Oliver Ochieng, bird story agency
Former NBA players and stars were not left behind, as Al Ahli beat Angolan side Petro de Luanda 88-67 in a North versus South clash.
Al Ahli went into the match as underdogs but eventually turned tables on Petro de Luanda, in a classic case of debutants dethroning champions.
Jean Jacques Boissy was named the tournament’s MVP, after managing 12 points with two rebounds in the final, coupled with his exemplary performance in previous rounds.
“My teammates and the coach pushed me to this level. Every African kid out there can do it,” he said.
This season, a record 141,564 fans attended games across the continent, starting with Road to BAL qualifiers.
The 2025 Playoffs and finals featured the top eight teams from the three conference group phases, which were held in Rabat, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; and Kigali, Rwanda in April and May, 2025.
According to Al Ahli captain Assem Marei, they knew Petro de Luanda was a tough team to crack owing to the level of the basketball game in Angola, adding that it is amazing to have won the title for the first time.
“I’m an African player. I’ve been playing in African championships since 2011, I think, and Angola has always been a powerhouse,” he said.
“They’ve always been a powerhouse in Africa, so whenever there’s a champion of the league there, you know they know how to play basketball, they have great talent, so coming into the game, we knew that. Me also, I’ve played in Africa for a long time, I knew that you can’t ever take it easy.”
Al Ahli Tripoli’s Abou Chacra Fouad was named the BAL 2025 Coach of the Year, becoming the only tactician so far to lead his team to the championship title.
Former BAL champions are Egypt’s Zamalek in 2021, US Monastir of Tunisia in 2022, Al Ahly of Egypt in 2023 and Petro de Luanda in 2024. North African teams have won 4 titles out of 5.
A day before the Saturday final, Rwanda’s APR beat Al Ittihad 123–90 to secure third place, setting a league record for the most points scored in a single game.
Data from BAL show that Since 2021, the continental basketball showpiece has contributed more than $250 million to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while generating a record 2,739,498 million views on the league’s YouTube channel since the first season.
Kigali, Rwanda, hosted the first four finals, before Pretoria, South Africa got a chance to play host this year.
Additionally, nearly 37,000 jobs created were linked to the BAL games across the continent over the league’s first four seasons, with BAL engaging 2,347 youth and community members through social impact programming.
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