The 2026 Basketball Africa League Finals will hold on May 31 at 6:00 p.m. Central Africa Time at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, with eight teams having qualified for the Playoffs that began on May 22.
The eight qualifiers are Al Ahly (Egypt), Al Ahly Ly (Libya), ASC Ville de Dakar (Senegal), Club Africain (Tunisia), Dar City (Tanzania), FUS Rabat (Morocco), 2024 BAL champion Petro de Luanda (Angola) and the RSSB Tigers (Rwanda).
The top four teams will advance to the single-game semi-finals and finals.
The Playoffs and Finals are being livestreamed globally on NBA.com, the NBA App and BAL.NBA.com.
The 2026 season has produced several notable milestones. On April 5, Petro de Luanda’s Childe Dundão became the all-time BAL record holder for minutes played with 1,073 minutes across all six seasons.
On April 4, RSSB Tigers guard Craig Randall II set a BAL scoring record with 54 points in a loss to Dar City, while Damion Baugh became the first player in BAL history to register a triple-double in his debut season, finishing with 11 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds in a 110-72 win over Dar City on the same day.
Al Ahly Ly and Dar City combined for a BAL-record 215 points in their March 31 encounter, with Al Ahly Ly winning 118-97. The BAL also celebrated its 200th game on April 1 when Petro de Luanda defeated Nairobi City Thunder 97-70, and on May 3, Al Ahly defeated FUS Rabat 77-71 in just the second double-overtime game in league history.
Heading into the Playoffs, the BAL’s social media channels had generated more than 722 million views this season, a record for group phase play.
Nearly 75,000 fans attended the Kalahari and Sahara Conference group phases in South Africa and Morocco, respectively, also a record. BAL games have additionally recorded a 1,000 per cent year-on-year increase in total watch time on BAL.NBA.com and the NBA App.
A record eight former NBA players have competed in the BAL this season, including Axel Toupane of ASC Ville de Dakar, who became the first NBA champion to feature in the league, having won the 2021 title with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Thirty players who competed at FIBA AfroBasket 2025 are participating in the Playoffs, with 11 of the 16 nations that featured at that tournament having at least one player in the competition.
Five players have competed in all six BAL seasons — Abdoulaye Harouna (FUS Rabat), Ater Majok (ASC Ville de Dakar), Gerson Domingos (Petro de Luanda), Dundão and Solo Diabate (ASC Ville de Dakar).
The BAL, a partnership between the International Basketball Federation and NBA Africa, is in its sixth season and reaches fans in 214 countries and territories, including all 54 African nations.
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