Team Africa (Coached by Pop): Team Africa, comprised of players born in Africa and second-generation African players, will feature team captain and two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng (Miami Heat; Great Britain; born in South Sudan), Al-Farouq Aminu (Portland Trail Blazers; US; parents from Nigeria), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks; Greece; parents from Nigeria), Nicolas Batum (Charlotte Hornets; France; parent from Cameroon), Bismack Biyombo (Toronto Raptors; Democratic Republic of the Congo), Boris Diaw (San Antonio Spurs; France; parent from Senegal), Gorgui Dieng (Minnesota Timberwolves; Senegal), Festus Ezeli (Golden State Warriors; Nigeria), Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder; Congo)*, and Luc Mbah a Moute (Sacramento Kings; Cameroon).

Team World (Coached by Lionel Hollins): Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers; US), Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards; US), Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets; US), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies; Spain), Pau Gasol (Chicago Bulls; Spain), Jeff Green (Memphis Grizzlies; US), Marcus Smart (Boston Celtics; US), Evan Turner (Boston Celtics; US) and Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic; Montenegro).



The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced today the full rosters for the first NBA game in Africa, which will take place August 1 at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Link

Rosters seem a bit lopsided in favor of the World but Coach Pop levels the playing field a bit I suppose.

I like how Pop's going with guys with Spurs ties as his assistants.

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Five-time NBA Champion Gregg Popovich will coach Team Africa, with 2014-15 NBA Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams serving as assistant coaches.

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I'm glad Danny Ferry isn't involved. Coulda got really awkward.

RC Buford is the GM of the World team.

It makes me think he, or someone in Spurs Organization, was probably pretty involved in helping get this going.

Dikembe and Hakeem involved as well.

We have three countries representing "World"

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RC Buford is the GM of the World team.

It makes me think he, or someone in Spurs Organization, was probably pretty involved in helping get this going.

Dikembe and Hakeem involved as well.

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Boris has done basketball charity stuff in Africa before and he's on Team Africa. I bet he was involved in getting this off the ground.

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I like how Pop's going with guys with Spurs ties as his assistants.

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Five-time NBA Champion Gregg Popovich will coach Team Africa, with 2014-15 NBA Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Monty Williams serving as assistant coaches.

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I'm glad Danny Ferry isn't involved. Coulda got really awkward.

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Am I allowed to laugh at this?

Not to rain on the NBA's parade, but they are following the same old script that other businesses have followed when trying to grow in Africa: head to South Africa. The problem in the case is that South Africa has little history in basketball. From what I could tell in doing some Google/Wikipedia research, SA has never qualified for the Olympics, nor have they ever hosted a FIBA Africa championship. They were not even among the 16 teams at the most recent AfroBasket tournament in 2013. Thus, it shouldn't be a surprise that no one on the "Team Africa" roster has any ties to SA.

If the NBA really wanted to grow their exposure in Africa and reward a country that already has international basketball success and/or has players in the NBA, they should have decided to hold this event in Angola, Nigeria, or Senegal.

that was my intention, so I appreciate that.

They just rolled out Hakeem and Dikembe for the game.

As a fan of basketball, this game makes my eyes hurt. Horrible basketball being played and watching the Gasol brothers struggle against Festus Ezeli and Bismarck Biyombo... Awful stuff.

Olaju-yawn

That was a serious travel right? He took like 6 steps and only dribbled twice. I think the Shake might be a bit rusty.

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That was a serious travel right? He took like 6 steps and only dribbled twice. I think the Shake might be a bit rusty.

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The ball bouncing at the beginning is the pass to him from what I see. Then he makes a legal play afterwards.

I honestly do think he could still give a solid 5 minutes a night.