The second edition of the Basketball Africa League will be missing a significant component when it tips off in March, after Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers were replaced at the 11th hour by Morocco’s AS Sale.
Both sides competed at the first edition, and Hoopers had qualified for this year’s tournament before FIBA, the sport’s governing body, deemed them ineligible and replaced them with Sale, who had reached the quarterfinals in 2021.
The team announcement on Feb 8, where it was confirmed that the Hoopers would not be playing in Dakar come March 5, was the final heartbreak for the Nigeria team.
They had gone on a desperate but ultimately unsuccessful race against time to get them in as representatives for this year’s edition, after holding FIBA-supervised elections on January 31, in which Musa Kida was re-elected as NBBF president.
Basketball stakeholders were hoping that the conclusion of the…
