Refiloe Seiboko

In March, at the sumptuous Sunbet Arena in Pretoria, the Basketball Africa League rolled out its Kalahari Conference tournament for the fourth season. It was the first time the league had held games in South Africa since the inaugural season in 2021. It marked a culmination point as South Africa was finally able to become one of four host countries for pre-playoff play. Seven countries were initially chosen for what would’ve been the inaugural season in 2020.

The 2023-24 NBA season, which started less than a month ago, came with a newly refurbished League Pass app, as is customary. Every year the league seeks to improve on its product and give fans more basketball. This year’s marketing campaigns have given us the taglines “So Much Game” and “Everyone’s NBA App”. And their output confirms this. There is indeed a lot of game and they really are going for it in trying to appeal to the masses as well as the sycophants.

There’s a golden rule that governs basketball development and skill output in the National Basketball Association’s home country of the US — start them young. The earlier the better. Most star players tell similar stories of having a basketball put in their hands as soon as their fine motor skills started to peek through. Three years is not an absurd age to start thinking about developing talent.