DAKAR (Senegal)/CAIRO (Egypt) - The Basketball Africa League (BAL) today announced the rosters of the six teams that will compete in the league's Nile Conference Group Phase from April 26 to May 6 at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo, Egypt.   

The six teams - Al Ahly (Egypt), Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), City Oilers (Uganda), Club Atletico Petroleos de Luanda (Petro de Luanda; Angola), Clube Ferroviario da Beira (CFV - Beira; Mozambique) and Seydou Legacy Athletique Club (S.L.A.C; Guinea) - collectively feature 78 players from 15 countries across Africa, Oceania, and the U.S., including two former NBA players, nine players with NBA G League experience, 20 former NCAA Division I players, and 15 former Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa campers. 

Al Ahly and the City Oilers will be making their BAL debut, while the Cape Town Tigers, CFV - Beira and S.L.A.C are returning for the second consecutive season.  2022 runner-up Petro de Luanda has participated in all three BAL seasons.

The 12 BAL teams have once again been divided into two conferences - the Sahara Conference and the Nile Conference.  Each conference plays a 15-game Group Phase during which each team plays the five other teams in its conference once.  The top four teams from the Nile Conference Group Phase will join Abidjan Basket Club (ABC Fighters; Cote d’Ivoire), AS Douanes (Senegal), Rwanda Energy Group (REG; Rwanda) and Stade Malien (Mali) in the BAL Playoffs, which will feature a single-elimination tournament and Finals at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda in May.

Below are select BAL Nile Conference player and coach storylines:

• Josh Hall (Cape Town Tigers) played 21 games for the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2020-21 NBA season.
  
  
• Michael Gbinije (Cape Town Tigers) was the No. 49 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons and played in nine games for the Pistons during the 2016-2017 season. He won the FIBA AfroBasket Championship in 2015 as a member of the Nigeria men’s National Team.
  
  
• Ater Majok (Petro de Luanda) was the No. 58 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Majok, who won the 2022 BAL Finals and Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year Award as a member of US Monastir, is competing in his third BAL season.
  
  
• In addition to signing Majok, Petro de Luanda signed 2022 BAL champion Souleymane Diabate. Majok and Diabate join 2022 All-BAL First Team member Carlos Morais and 2022 All-BAL Defensive Team members Childe Dundão and Abou Gakou.  A number of Petro de Luanda players previously represented their respective national teams at FIBA Basketball World Cup tournaments, including Diabate (Côte d’Ivoire; 2010 and 2019) and Dundao (Angola; FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017).
  
  
• Petro de Luanda shooting guard Carlos Morais is one of the most accomplished players in the history of Angolan basketball. He is an eight-time Angolan League champion, a three-time Angolan Cup winner, and represented Angola in three FIBA Basketball World Cups (2006, 2010, 2019) and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was also named Most Valuable Player of the FIBA Africa Champions Cup in 2012.  Morais played in three preseason games with the Toronto Raptors in 2013.
  
  
• Former New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and NBA G League Ignite assistant coach Rasheed Hazzard will serve as head coach of the Cape Town Tigers. Hazzard was also an assistant coach for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers when they won the 2021-22 G League Championship. He will coach alongside South Africa’s Flosh Ngwenya, who led the team during the Road to the BAL qualifiers last November.
  
  
• Tigers guard Zaire Wade most recently played for the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League. Zaire is the son of three-time NBA champion and 2023 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dwyane Wade.  
  
  
• Al Ahly forward Anunwa “Nuni” Omot made history with the South Sudan National Team when the team qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 for the first time earlier this year. He was South Sudan’s leading scorer throughout their World Cup qualifying campaign.
  
  
• Six Al Ahly players were part of the Egypt National Team that qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. In addition, Al Ahly guard Amr Gendy represented Egypt in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014, and guard Corey Webster represented his native New Zealand in two FIBA Basketball World Cups (2014 and 2019).

 The 2023 BAL season is reaching fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages through free-to-air and paid TV broadcast partnerships with the African Union of Broadcasting, American Forces Network (AFN), Canal+, ESPN (sub-Saharan Africa), NBA TV, Tencent, TV5 Monde, Visionary TV and VOA, and livestreaming on the NBA App, NBA.com and BAL.NBA.com.

Fans can view the complete Nile Conference game schedule and purchase tickets at BAL.NBA.com.

FIBA