Luol Deng & Clare Akamanzi: Building the NBA’s Future in Africa

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2:39Brilliantly boring since 1865 is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service. Well, let's start with you. You know, your career coming from the highest levels of basketball, right? Like playing in the NBA, being a star in the NBA. What made you, you know, want to do a 360 move and come back home and, you know, take over South Sudan basketball, right? As opposed to just, you know, being a GM at an NBA team or, you know, being a coach in college, like, you know, that a lot of people probably would have took that path. Yeah, great question. You know, me coming back was important because obviously being from the continent and coming out of, you know, South Sudan and, you know, going to Egypt, UK, the path that, you know, I talked about a lot.

3:33but it's important because I remember just to go back, my first time back in South Sudan was 2010, right before the independence. I remember Amadou had a vision of us doing basketball camps in five or six different countries every summer. And these camps we were doing outside, outdoor courts, whoever wanted to tag along would come with us and it just kept growing and kept growing and I just remember and I said it the other day I came from a background that's so similar to all these kids that we were trying to provide an opportunity for and I just believe that the talent is there it's just about the organization and the infrastructure the same things that we talk about you know and I've just got to have you know I've learned so much from basketball whether it's my high school coach whether it's playing for coach K whether it's playing in the NBA for Scott Scott Tipperdale and as a player I always try to read the game so I knew you know throughout my camps and everything that I was doing all over the years the talent that we had and the opportunity that we had and it was always been my dream you know to put South Sudan in a map but also to promote basketball and just to show people the potential in the continent and the timing was just right when I retired BAL obviously was you know on its way and I just knew that there was going to be a lot of focus within the continent with the game of basketball I was a I was part of the NBA game in South Africa, I just seen, you know, the growth of it to where we are here now today.

5:35And I wanted to be a part of it, but also to have my input and, you know, what I can do. And South Sudan, obviously everybody knows the story. But when I took over that program, you know, I knew that it's a lot to be done. but the one thing that I knew was that if we were able to have a great national team and compete it will obviously bring excitement and joy to the whole continent but it will also raise a lot of questions that needed to be answered and we're still working on those and how do we get there you know so I knew right away as soon as I retired I needed to be back here and kind of put in my blueprint.

6:19And we thank you for that, my brother. Claire, let's talk about where we're at today. Five years at a BAL. Congratulations. Not one person clapped. I'm not sure why.

6:32But talk about the vision for it, right? When you created the idea or coming up with the idea, there was a vision, a blueprint for it. I wonder as you look five years post that, has it met your expectations? has the development gone according to plan? What have been some of the struggles into this five year anniversary of BAL? Thank you and first of all, Rashad and Troy, welcome to BAL and welcome to the NL Conference. And thanks to all of you that are still here. We talked about resilience. You're such a resilient audience. You've been here the whole day. But back to your question. So when NBA decided to invest in Africa, I think there were a number of things that were obvious.

7:15One of them that has been said throughout the day is that there's talent in Africa. In fact, today in NBA, about 10 % of our players have either directly or indirectly some links to the African continent. Either one of their parents or both their parents are from the African continent. 10%. And that's about 50 players. So already there's talent that's making its way to the NBA. Now imagine if we were to be intentional about identifying, harnessing that talent, I think those numbers would be even more because Africa, as has been said, the whole day has talent. But also we know that not everybody can go and play in the NBA.

7:55The NBA is about 500 players and we have 1.5 billion Africans with a lot of talent and not everybody will have a chance to go there. So how do we create opportunities for African players or talent to stay on the continent and play professionally in a league such as the BAL that we have here? And that was one of the thought processes that went there. But also, for those of you who are great fans of NBA, you know that you have to wake up early in the mornings. My husband is one of those who always wakes up 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m. to switch on the lights and watch a basketball game. But when you're here, you watch a basketball game in normal hours, right?

8:36At 2 p.m., at 7 p.m., and you can go to bed in normal hours. And so that means we can actually give access to the game of basketball to a lot more people that don't have to work up at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. who love the game of basketball. So bringing that opportunity as well to our fans to give them something that they can interact and access was also very, very important. The other one was also being intentional around building the talent. I mean, we talked about NBA Academy. You've heard about some of the players, Kamen Malouache that was talked about in the previous panel, and a couple of others, Ulrich Chomchi, who is playing for Toronto Raptors.

9:10All of them went through NBA Academy, and we expect to see even more coming out of that. We have other talent, you know, programs that we work very closely with, like CID Academy that Amadou founded in Senegal, that has had a kind of good relationship with the NBA Academy in terms of supporting to nurture the talent in a much bigger scale. So all of that is really about how do you identify that talent. But the last thing is something that my Deputy Commissioner likes to talk about, Mark Tatum, the first conversations they had when they came to Africa at the time, more than five years ago, with heads of state, with policymakers, and it became very clear to them and the NBA that if you're going to positively impact Africa, you need to think about the youth of Africa and what do the youth of Africa need we've had statistics like 70 % of the African population which is 1.5 billion people are young people below the age of 30 and so if you're going to really impact Africa you have to think about the youth and everything about how to support the creation of jobs for this youth so outside the court you know part from the talent those that would play basketball also creating economic opportunities that will support the youth to get jobs and to support this ecosystem of basketball.

10:29By having the BAL in Africa, in the countries that we play, today we play in four countries. Our vision is to play in many, many more countries. And you can only imagine when we play in many more countries, the impact will be even more. But today,$250 million, 37 ,000 jobs in just four seasons imagine how much more transformation we will do if we play in 40 countries instead of four in the next 10 20 years you can just imagine

11:00well that was actually my next question and both of you guys can answer this as far as how do you measure success so looking out five years in the future or ten years in the future right what does success look like for this league and just basketball in whole when it comes to the continent of Africa? Is it 30 teams across the continent? Is it grassroots programs like AAU programs that we see in America? How do you envision the continent of Africa as far as a successful movement when it comes to not only NBA basketball but basketball as a whole? Both of you. Yeah, I think if you look back to what I was saying maybe around 2010 or even before me.

11:41I think if you look at how basketball has been developing in the continent, to begin with, you know, when I first came into the league, everybody was used to NBA. I mean, African players being, you know, big guys who just rebound and, you know, black shot. Obviously, Hakeem Olajuwon had the skill, but when he first came over, he was given the opportunity because of his height and so on. So guys were just looking for tall African players who are athletic. As the game went on, I remember when I first came in a league, it bothered me that I was only the only, I shouldn't say the only, but one of the few African players who are a perimeter player and so on.

12:28And now if you look at the league now with Siakam and Embiid and all these guys that are so skilled, it just shows you where the game is going and where the development is going. So I think as much as we are still improving, you've got to give credit to where we are today. As Claire said, how many players in the NBA or just around the world that are playing the game that have roots back to the continent or came directly from the continent. And now we're seeing guys like Kamon Maloj and so on coming straight out of the academies in Africa. But also to go back, I think we also need to focus on the grassroots side of things, on programs that have proven themselves, programs that, you know, continuously keep on, you know, bringing on players, but also, you know, developing not just the players, but the coaches, the referee and so on.

13:28And I always talk about Amadou's is a great example with Seed Academy. As long as, you know, I've been back in the continent, Seed Academy has existed. And Seed Academy has given so much to the game of basketball from the continent. How many players came out of there? How many players are playing in Europe and so on? Those type of program we need to protect and enhance and also make some type of connection with the US and Europe because no matter what, we have to admit that the game is more advanced in those places and there's a lot of coaches that have so much information that they can share and develop.

14:10And as far as, I think as far as BAL, I think we all see the vision. There's great leadership within the BAL. I happen to be a part of it and I see it every day and I see that, you know, the direction and what we're trying to accomplish as a league. And as Claire said, it's really amazing when you look at the BAL of how many opportunities it's creating. The panel earlier, people were asking questions on how to get involved. And the way I see, I mean, obviously the NBA is a global and it's been going on for years, but when we look at BAL in the continent, it's not just basketball. there's so much that comes with it even us sitting up here because of BAL there's so much we're talking about that will motivate others and we're talking positively consistently about the continent and we're creating jobs but we're also connecting it with the culture we're connecting it with the youth and so on how can we pull more people in not just the fans but how can we create more jobs and so on so I think the direction is clear you know everybody everybody has an opinion but I'm I really got to trust on the leadership to where it was and where it is now and where it's going.

15:32Clay I want to I want to talk about that as well right infrastructure is important and it's funny I was watching a game on Sunday and I'm looking in an arena I'm like this is a state of our arena there's intentionality the fans are engaged but this is bigger than basketball right not only are people visiting Rwanda but people are investing in Rwanda. I know you've been a part of that process long before the BAL, but talk about the intentionality to combine those two things to say, yes, this is basketball, but no, this is a place where you can come and invest and potentially see growth here. Thank you.

16:04Maybe before I come to that, your question about what does success look like? And I think we've talked about jobs, we've talked about economic impact. We think, you know, BAL will contribute$5.4 billion in 10 years. We think jobs will come to$650 ,000. It is same. But my real measure of success that I think about is, I remember a few weeks ago I went to hike in Kenya in a place called Gong Hills. And while there, I picked a conversation with a stranger, and soon or later I told this person that I work for the NBA. And then she called her son quickly and said, this lady works for the NBA. And then the son says, oh my God, you work with NBA National Basketball Association?

16:45I said, yes. And then he said, have you met LeBron James? Can you connect me to LeBron James? While my answer was no to both questions, my measure of success is hiking somewhere in China, 10 years from now or 15 years from now, and I tell somebody about my job in NBA, and they say, oh, have you met Nore Habimana? have you met washira from nairobi have you met haruna from dakar and i say and i and i hope then i can say yes to both answers and earners what's up look this episode is brought to you by square banking one of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up there's this west indian spot right in our community that started with a small takeout counter.

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19:07Because in China, they're watching BAL, and they're following every season of BAL. So that is my measure of success many years from now. But maybe back to your question around intentionality. I think one of the reasons that the BAL partnered with Rwanda at the very beginning was because we found that we had a meeting of minds in how we were intentional about bringing something new to African funds. We had a vision as BAL to start a league, but to do that we needed countries to invest, even investors, to invest in infrastructure, in arenas, but also everything around basketball, the teams, the federation, ETC.

19:46But we also knew that by coming to the market with NBA BAL was a big incentive for countries that had similar minds to invest in it because they trusted NBA with the track record that NBA had done and they would trust what NBA was going to do with the BAL as well. And so, you know, a few years down the road, when you look at Rwanda, for example, I mean, yes, I saw from the beginning when BAL came, when I was thinking about what are we going to do with BAL. And if you look at it today, not only has Rwanda hosted five seasons, the economic impact has been great. I think we've talked about that. But one thing that I see a big improvement is that we hardly saw any competition from the federation.

20:21It was very low. But when you look at the teams in the federation, all of them investing, one of the teams, Tigers, is, you know, getting investment from the pension fund. and I saw Louise from the Pension Fund here, they are investing in one of the teams, Tigers. I know BRD is investing in their Patriots. You know, Reg, among other teams, are also getting investments from the local companies in Rwanda, whether it's development banks or pension funds. And all of that is helping the level of competition at the local level go up. And when I meet the Tigers team, they're like, did you see that now we've come to number two from numbers, you know, close to 10?

20:56And they're like, wait, next year we're going to come to BAL. That is the level of competition we are seeing, not just in Rwanda, but in federations across the countries where we play. And whether it's Senegal or Morocco or Egypt, Rwanda, the level of play, I think, has been incentivized, among others, by the BAL being there. But we also know that in addition to building the talent or building this ecosystem, infrastructure is very key. And today in Africa, can you believe that there are only five arenas in the whole of Africa, in the 54 countries of Africa that are ready to receive an NBA or BAL game.

21:30Can you imagine that? Just five out of the 54 countries. But there are many others that could just do with some work and renovations, improvements, refurbishments that could bring the number much higher. The good news is that when we speak to heads of state, when we speak to the ministers of sports, when we speak to investors, more and more of them are seeing that investing in infrastructure and investing in sports is actually a good business for them and I believe that in the next few years we're going to see more arenas I know Benin is you know building one Lagos is building one Angola's renovating one and we're gonna see many of those coming up across the continent and this is how we're going to see the economic impact and the talent impact grow even much more than we've seen today she was talking about investing in real estate who I know you you're an avid real estate investor.

22:20We have a mutual friend, David Rose. So what is your thoughts as far as investment on the continent? What are you currently involved in? And what's your thoughts on real estate? Yeah, this turned real quick. You know, I think right now is the right time to really invest in the continent. I know that as people who invested in the past, but there's a lot of great opportunities. The most important thing that I've learned is understanding in my situation that the rules are completely different. At the end of the day, there's an agenda and a perspective that's made on the continent that keeps a lot of people shy and keep a lot of people away.

23:14but you know once you come into the continent and you understand the impact of investment and the return of investment your mind changes quickly and I think the most important thing and we talked about it earlier within within each country in Africa the rules are different and the most important thing are you know the people that you work with and the individuals that you surround yourself with to really guide you. I always give an example of, you know, there's an investment that I made in New York and, you know, everyone talks about corruption in the continent and so on. And I remember in my investment in New York, all I had to do was to finish the project.

23:58There was an electricity line that needed to, you know, instead of being up, it needed to go on the ground and there's an electricity company that's supposed to take care of it and six months eight months i can't get a hold of them or their schedule is is busy uh it took one visit to the mayor's office a couple pictures on social media and so on and the next day they were there but that's not called corruption because you know i'm going through a company in the continent you do the same thing where you go through one individual that you got to take care of but you know so it's similar rules is just understanding but in the continent there's you know amazing opportunities and I think earlier with the earlier podcast what we really I mean not podcast but when we were up here in a panel I I spoke about really the continent focusing on having similar rules that makes it easier to keep growing the business and involving other people.

25:03Ministries coming together and implementing rules that really benefits both sides or different countries. Because right now, if I wanted to invest in Rwanda, it's safer to invest in Rwanda. I could understand the rules. I have people that can take me through it. But I'll keep on coming back to Rwanda because of that. and there's nothing wrong with that but if you're trying to bring the continent together it makes a lot of sense if you know the implementation are the same within South Sudan or Rwanda for example so when I go back over there I know the rules and how to follow it and I think that's kind of keeping the continent you know held back in terms of growth and another thing too that I always like to you know bring up when we speak about the continent we always speak as one continent and as soon as you start thinking about implementing improvement or what you want to do it goes into regions you start hearing Francophone, East Africa and then when you get there it goes into different states or cities and then from there it goes into villages and towns and then it's clan it just keeps on going And it makes it that kind of mindset, it makes it so difficult to grow all together at once.

26:27And that's why you see, right now you see certain countries leading and so on. And if you take America, for example, yes, it's a big country, it's United States, but it's similar from state to state. You can grow any business and kind of keep on repeating it. For example, if you own Starbucks in, I don't know, in New Jersey, it's probably the same rules to buy your land and implement those rules. It's not the same in the continent. And, you know, that's something we need to focus on. But the opportunity in terms of, you know, investing and doing it the right way, the satisfaction, well, for me anyway, the satisfaction is a lot more than just, you know, what you get back in terms of, you know, earning or a successful business.

27:19We talked about the opportunities, the jobs it creates and so on. And one thing about the continent is you have to be creative in whatever you're doing to be able to reach out as far as you can. You can't be one dimensional and just focus on one thing. You got to try to bring everybody along with you. Claire, you brought up something earlier. You said your husband was up at three in the morning watching NBA. I'm going to tell you something. That was me last night. It'll probably be me tonight. New York is playing tonight. But it got me to thinking about media rights and revenue streams. And so for the BAL, is there a Nick fan?

28:04Is it a traditional model where it's media rights, it's merchandising, it's tourism? How is it structured here and what's the plan for scalability for that? Thank you. So, mainly four ways that leagues like ours can monetize, and I think the more common one for Africa and for our league is sponsorship and marketing partnerships. And that's where you see some of the partnerships we have here, ServiceNow, Visit Rwanda, Afrik Zimbak, and Randeir. So, yes, sponsorship and marketing rights, and using our platform that we give to market products and services. We have overall NB as over 1 billion funds within Africa we have millions we have 1.2 you know impression billion impressions in the last season and when you look at our social media platforms we have a big reach so that reach allows you know partners like ours to really access the funds that we have and that that's how we monetize one way the other one is merchandise and good news is that we just opened an e-commerce portal it's called balstore.nba.com where you can buy merchandise from anywhere using our e-commerce platform.

29:16Now, we know that the market, not just in Africa, but also especially the African diaspora all over the world, has been looking to own something with BAL whenever they interact with it. We saw pictures last year of season four with a family in Brazil walking around with BAL, and we wondered where they got the BAL merchandise. You know, we've seen pictures in Heathrow where people are crossing security and they're wearing BAL. And those anecdotes showed us that there's really appetite for consuming BAL beyond the African market, but also with especially the African diaspora all over the world, who are really big.

29:49In fact, one of the statistics that a colleague of mine shared with me is if you take out China and India, the African diaspora is the third country in terms of population globally. So interacting with that market as part of what we have to offer as BAL continues to be important for us. The third one is ticketing. When you come to watch games, every year we see ticketing revenues go up because more and more funds are coming to watch our games and paying to watch our games and that has been really important as well. Now the media market obviously as well is a big part of sports leagues. It's a growing aspect in Africa.

30:22Whether it's pay TV, it's still very limited in terms of the coverage. Free-to-air, many of the free-to-air broadcasters are national and therefore kind of free access in the countries where they serve. But we see that changing and I think when you say what does the future look like, one of the areas we see the future you know changing is very much around what you all talked about which is integrating markets in Africa I think the more integrated markets are the more integrated services are the more integrated we can be the more you can actually use platforms to you know provide whether it's trimming or broadcasting to markets across the continent now people like to say we need to integrate Africa more and we really do need to we've talked about the African continental free trade area it's a big aspiration to really break down all these barriers so we can trade as one market but a lot has to be done for that to happen and I think you all touch on a couple of those how do you adjust a business in Rwanda and be able to you know give your services across the 54 countries that's not happening yet today how do you you know get a license to broadcast in one country and broadcast in many countries so you can actually access a much bigger market on the continent those kinds of things need to be solved so that we can actually provide services across the continent the good news I think especially for media rights is what we see in some of what the telcos are doing.

31:39If you give an example of MTN, 300 million subscribers across the continent, I know that they're thinking about using that platform that already is connected by subscription all over the continent to provide content such as content that we would be interested in. So I think that's going to change and I think we're going to see more access to media, more media integration and media contributing a lot more than we're seeing today and for me the future is bright.