A Nigerian Afrobeat singer buys shares in the Cape Town Tigers, the son of Dwayne Wade moves to South Africa, Kone joins the WNBA and Afrobasket qualifiers in East Africa sizzle, as the spotlight on African basketball intensifies.
by Silalei Shani, bird story agency
The announcement by Zaire Wade, the son of NBA Legend Dwayne Wade, that he had signed to play for the Basketball Africa League’s (BAL) team Cape Town Tigers, for the 2023 season made waves in both basketball and wider sporting circles across Africa.
The 6’1 guard, who has been plying his trade with the NBA’s G-League team, the Salt Lake City Stars, participated in the NBA-supported BAL Combine in Paris in January 2023. The 2-day scouting event drew 30 players from Africa, Europe, and the United States, all aspiring to play in Africa’s top-flighted tournament.
Wade averaged 4.6 points and 1.9 assists in 13 games for Salt Lake City Stars in his final season before joining the South African team.
“When I was younger, maybe I wouldn’t have thought that I would have went to Salt Lake and then over to Cape Town, but I think that’s what the journey is all about – life puts you in great situations and great places you never would have expected,” told ESPN regarding his move to the Cape Town Tigers from the Salt Lake City Stars.
The Cape Town Tigers have made headlines thanks to their inclusion in two BAL seasons and received further when Afrobeat superstar Oluwatosin Ajibade, better known as Mr Eazi, invested in the team. The 31-year-old singer took to Twitter to announce that he had become a shareholder in the Tigers, further raising the team’s profile and demonstrating the economic potential of African sports.
In West Africa, women’s basketball stole the spotlight in early February with the announcement that 20-year-old Malian national side player Sika Kone, considered by many to be the best African woman basketball player of her generation would join the WNBA’s New York Liberty for the season.
At the age of 12, the young basketball player made it into the feeder club for Mali’s national team, and just 12 months later, she was selected to attend a national training camp.
At 15, she was offered a scholarship to study at a British Academy School in Spain and played in Europe until her draft to the WNBA. At the 2021 U-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Hungary, Kone made history with Mali, lifting the African nation to its first-ever semi-final appearance in the FIBA tournament.
Her outstanding abilities on the offensive and defensive end drew international attention and sealed her trajectory to the world’s top basketball league.
“I think I am prepared to compete in the WNBA. Also, the New York Liberty have an amazing line-up with the addition of players like Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney. It would motivate me to share a dressing room with athletes like them or Sabrina Ionescu; In addition to facing the rest of the important players. I’m sure this would help me progress further,” said Kone.
In further women’s basketball news, after a week of intense women’s basketball in Kampala, Egypt booked their ticket to the 2023 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket tournament, hosted later this year in Kigali.
Egypt beat hosts Uganda 74-65 at a packed-out MTN Arena in Lugogo. They joined Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, and Cameroon and hosts Rwanda, who had already qualified.
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