The 2023 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 3, was the third season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season began on 11 March 2023 and ended on 27 May 2023. The playoffs were played in the BK Arena in Kigali, which hosted the final stage for a third season in a row. The regular season was played in Dakar, Senega and Cairo, Egypt, both venues hosted a conference for a second year in a row.
Al Ahly defeated AS Douanes in the final, which was played in the BK Arena in Kigali, for a first-ever BAL title. As the winners, Al Ahly automatically qualified for the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Singapore.
US Monastir were the defending champions, having won their first title in the previous edition, but were eliminated in the Sahara Conference.
Qualification
The first round of the qualifying stage consists of 20 teams that play in four groups of five, each held in different cities. In the Elite 16, the teams are joined by 6 teams that qualified during the previous 2022 BAL qualification. Two groups of five teams are played to determine the six teams that advance to the main tournament.
On 21 September 2021, FIBA Africa announced the 26 teams in the qualifying tournaments as well as the six countries that would qualify directly.
East Division
Group phase
Elite 16
Final round
East Division
Group phase
Elite 16
Final round
Teams
Petro de Luanda was the first team to qualify for the season when it won the Angolan League on 10 May 2022. The last qualified team was City Oilers who captured the third place in the Road to BAL East Division on 27 November 2022. The twelve teams of the 2023 BAL season were officially confirmed on 13 February 2023. After an absence of a Nigerian representative in the 2022 season due to FIBA's punishment of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Kwara Falcons was directly qualified as winners of the Nigerian Premier League.
Al Ahly, Kwara Falcons, ABC Fighters and Stade Malien will make their debut in the competition. ABC Fighters is the first team from Ivory Coast to play in the BAL, while City Oilers is the first team from Uganda.
Two teams, defending champions US Monastir and runners-up Petro de Luanda, appear in their third consecutive season.
Personnel
Augustí Julbe of Al Ahly was the only coach this season to already have won a BAL championship, as he won the 2021 title with Zamalek.
Foreign and Elevate players
Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players. Players in italics were signed only for the playoffs. If players have multiple nationalities, the nationality of an African nation is shown.
Each team also featured one player from the NBA Academy Africa, under the BAL Elevate program. The players were drafted in an online meeting by the teams and the official list were announced on 28 February 2023.
Notes
Notable transactions
On 23 September 2022, Petro de Luanda signed two-time BAL champion Solo Diabate, who came over from US Monastir. On 10 January 2023, AS Douanes announced the signing of two-time BAL scoring champion Terrell Stoglin. They signed Chris Crawford, who played in the two previous BAL seasons, as well to complete their back court. On 21 January 2023, US Monastir signed Jerome Randle, a former NBL MVP winner in Australia. On 4 February 2023, the Cape Town Tigers signed Zaire Wade. Because Zaire is the son of Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, the signing gained attention in the United States. On 23 February 2023, ABC Fighters announced the signing of Abdoulaye Harouna, who lined up for his third BAL season. On 10 March 2023, Petro de Luanda signed Ater Majok, reigning BAL champion and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Majok came over from US Monastir. In May, ahead of the playoffs, the ABC Fighters signed Omar Abada, who was an All-BAL First Team selection in 2021.
Pre-season
US Monastir, as champions of the 2022 BAL season, participated in the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup. It was the second time a BAL team participated in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. In the competition, played in February and hosted in La Laguna in Spain, Monastir finished fourth after two losses against CB Canarias and Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
ESPN declared Petro de Luanda, last year's runners-up, as the title favourites in their annual season preview.