17-05-2025
From social club to Africa's biggest basketball stage for Joburg's MBB
Johannesburg's Made By Ball (MBB) are upbeat for their debut in Africa's biggest tournament, the Basketball Africa League (BAL), and have vowed to make the playoffs in their first attempt.
The BAL is like football's Caf Champions League and sees all the best basketball teams in Africa compete. South Africa are yet to have a team win the competition.
This is the fifth season of BAL and the closest any South African team has come to glory was when the Cape Town Tigers finished fourth in 2024. The MBB, who are not as well-resourced as their American-owned predecessors, the Tigers, will be punching above their weight in an attempt to remove the monkey from the country's back.
Their road to the finals will begin in the Nile Conference at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, from Saturday to May 25. The conference includes Rwanda's APR and will feature two other debutants in Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya) and Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya).
When MBB step onto the court in Kigali, the fairy-tale will become a reality for their owner, Cyril Tshabalala.
