ESPN today premiered Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League, a four-part documentary series now streaming exclusively on the ESPN App.
The series traces the creation and launch of the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a professional league outside North America, capturing the inaugural season of a competition that brought together 12 club teams from across Africa.
Executive produced, written and co-directed by Richard Brown, Origin follows the decades-long effort led by Basketball Africa League (BAL) President Amadou Gallo Fall and executive producer Masai Ujiri to build a pan-African circuit capable of elevating the sport while expanding opportunity throughout the continent.
Featuring interviews with President Barack Obama, NBA star Stephen Curry, musician/athlete J. Cole and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the series explores how basketball is helping connect cultures, inspire communities and create new pathways between Africa and the global game.
Front Row spoke with Brown about bringing the BAL’s story to life.
What drew you to the story of the Basketball Africa League?
At the heart of it was Amadou Gallo Fall — the “godfather of African basketball” — who spent more than twenty years building a vision most people thought was impossible: an elite, pan-African professional league that could transform how Africa is perceived and the opportunities available to its young people.
I’m always drawn to that kind of singular conviction. The scope was also irresistible — teams from places as different as Morocco and Mozambique, Egypt and Senegal, all united by basketball. Once we started filming, we realized we weren’t only making a sports documentary, we were documenting a continent in motion.
How did you approach telling a story that spans so many countries, cultures and voices?
Two interlocking stories running in tandem. The first is the tournament itself — 12 of the best teams from across the largest continent in the world competing in the first ever BAL. That’s your engine. The second is how we got here — Amadou Gallo Fall and Masai Ujiri, two visionary sons of Africa who achieved extraordinary success within the NBA and turned it back toward the continent.
How did they manifest this? How and why did the NBA agree to operate the first league they’ve ever run outside the United States? The two dovetail perfectly. Every time the tournament raises the emotional stakes, you understand more deeply what Amadou and Masai built and why.
What do you hope audiences take away after watching the docuseries?
President Obama says it best: “Africans aren’t just coming — they’ve arrived.” And that the BAL works as a bridge between Africa and America — one that runs both ways. African players gaining global pathways, while members of the diaspora use the league to explore their roots. [Former NBA star] Joakim Noah talks about this beautifully. As does J Cole, who suited up for the Rwanda Patriots on his first ever visit to Africa. If audiences come away understanding that this is about something much larger than what happens on the court, we’ve done our job.
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