NBA Shuts Its Only Africa Training Academy as Focus Shifts to Abu Dhabi

The National Basketball Association has closed its only training academy in Africa, ending a program that had served as a pipeline for developing young basketball talent on the continent, according to Al Jazeera.

The league said the closure is tied to a shift in strategy toward a new global academy opening in Abu Dhabi, which will bring international player development under a single site rather than maintaining separate regional academies.

The Africa academy is not the only one affected. Training facilities in Mexico and Australia are also being closed as part of the same restructuring, according to the report, pointing to a broader move away from the NBA's earlier model of regional academies spread across multiple continents.

For young players in Africa who had relied on the academy for coaching and a potential pathway toward professional basketball, its closure marks a setback. The facility had been one of the league's main efforts to identify and develop talent on the continent.

The NBA has not detailed, in the reporting available, how players previously tied to the Africa academy will be supported going forward or whether any of its programming will be folded into the new Abu Dhabi site.