For many NBA fans, becoming an agent would qualify as a dream realized. Ugo Udezue lived that reality at BDA Sports, where he represented players such as Andre Roberson, Nene, Joakim Noah, and Festus Ezeli. Udezue, however, decided to leave the agent life behind to return to his native Nigeria and launch the African Basketball League.
He told his story to Marc Spears of The Undefeated. Udezue started the league with six teams one year ago. It has since expanded to 10 teams and rebranded to the Continental Basketball League.
“This is the best thing I have ever done in my life,” Udezue told Spears. “This is the best decision I ever made in my life. It’s surreal. Like a dream. If someone asked me four years ago if I was moving back to Africa, I would have said no. But I’m home. And most importantly for me, I’m building an industry that never existed before. We’ve created jobs. We’ve created opportunities in just over a year of being in existence.”
A number of NBA players have African roots. Nigeria has two native players in the NBA: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid is from Cameroon, and Orlando’s Bismack Biyombo hails from the Dominican Republic of the Congo, as does the Knicks’ Emmanuel Mudiay.
The league has Continental in its title with good reason. It has teams in Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Togo. The CBL currently shows televised games in Africa and is working on a bigger cable deal, Udezue said.
Udezue, who starred at Wyoming and played for the Nigerian Junior National Team in the ’90s, sees huge potential for the league.
“Sub-Saharan, just by heritage alone, we have the best basketball players. It’s in our DNA,” he told Spears. “With my experience in the game, I knew there was a lot of value in this region. But there was no professional basketball league because the precolonial system that has been in place didn’t make room for that when it comes to sports.
“A lot of bureaucrats felt threatened about the value we were trying to show. So, they did everything they could to do something to stop it. I kept it alive with a lot of passion. We had a lot of people who were supporters who believed in the African dream and Africans creating something for Africans. We have a lot of support. Before our league, people didn’t pay to go to a basketball game here. But now, people pay a lot of money to come.”
Udezue isn’t the only one who believes in the vision. Legendary NBA agent Bill Duffy, who has taken on Udezue’s old clients, said he thinks in 10 years the CBL will be the second-most impactful basketball league on the planet.
