The 2024 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 4, will be the 4th season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season will begin on 9 March 2024 and will finish with the final on 1 June 2024, which will be played in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, for a fourth consecutive season.[1]
This season the league was expanded to 48 games, and from two conferences to three conferences, as South Africa will host the inaugural Kalahari Conference.[2]
On 19 June 2023, the BAL and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) announced they agreed on a multi-year extension to their collaboration. Under the extension, it was agreed that the BK Arena in Kigali will host the playoffs and finals in the 2024, 2026 and 2028 seasons.[1]
On 5 January 2024, the host venues and schedule were announced. The SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, will be the fourth arena to host BAL games.[3]
Format changes
The BAL expanded the total games in the season from 38 to 48. In the group phase, there will now be three conferences as the Kalahari Conference will be held in South Africa. The number of teams in the conferences is decreased to four, with all teams playing each other twice. The top two teams and the two best third-placed teams advance to the playoffs. Before the playoffs, the eight teams will play seeding teams to determine their opponents in the single-elimination playoffs. This was the second time the match-ups in the playoffs were determined on seeding, as this was last done in the inaugural season.[2]
Qualification
Qualified teams
The six directly qualified teams were the champions of the national leagues of six pre-selected countries. The other six team qualified through the Road to BAL.
The Road to BAL began on 3 October and ended on 26 November 2023. On 21 September 2023, FIBA announced the 20 teams that had registered to play in the first round, which is played in five groups.[4] The final phase of the West Division was organised in Yaoundé for a third time, and Johannesburg hosted the East Division finals once again. Chad was represented for the first time in tournament history.
APR, Al Ahly Benghazi, Bangui Sporting Club, Dynamo and FUS Rabat will make their BAL debuts. Al Ahly Benghazi, Bangui Sporting Club and Dynamo are the first teams from Libya, the Central African Republic, and Burundi, respectively, to play in the BAL.
Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players. Players in italics were signed only for the playoffs. If players have multiple nationalities, the nationality of an African nation is shown.
Each team will also have one player from the NBA Academy Africa, under the BAL Elevate program.
For a second consecutive season, the BAL champions directly qualified for the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. At the 2023 Singapore edition, Al Ahly represented the league. Al Ahly finished in the fourth place, after previously beating the NBA G League Ignite to become the first African team to win a game in the competition's history.
The league hosted the third BAL Combine at the Ibn Yassine Omnisports Hall in Rabat, Morocco, between 5 January and 7 January 2024. It was the first combine to be held on the African continent, after the previous editions were hosted in Paris and New York.[3] A total of 30 players participated under combine director Robert Pack.[3]
Schedule
The schedule for the 2024 season was officially released on 5 January 2024.[3]
The group phase will be played between 9 March and 12 May 2024. The 12 teams of the group phase are divided into three conferences. In addition to the Sahara Conference and Nile Conference, the inaugural Kalahari Conference will take place.
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in the regular season is determined as follows:[33]
Win-loss record;
Head-to-head record;
Point differential in the games between the respective teams;
Number of points scored in the games between the respective teams;
Average point differential in all games against other teams in the Conference;
Average number of points scored in all games played against other teams in the Conference;
The seeding games between the eight teams that advanced from the group phase, will be held on 24 May in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.[2] This is the first year in which seeding games are played.
Playoffs
The playoffs and finals will be held from 24 May to 1 June 2024 in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.[2]
