker 3: What's your thoughts on real estate? Yeah, this turned real quick.
20:29
Speaker 4: You know, I think right now it's the right time
20:33
Speaker 4: to really invest in the continent. I know that as
20:38
Speaker 4: people who invested in a past, but there's a lot
20:40
Speaker 4: of great opportunities. The most important thing that I've learned
20:44
Speaker 4: is understanding in in uh, in my situation that the
20:50
Speaker 4: rules are completely different.
20:53
Speaker 3: Uh.
20:54
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, there's an you know,
20:57
Speaker 4: there's an agenda and a perspective that's made on the
21:01
Speaker 4: continent that keeps a lot of people shy and keep
21:05
Speaker 4: a lot of people away. But you know, once you
21:09
Speaker 4: come into the continent and you understand the impact of
21:12
Speaker 4: investment and the return of investment, your mind changes quickly.
21:17
Speaker 4: And I think the most important thing uh. And we
21:20
Speaker 4: talked about it earlier. Within within each country in Africa,
21:24
Speaker 4: the rules are different, and the most important thing are
21:28
Speaker 4: you know, the people that you work with and the
21:30
Speaker 4: individuals that you surround yourself with to really guide you.
21:34
Speaker 4: I always give an example of you know, there's an
21:37
Speaker 4: investment that I made in New York, and you know,
21:41
Speaker 4: everyone talks about corruption and the continent and so on,
21:46
Speaker 4: and I remember in my investment in New York, all
21:48
Speaker 4: I had to do was to finish the project. There
21:51
Speaker 4: was an electricity line that needed to you know, instead
21:54
Speaker 4: of being up and needed to go on the ground.
21:56
Speaker 4: And there's an electricity company that's supposed to take care
21:59
Speaker 4: of it. And six months, eight months, I can't get
22:03
Speaker 4: a hold of them or their schedule is is busy.
22:06
Speaker 4: It took one visit to the mayor's office, a couple
22:10
Speaker 4: of pictures on social media and so on.
22:13
Speaker 3: And the next day they were there.
22:15
Speaker 4: But that's not called corruption because you know, I'm going
22:18
Speaker 4: through a company. In the continent, you do the same
22:21
Speaker 4: thing where you go through one individual that you gotta
22:24
Speaker 4: take care of, but you know, so it's similar rules
22:29
Speaker 4: is just understanding. But in the continent there's you know,
22:34
Speaker 4: amazing opportunities. And I think earlier with the earlier podcast,
22:38
Speaker 4: what we really I mean not podcasts, but when we
22:40
Speaker 4: were up here in the panel, I spoke about really
22:45
Speaker 4: the continent focusing on having similar rules that makes it
22:49
Speaker 4: easier to keep you know, growing the business and involving
22:54
Speaker 4: other people, you know, ministries coming together and implementing rules
22:59
Speaker 4: that really benefits you know, both sides or different countries.
23:05
Speaker 4: Because right now, if I wanted to invest in Rwanda,
23:09
Speaker 4: it's safer to invest in Rwanda. I could understand the rules.
23:12
Speaker 4: I have people that can take me through it. But
23:15
Speaker 4: I'll keep on coming back to Rwanda because of that.
23:18
Speaker 4: And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're trying
23:20
Speaker 4: to bring the continent together, it makes a lot of
23:23
Speaker 4: sense if you know the implementation are the same within
23:27
Speaker 4: South Todain or Rwanda for example. So when I go
23:30
Speaker 4: back over there, I know the rules and how to
23:31
Speaker 4: follow it, and I think that's kind of keeping the continent,
23:36
Speaker 4: you know, help back in terms of growth. And another
23:39
Speaker 4: thing too that I always like to, you know, bring
23:43
Speaker 4: up when we speak about the continent, we always speak
23:46
Speaker 4: as one continent, you know, and as soon as you
23:50
Speaker 4: start you know, thinking about implementing improvement or what you
23:53
Speaker 4: want to do, it goes, it goes into regions you
23:56
Speaker 4: start hearing Francophone and East Africa, you know, and then
24:01
Speaker 4: when you get there, then it's it goes into different
24:05
Speaker 4: states or cities, and then from there it goes into
24:08
Speaker 4: villages and towns, and then it's clan. It just keeps
24:12
Speaker 4: on going, you know, and and it makes it that
24:15
Speaker 4: kind of mindset. It makes it so difficult to grow
24:19
Speaker 4: all together at once. And that's why you see, you know,
24:22
Speaker 4: right now, you see you know, certain countries leading and
24:25
Speaker 4: so on. And you know, if you take America for example,
24:29
Speaker 4: you know, yes it's a big countries, you know, United States,
24:33
Speaker 4: but it's similar from state to state. You can, you know,
24:37
Speaker 4: you can grow any business and kind of you know,
24:41
Speaker 4: keep on repeating it. For example, if you own Starbucks
24:45
Speaker 4: in I don't know, in New Jersey's probably the same
24:48
Speaker 4: rules to buy a land and implement those rules. It's
24:51
Speaker 4: not the same in the continent. And you know, that's
24:54
Speaker 4: something we need to focus on. But the opportunity in
24:57
Speaker 4: terms of you know, investing and doing the right way.
25:01
Speaker 4: The satisfaction, well, for me anyway, the satisfaction is a
25:05
Speaker 4: lot more than just you know, what you get back
25:08
Speaker 4: in terms of you know, earning or a successful business.
25:12
Speaker 4: We talked about the opportunities, the jobs it creates and
25:15
Speaker 4: so on. And one thing about the continent is you
25:18
Speaker 4: have to be creative in whatever you're doing to be
25:22
Speaker 4: able to reach out as far as you can. You
25:24
Speaker 4: can't be one dimensional and just focus on one thing.
25:28
Speaker 4: You got to, you know, try to bring everybody along
25:31
Speaker 4: with you.
25:33
Speaker 1: Claire, you brought up something earlier. You said your husband
25:36
Speaker 1: was up at three in the morning watching the NBA.
25:38
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something that was me last night.
25:42
Speaker 1: It'll probably be met tonight. New York is playing tonight,
25:45
Speaker 1: but it got me to thinking about meteorites and revenue
25:49
Speaker 1: streams and so for the b AL, is there a nickname?
25:57
Speaker 1: Is it a traditional model where it's it's media rights,
26:01
Speaker 1: it's merchandising, it's tourism. How is it structured here? And
26:05
Speaker 1: what's the plan for scalability for that?
26:08
Speaker 5: Thank you?
26:08
Speaker 6: So Mainly four ways that leagues like ours can monetize,
26:14
Speaker 6: and I think the more common one for African for
26:16
Speaker 6: our league is sponsorship and marketing partnerships and that's where
26:20
Speaker 6: you see some of the partnerships. We have your service
26:22
Speaker 6: now visit rund African Zimbak and run there. So yes,
26:26
Speaker 6: sponsorship and marketing rights and using our platform that we
26:30
Speaker 6: give to market products and services. We have overall NBAS
26:36
Speaker 6: over one billion funds. Within Africa we have millions. We
26:40
Speaker 6: have one point two you know impression billion impressions in
26:43
Speaker 6: the last season. And when we look at our social
26:45
Speaker 6: media platforms, we have a big reach. So that which
26:48
Speaker 6: allows you know, partners like ours to really access the
26:51
Speaker 6: funds that we have and that's how we monitorze one way.
26:55
Speaker 6: The other one is merchandise and good news is that
26:58
Speaker 6: we just opened and it commas bottom. It's called balstore
27:02
Speaker 6: dot NBA dot com where you can buy merchandise from
27:06
Speaker 6: anywhere using our e commas platform. Now we know that
27:10
Speaker 6: the market, not just in Africa, but also especially the
27:12
Speaker 6: African diaspora all over the world has been looking to
27:16
Speaker 6: own something with BL whenever they interact with it. We
27:19
Speaker 6: saw pictures last year of season four with a family
27:22
Speaker 6: in Brazil walking around with BA l and we wondered
27:25
Speaker 6: where they got the BL merchandise. You know, we've seen
27:28
Speaker 6: pictures in his row where people crossing security and they're
27:31
Speaker 6: wearing BAL and those anecdotes showed us that there's really
27:35
Speaker 6: appetite for consuming BLB on the African market, but also
27:38
Speaker 6: with especially the African diaspora all over the world, who
27:41
Speaker 6: are really big. In fact, one of the statistics that
27:44
Speaker 6: you know, a colleago man shared with me is, you know,
27:46
Speaker 6: if you take out China and India, the African despera
27:49
Speaker 6: is the third country in terms of population globally. So
27:51
Speaker 6: interacting with that market as part of what we have
27:54
Speaker 6: to offer as bl continues to be important for us.
27:57
Speaker 5: The third one is ticketing. You know, when you come
27:59
Speaker 5: to watch gems.
28:00
Speaker 6: Every year we see ticketing revenues go up because more
28:02
Speaker 6: and more funds are coming to watch your games and
28:05
Speaker 6: paying to watch your games, and that has been really
28:07
Speaker 6: important as well. Now the media market obviously as well,
28:11
Speaker 6: is a big part of sports leagues. It's a growing
28:13
Speaker 6: aspect in Africa, whether it's PayTV, it's still very limited
28:17
Speaker 6: in terms of the coverage free to air. Many of
28:20
Speaker 6: the free to air broadcasters are national and therefore kind
28:24
Speaker 6: of free access in the countries where they serve. But
28:27
Speaker 6: we see that changing, and I think one when you
28:29
Speaker 6: say what does the future look like, one of the
28:32
Speaker 6: areas we see the future, you know changing, is very
28:35
Speaker 6: much around what lo w All talked about, which is
28:38
Speaker 6: integrating markets in Africa. I think the more integrated markets are,
28:42
Speaker 6: the more integrated services are, The more integrated we can be,
28:46
Speaker 6: the more you can actually use platforms to you know,
28:49
Speaker 6: provide whether it's streaming or broadcasting to markets across the continent.
28:54
Speaker 6: Now people like to say we need to integrate Africa more,
28:56
Speaker 6: and we really do need to. We've talked about the
28:58
Speaker 6: African Continent to Free Trade Area. It's a big aspirationion
29:01
Speaker 6: to really break down all these barriers so we can
29:03
Speaker 6: trade as one market. But a lot has to be
29:05
Speaker 6: done for that to happen, and I think we all
29:07
Speaker 6: touched on a couple of those. How do you rejust
29:09
Speaker 6: a business in Randa and be able to give your
29:11
Speaker 6: services across the fifty four countries. That's not happening yet today.
29:15
Speaker 6: How do you get a license to broadcasts in one
29:18
Speaker 6: country and broadcast in many countries so you can actually
29:20
Speaker 6: access a much bigger market on the continent.
29:22
Speaker 5: Those kinds of things.
29:23
Speaker 6: Need to be solved so that we can actually provide
29:26
Speaker 6: services across the continent. The good news, I think, especially
29:29
Speaker 6: for media rites, is what we see in some of
29:31
Speaker 6: what they tell us are doing. If you give an
29:33
Speaker 6: example of Empty and three hundred million subscribers across the continent,
29:37
Speaker 6: I know that they're thinking about using that platform that
29:40
Speaker 6: already is connected by subscription all over the continent to
29:43
Speaker 6: provide content, such as content that we would be interested in.
29:47
Speaker 6: So I think that's going to change, and I think
29:48
Speaker 6: we're going to see more access to media, more media integration,
29:51
Speaker 6: and media contributing a lot more than you're seeing today.
29:53
Speaker 5: And for me, the future is bright.
30:02
Speaker 3: Claire.
30:02
Speaker 2: Just to piggyback on that, you talked about the challenges
30:05
Speaker 2: as far as only having five arenas in Content and Africa,
30:09
Speaker 2: and obviously that makes it difficult to expand. But when
30:12
Speaker 2: you're looking at expanding to either having different teams or
30:15
Speaker 2: just focus in a different area, what are some of
30:18
Speaker 2: the top areas on the continent that you guys have
30:21
Speaker 2: on your board as far as you want to, you know,
30:24
Speaker 2: have more expansion.
30:25
Speaker 6: In Well, we would like to be in all the
30:28
Speaker 6: countries in Africa if we could, but today we're playing
30:32
Speaker 6: four countries, but we have twelve teams that play, so
30:35
Speaker 6: ideally in those twelve, you know, those twelve teams should
30:38
Speaker 6: be representing countries that we have that there's interest in
30:42
Speaker 6: playing in playing in but beyond the twelve, even before
30:45
Speaker 6: we get the qualifiers for the twelve, we have the
30:48
Speaker 6: broad to b a L, a lot more countries actually participate.
30:51
Speaker 6: So actually countries that are participating in the wider community
30:54
Speaker 6: that BL brings together is more than you know, four
30:56
Speaker 6: countries at us.
30:57
Speaker 5: It's more than twelve teams at play.
30:59
Speaker 6: It's a lot more, you know, if you come from
31:00
Speaker 6: the qualification road to b L until the final competitions.
31:04
Speaker 6: And so our goal is to work with as many
31:06
Speaker 6: countries as possible that wish to be part of this story,
31:10
Speaker 6: and they're there every day we get as I said,
31:12
Speaker 6: you know, I know Nigeria is building an arena. Benin
31:15
Speaker 6: is building an arena. You know, we went Morocco for
31:17
Speaker 6: the first time. After Egypt. You know, we are going
31:20
Speaker 6: South Africa, the many countries. Kenya for example, we have
31:22
Speaker 6: an office in Kenya, and then Arab City Thunders came,
31:26
Speaker 6: you know, for the first time representing Kenya in the
31:28
Speaker 6: bal And so can Uganda had a team City Oilers
31:32
Speaker 6: that has been coming for the last seasons. So there's
31:34
Speaker 6: potential in a lot more countries. I think the question
31:37
Speaker 6: is how do we work with investors, how do we
31:40
Speaker 6: work with the governments to put in place that environment
31:42
Speaker 6: of infrastructure that could allow this to happen. The good
31:45
Speaker 6: news is that every year, as we grow and we
31:48
Speaker 6: see the impact of BAL, we get more interests, including
31:51
Speaker 6: from development financial institutions like Africsen Bank FDB. We've seen
31:56
Speaker 6: investors come to us and say what does it take
31:59
Speaker 6: to bild an area?
32:00
Speaker 5: Who do build an arena for? And I think that's
32:03
Speaker 5: going to change. I really think that over.
32:05
Speaker 6: The next five years you're going to see a lot
32:07
Speaker 6: more standardized arenas than you've seen today, and that's going
32:10
Speaker 6: to allow us to plan as many countries as we could.
32:12
Speaker 6: Our goal is to have many countries come to be
32:15
Speaker 6: part of the BAL experience.
32:21
Speaker 3: Louell.
32:23
Speaker 1: A lot of times we see players retire and they
32:26
Speaker 1: struggle to find their purpose after they've left playing the game.
32:30
Speaker 3: You haven't quite had that issue.
32:32
Speaker 1: Rachad talked about your investment portfolio in a sense and
32:36
Speaker 1: how you've been doing with that and obviously coming back
32:37
Speaker 1: here and taking over the Sudan program.
32:40
Speaker 3: I wonder how influential it is amongst.
32:42
Speaker 1: Your peers, right the guys that you used to play
32:45
Speaker 1: with the colleagues because not only were they put players,
32:48
Speaker 1: but they could potentially be investors going forward. How influential
32:52
Speaker 1: have you been in inspiring them? And are they curious
32:56
Speaker 1: about what's happening here in bal I know Royality, he
33:00
Speaker 1: is coaching with you. I've seen you come here with
33:02
Speaker 1: jo Keem a few times. How's that been now? A
33:05
Speaker 1: great question? I think, first of all, I hope you
33:09
Speaker 1: know that I am inspiring them. I've been inspired by
33:13
Speaker 1: you know, people before me and so on. I think
33:16
Speaker 1: for me, the continent is in a different place than
33:21
Speaker 1: it was in the past. Part of it could be
33:24
Speaker 1: just how connected the world is now with you know,
33:29
Speaker 1: the Internet and so on and social media, and I
33:31
Speaker 1: think people are getting positive stories and putting positive stories
33:35
Speaker 1: out there. I think, you know, in the past, there's
33:38
Speaker 1: been like I said before, there's this, you know, the
33:41
Speaker 1: image and understanding of the continent hasn't been well represented
33:46
Speaker 1: as it is now. For me, it was a lot
33:48
Speaker 1: easier to continue.
33:50
Speaker 4: You know, a lot of people see after I retired
33:53
Speaker 4: taking on the national team, but throughout my whole career
33:56
Speaker 4: I was really focused on you know, basketball camps and
34:01
Speaker 4: you know, growing the game and the continent, going back,
34:04
Speaker 4: coming back and spending time and so on. So I
34:08
Speaker 4: knew even before I retired that I was going to
34:12
Speaker 4: be involved a lot more. To be honest, I wasn't.
34:16
Speaker 4: I wasn't planning to be the president of basketball Federation
34:19
Speaker 4: in South Sudan.
34:20
Speaker 3: It's just the timing of it.
34:22
Speaker 4: Just to give you a quick story. The way I
34:24
Speaker 4: looked at it was if I became the president of
34:28
Speaker 4: South Sudan Basketball Federation, I was just going to focus
34:31
Speaker 4: on the basketball team. But that's not the case. You know,
34:36
Speaker 4: as a president of basketball Federation in South Sudan, I
34:40
Speaker 4: have to focus on every state in South Sudan. We're
34:44
Speaker 4: the youngest nation in the world. We don't have a
34:47
Speaker 4: single basketball indoor court as of today. You know, all
34:52
Speaker 4: the success that we've had in three years, we've never
34:57
Speaker 4: practiced at home.
34:59
Speaker 3: You know.
34:59
Speaker 4: We we were lucky, Well, we're fortunate and thanks to Rwanda,
35:04
Speaker 4: we spend most of our time here preparing before we
35:07
Speaker 4: go anywhere to play because of the facilities that they have. So,
35:10
Speaker 4: like class said earlier, only five countries that have that
35:13
Speaker 4: kind of facility. You know, it discourages a lot of
35:18
Speaker 4: people from coming back and those are the things that
35:20
Speaker 4: we have to change. I think, like you said, Royale
35:23
Speaker 4: IV and so on. And as you see now in
35:26
Speaker 4: the BAO, a lot more guy, a lot more players
35:28
Speaker 4: are coming back and want to be in a continent.
35:31
Speaker 4: And besides the basketball game and earlier some people talk
35:36
Speaker 4: about how good the court is and so on. So
35:39
Speaker 4: those are positive images that we're putting out and talking about.
35:43
Speaker 4: But most important is when they come to the continent,
35:47
Speaker 4: it completely changed them. It changes their mindset, it changes,
35:51
Speaker 4: you know, what it is. And that's what I mean
35:53
Speaker 4: earlier by we're doing more than just the game, you know,
35:57
Speaker 4: and a lot more people want to be a part
35:59
Speaker 4: of it. And you know, as you ask, I have
36:01
Speaker 4: so many players, ex teammates and so on that want
36:05
Speaker 4: to be a part of b A L.
36:06
Speaker 3: You know.
36:06
Speaker 4: And you got guys like you know, Derek Rose going
36:10
Speaker 4: back to going you know, coming to the content and
36:13
Speaker 4: going to Senegal, putting the camp together, going to see
36:16
Speaker 4: the academy. All that plays a role into everybody coming back.
36:21
Speaker 4: So we're playing a big part besides just basketball, of
36:25
Speaker 4: promoting the continent in the right way. And you know,
36:28
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be a part of it, and I
36:31
Speaker 4: know that the growth is going to keep on going,
36:33
Speaker 4: you know, to start from where we started and where
36:35
Speaker 4: we are today. He speaks for itself, and Claid just
36:39
Speaker 4: mentioned their own division and where it's going. And no
36:42
Speaker 4: matter what we do, you know, this is going to
36:46
Speaker 4: keep on growing. It's just how it It's just how
36:48
Speaker 4: it is with what we're trying to put around and
36:51
Speaker 4: what we're trying to implement. Every year that we come back,
36:54
Speaker 4: we see more improvement. The game is getting better. People
36:58
Speaker 4: understand the game better, there's more things to do, people
37:02
Speaker 4: are taking advantage of being here and learning and so on.
37:06
Speaker 4: So it's just going to keep on getting better. And
37:08
Speaker 4: you know, we don't have to do much in convincing people.
37:11
Speaker 4: I think people will see.
37:14
Speaker 6: I must say, lou All that after the Olympics, many
37:17
Speaker 6: many times I meet people that say, oh, you know
37:20
Speaker 6: you're up for NBA b al, congratulations for the great
37:23
Speaker 6: work you did for Sufudan, and I just politely say
37:25
Speaker 6: thank you.
37:27
Speaker 3: I appreciate, thank you.
37:33
Speaker 2: Claire. What role is technology playing in the Bao as
37:36
Speaker 2: far as engaging young people, whether there's a social media
37:38
Speaker 2: strategy where there's ai you know, a lot of sports
37:42
Speaker 2: now they're talking about virtual reality, so people can actually
37:45
Speaker 2: get an in person experience even if they're not physically there. So,
37:48
Speaker 2: from just a holistic standpoint, what're role is tech playing in.
37:52
Speaker 5: The league very important.
37:54
Speaker 6: We always say less than one percent of our fans
37:57
Speaker 6: we'll ever go to watch a live game, and this
37:59
Speaker 6: is not just NB as well. Ninety nine percent of
38:02
Speaker 6: them will watch us through a platform, and that platform
38:05
Speaker 6: is very much enabled by technology, whether it's streaming, it's
38:09
Speaker 6: an app, whether it's you know, enhancing your experience in
38:13
Speaker 6: you know, broadcaster, whether it's TV or your laptop, your iPad,
38:19
Speaker 6: wherever you watch your phone, it's very much enabled by technology.
38:22
Speaker 6: And so because of that, we invest very much in
38:25
Speaker 6: enhancing the experience.
38:26
Speaker 5: Using technology of our games.
38:30
Speaker 6: But also this is also why as we think about
38:32
Speaker 6: the wider you know, touch points beyond you know, viewing
38:35
Speaker 6: games or watching games, we also know that solutions and
38:39
Speaker 6: experiences of different types can actually make the experience much better.
38:43
Speaker 6: And this is why we invested in the triple double
38:46
Speaker 6: Accelerator that you had about earlier, because we knew that
38:49
Speaker 6: if you're going to enhance the experience of our fun
38:51
Speaker 6: you know, interacting with our games technology and continuously making
38:55
Speaker 6: that better, enhancing how you buy a ticket, how you
38:59
Speaker 6: get notifications of games.
39:01
Speaker 5: How you you know, you know, how.
39:03
Speaker 6: You scout, you know talent across the continent, you know merchandise.
39:07
Speaker 5: I think we see examples of marchanders.
39:08
Speaker 6: There are very many aspects that can allows, you know,
39:11
Speaker 6: technology innovation to make it easier for fans to experience
39:15
Speaker 6: the game of basketball or sports in general. And this
39:17
Speaker 6: is why again technology remains something that is a focused area.
39:20
Speaker 6: We always talk about sports, tech, basketball and technology. We
39:24
Speaker 6: brought in the triput double, and I think that's always
39:27
Speaker 6: going to be important because again, one way to enhance
39:30
Speaker 6: the experience of our fund is using technology, including new
39:34
Speaker 6: tools such as atficial Intelligence. We know a number of
39:37
Speaker 6: teams are using adficial intelligence to really get data, analyze data,
39:40
Speaker 6: and predict some of the performances of their teams and
39:44
Speaker 6: talent on court. So all these is extremely important and
39:46
Speaker 6: technology remains a very close interactor with sports and basketball
39:51
Speaker 6: in particular.
39:53
Speaker 3: It'spent five years.
39:54
Speaker 1: I wonder how you see the next five years for
39:57
Speaker 1: the BA l and the partnership with the NBA.
40:00
Speaker 3: Interesting.
40:00
Speaker 1: I remember watching a young Luca Dancers playing against OKC
40:06
Speaker 1: because they went there for preseason. Is there a vision
40:10
Speaker 1: to have that kind of cross broader situation where you
40:13
Speaker 1: got teams going to play in the States or maybe
40:15
Speaker 1: playing in the Euroleagues or in China so that more
40:18
Speaker 1: odds can see the talent and see the growth of
40:20
Speaker 1: this league, or teams come to Africa, teams coming to
40:23
Speaker 1: Africa maybe even better.
40:25
Speaker 5: We don't rule that out.
40:26
Speaker 6: I mean, I think you had NBAS exploring a league
40:29
Speaker 6: in Europe. Of course it's NBA. Now we have a
40:32
Speaker 6: legal radio operating five years in Africa, and yes, we
40:36
Speaker 6: look forward to a future when we can have these
40:38
Speaker 6: regional competitions. It's not happening yet, but we don't rule
40:41
Speaker 6: out that in the future, and we hope that we
40:43
Speaker 6: can actually give that experience across the different parts.
40:46
Speaker 5: Of the world.
40:48
Speaker 2: So we got to talk about that Olympic situation. So
40:51
Speaker 2: one of almost one of the greatest upsets in the
40:54
Speaker 2: history of sports, not just basketball. You got, in my opinion,
40:58
Speaker 2: that's arguably the greatest team ever put together. When you
41:00
Speaker 2: have Lebron, you got Steph Curry, you got Kevin Durant,
41:06
Speaker 2: and man, you guys took him to the wire. How
41:11
Speaker 2: was that moment for you? How was that moment for
41:13
Speaker 2: your country? How was that moment for for you know,
41:17
Speaker 2: the whole entire region, the whole entire continent.
41:21
Speaker 4: Now it was it was amazing, you know, honestly to
41:26
Speaker 4: to play against you know, all these guys. First of all,
41:30
Speaker 4: it's a dream for our players to play against, you know,
41:34
Speaker 4: their heroes, their superstars and so on. And you know,
41:39
Speaker 4: having Lebron, Steph and Durant, like you said, it made
41:42
Speaker 4: that team arguably one of the best teams you know,
41:45
Speaker 4: ever put together. I think for us, and you know,
41:49
Speaker 4: when I look back at it, it became more than
41:53
Speaker 4: a game. You know, it started with developing the team
41:58
Speaker 4: and putting the team together to compete, you know, and
42:02
Speaker 4: then we realize that if you look at the Olympics,
42:07
Speaker 4: only one African team makes it as of now, and
42:11
Speaker 4: you know, I said that needs to change. I think
42:14
Speaker 4: it will change eventually. As you know, the teams are
42:17
Speaker 4: getting better. If you look at the World Cup, it's
42:19
Speaker 4: five teams that make it out of fifty four country
42:22
Speaker 4: so it's whoever goes is representing the whole continent, not
42:28
Speaker 4: just the country. And for us, it's such a young
42:31
Speaker 4: program that we put together and all these guys can play,
42:36
Speaker 4: but they just never had the opportunity. And the amazing
42:39
Speaker 4: thing is, before I talk about the game, if we
42:42
Speaker 4: go back three years before that game, we took a
42:45
Speaker 4: team to Kenya when we first you know, put the
42:50
Speaker 4: federation together. We took a team to Kenya and not
42:53
Speaker 4: a single person in that team had you know, a
42:56
Speaker 4: job or playing professionally. That's three years removed from you know,
43:01
Speaker 4: playing against the US and almost winning. But if you
43:07
Speaker 4: if you look back, and I don't want to, you know,
43:09
Speaker 4: consistently bring that back, but if you look back at
43:12
Speaker 4: what took place that made that game so significant, it
43:16
Speaker 4: was almost I look at it as like the crossover
43:20
Speaker 4: from what we've been hearing about the continent and what
43:24
Speaker 4: people have been thinking, and it really came at a
43:28
Speaker 4: time where how how do we use this game to
43:31
Speaker 4: change people's mindset? And I don't want to go into it,
43:35
Speaker 4: but you know, certain individuals were speaking, you know, about
43:38
Speaker 4: the South Sudan team, but speaking about Africa in such
43:41
Speaker 4: a you know, a negative way. But it showed, you know,
43:47
Speaker 4: it showed the lack of connection. But also you know,
43:53
Speaker 4: just knowing what the continent or how far the continent
43:55
Speaker 4: has come if you go back to some of the
43:57
Speaker 4: things they were saying, I never I didn't respond, but
44:01
Speaker 4: I took it as an opportunity. I didn't know that
44:04
Speaker 4: we would come close to winning that game, or you know,
44:07
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do knows we won that game because there
44:10
Speaker 4: was a foul at the end, but you know, we're.
44:13
Speaker 3: Not going to get into that.
44:16
Speaker 4: But you know, the way everything happened, I think we
44:20
Speaker 4: used it as an opportunity to kind of let everybody
44:23
Speaker 4: know that one you know, Africa is not what you've
44:27
Speaker 4: been you know, told, or what you've been seeing. This
44:30
Speaker 4: is like the turnaround for you to use your social media,
44:33
Speaker 4: use your network, learn more about the continent, because some
44:37
Speaker 4: of these guys were speaking about, you know, not having
44:40
Speaker 4: shoes and so on, which is so stupid, but you know,
44:45
Speaker 4: and and also you know, to come that close to
44:49
Speaker 4: winning that game. I remember in the locker room we
44:52
Speaker 4: spoke about the Dream Team with Michael Jordan when they
44:56
Speaker 4: played Angola, and you know those tapes of that game,
45:02
Speaker 4: if you look back of you know, obviously the Dream
45:05
Speaker 4: Team was a dream the Dream Team, they were destroying everyone.
45:09
Speaker 4: But if you go back and really listen to the
45:13
Speaker 4: US against Angola, it was just about, you know, an
45:17
Speaker 4: African team who barely practiced. They those things are not
45:21
Speaker 4: good for us in the continent, and those are the
45:23
Speaker 4: things that we're trying to change. As much as you know,
45:27
Speaker 4: a lot of people don't speak about it or play
45:29
Speaker 4: it off. I think Africans are just tired of that image.
45:33
Speaker 4: And I think when we played the US and we
45:36
Speaker 4: almost want people realize that times have changed. And also
45:41
Speaker 4: just for the basketball world, they realize that it's not
45:45
Speaker 4: just about you know, Luar dang or Hakeem or Manute
45:48
Speaker 4: or embiid Uh. You know, there's a lot of talent
45:52
Speaker 4: in the continent and they're catching up because it's been about
45:55
Speaker 4: Europe catching up, but Africa's catching up. So I'm just
45:59
Speaker 4: glad that we had the opportunity to use that game
46:02
Speaker 4: to promote the whole content.
46:03
Speaker 3: And you know, we've arrived. You have arrived.
46:10
Speaker 1: Indeed, my final question is you clear and obviously we
46:14
Speaker 1: name some of the partners that you have, but what
46:16
Speaker 1: does the BAO look for in terms of partner Obviously
46:18
Speaker 1: it's an innovation, there's plenty of people here that want
46:21
Speaker 1: to be involved.
46:22
Speaker 3: What are you looking for in partnerships?
46:25
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, we're looking for partners that you know,
46:28
Speaker 6: share the values that we have, which is to really
46:30
Speaker 6: elevate Africa, you know through sports entertainment, but also who
46:35
Speaker 6: look at elevating the youth of Africa and giving the
46:38
Speaker 6: youth of African opportunity to excel, which is what we
46:41
Speaker 6: do through B a L. And so we look for
46:43
Speaker 6: partners that not only have shared values with us, but
46:47
Speaker 6: also really want to reach the funds that we bring
46:50
Speaker 6: to them because we give them a platform for them
46:51
Speaker 6: to read their funds. And so once we share those values,
46:54
Speaker 6: the rest is technical. It's discussing very technical elements of that. Yeah,
47:00
Speaker 6: So that's what we look for in partners. And if
47:01
Speaker 6: there's anybody here that wants to be part of this
47:03
Speaker 6: beautiful family that is b AL, please we're here to
47:06
Speaker 6: discuss with you. I think there's a lot of opportunities
47:08
Speaker 6: to do that in all categories. And again when I
47:11
Speaker 6: say all categories, you know it's not just about you know,
47:15
Speaker 6: you know, sports or talent. I think the beauty about
47:18
Speaker 6: B a L is that we bring all sectors together.
47:21
Speaker 6: If you can think about any industry. We're in a hotel,
47:25
Speaker 6: you know, we're consuming you know digital services. You flew here,
47:29
Speaker 6: it's aviation, you're going to eat. Agriculture is affected every sector.
47:33
Speaker 6: Every industry you can think about somehow contributes or sports catalyzes.
47:37
Speaker 5: When I was in Iverory.
47:38
Speaker 6: Cost last week, somebody asked me, you know about mining,
47:41
Speaker 6: because I tried to show how every industry benefits from mining,
47:45
Speaker 6: I mean from sports, and they kind of try to
47:47
Speaker 6: challenge me about mining and I told them, no, you know,
47:50
Speaker 6: the trophy and the rings and the medals. Mining also
47:55
Speaker 6: has a role to play in sports as well. But
48:00
Speaker 6: let me just finish by saying, I think that what
48:02
Speaker 6: we really want to see is more people coming to
48:04
Speaker 6: watch bl games when they happen, because that's when you
48:06
Speaker 6: show the best of Africa.
48:08
Speaker 5: You see beautiful countries.
48:09
Speaker 6: You see that they have shoes, You see that they
48:11
Speaker 6: have clean roads, you see that they have electricity, You
48:13
Speaker 6: see that it's actually a very beautiful place in many ways,
48:15
Speaker 6: maybe even more beautiful than where you're coming from with
48:17
Speaker 6: all those biases and so sports, I think is one
48:20
Speaker 6: way to elevate the best of Africa.