Guardian

AMADOU Gallo Fall is the vice president of the NBA with the responsibility of overseeing the development of basketball in Africa. With his office in South Africa, Fall traverses the length and breadth of the continent in search of ways to grow the game at the grassroots level.

The former scout with the Dallas Mavericks is in Nigeria on a four-day working visit, which involves meeting stakeholders in the game with a view to finding ways of building on the blocks laid down by the country’s recent successes in the game.

Having been to virtually all the basketball-paling African nations, the tall, dark and eloquent Senegalese is of the opinion that Nigeria holds the basketball’s key to success in the continent. Most importantly, he believes that getting the youths acquainted with the game early in life would aid the development of the game. And to achieve this objective, the continent needs new heroes.

According to Fall, “the NBA wants to grow the game from the grassroots and we have been engaged in doing this since 1993. There is a long history with the continent, but the aim is to get new Akeem Olajuwons, Obinna Ekezies and to do this, we need the co-operation of everybody involved in the game.

“In 2003, we started with the ‘Basketball Without Borders,’ where we bring NBA greats, coaches for a grassroots development programme that gives back to the community.

“We are a business enterprise and at the same time we try to develop the communities through exposure to basketball.”

Fall is thrilled by the bright future of the game in Africa, saying that basketball has grown in leaps and bounds in the continent since the NBA set up shop in South Africa.

“Today we have a full fledged league in South Africa, and we feel that if we can do it there, where the knowledge is still low, we can do better in a basketball country like Nigeria.

“Across the board, basketball is the number two sport in Africa. Another point of motivation is that we have seven players in the NBA, not counting on those born in the USA, who are playing for other countries.  These players serve as role models to the young ones, who are the targets of most of programmes,” he said.

The NBA, according to Fall, wants to ensure that the game is accessible to the people hence it is devising programmes and finding strategies that would make easier for everybody to play the game.

One of these strategies, he added, is the train the trainers’ programme, which focuses on training the coaches, who will in turn train the kids, who want to get into the game.

According to Fall, “we have a partnership that is community-based, which will be announced in the next three months.

“We will also introduce the 3X competition, which will involve all the African countries with then final holding in Nigeria towards the end of the year. The winner of the 3X competition will go to the U.S. to compete with other qualifiers from across the world.”

On the NBA’s relationship with the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Fall said he has been meeting with the leadership of the federation with a view to finding ways of building on the recent successes recorded by the country.

“The potential for basketball development in Africa is huge. It was a great achievement getting two countries to the Olympics in London, where we had concrete achievements with NBA players coming to play for Nigeria.

“Now, more of them want to play for their countries. We want to encourage the players based in Africa to up their game so that we can have better quality teams from the continent,” he disclosed.

Fall, who said Nigeria was chosen host the 3X championship in Lagos because of the enthusiasm shown by the people and the availability of raw talents in the country, promised that the competition would be a massive event that would draw fans from within and outside Africa.

He added that the Basketball Without Borders, which will hold in South Africa later this year, would be a community outreach clinic for boys and girls, who would be mentored by some basketball icons.

“Our objective is also to draw the African players in the NBA and other big leagues back to the continent to invest in their communities.

“Today, Dikembe Mutombo has built a multimillion dollar hospital in Kinshasha, which is great for his people. We want to encourage others to do such things for their communities by helping them to come back to the continent.”