One month has passed since Basketball Africa League was due to tip off, with 12 teams on the verge of making history with the launch of a truly continentwide top-tier basketball competition.
All was set for an historic event until the coronavirus pandemic forced an indefinite postponement nine days before tipoff. Teams, fans and media were understandably disappointed.
That included NBA vice president and managing director of NBA Africa Amadou Gallo Fall, who is the Basketball Africa League president.
During 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend in February, Fall led a cast of basketball royalty from FIBA, world basketball's governing body, the NBA and the league itself to unveil the teams and their official kits.
But the disappointment was tempered by reality.
"It was disappointing," Fall told ESPN. "But at the same time, we realized very quickly that the reason we were postponing was bigger than sport, bigger than anything else.
"When it comes to safety and health and well-being of communities, fans, our players, coaches of teams, you move on quickly and make a decision, and we felt good about the decision we made at the time and when we made it."
At the time, the BAL was among the first sports leagues to press pause following the outbreak. Events since have shown that early decision to be one of the more perspicacious moves made in the sporting world.
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But for a league that was on the verge of getting underway, and with all the time and preparation expended on getting it off the ground, a postponement was not exactly what the competition needed.
Under any other circumstances, such a delay could have caused serious damage for a league in its infancy. But the global situation caused by the coronavirus presented a unique perspective, and Fall says the delay has diminished neither the excitement nor the prospects of the BAL, which was ready to hit the ground running on day one and will be ready to do so once the situation returns to some sort of normalcy.
"Our teams remain ready and excited," Fall told ESPN. "We were ready to launch on March 13. We had our 12 teams and we were actually in the process of announcing partners beyond brand Jordan and Nike.
"We were fully ready and engaged in fact. We were in the process of booking flights fly to Dakar [Senegal] for teams from the other conferences."
Ifie Ozaka, general manager of Nigerian representatives Rivers Hoopers, agreed.
"We were prepared," Ozaka told ESPN. "Our new signings from the USA were supposed to join us in training camp, but they could not do so once the travel restrictions came into effect.
"Once that happened, we could not even train because all the sporting facilities around us were locked down."
The current situation could have been worse.
Hoopers, like some of the other clubs, had signed contracts with their overseas recruits and were obliged to pay despite the suspension, a situation that would have put them in financial peril. But it is a credit to how much all involved in the project are invested in its success that the players agreed to waive their contractual rights.
"We had to suspend the BAL contracts given to our foreign players," Ozaka said. "Thankfully, they understood the situation, otherwise we would have been in serious financial jeopardy. The only functional offices presently are mine [for administrative purposes] and the media office."
Now, both the league and clubs have more time to play with, and it will not go to waste.
"Our focus is always to improve and put the best product out there," Gallo said. "Obviously, we're continuing to work, to plan and look at different scenarios. We're committed to growing the game of basketball in Africa, and the Basketball Africa League is the culmination of the work of the past decade since we launched NBA Africa in 2010.
"So, for us, we've just got to continue to prepare behind the scenes. We have a team that we continue to build up headquartered in Dakar, still engaging with all the teams. I had a call about a week or 10 days ago with all of the teams, and then we have our head of operations who is continuing to engage with these teams just to remind everybody that we're committed, and we're going to launch at the right time.
"So we can certainly put the extra time to good use, but we were ready to go on March 13."
That is music to the ears of the administrators, players and fans who are looking forward to the launch of the league, but the big question of when the league finally gets underway remains up in the air. At least for now.
For a competition that deals with teams from multiple countries, that requires multiple governments lifting restrictions in what might not even be a coordinated timeline.
It means Fall and his team are unable to provide a timeline for when things will get back on track.
"We can't really make any speculations in terms of when or how soon because I don't think the world knows when things are going to get back to normal," he said. "The events around us are bigger than sports. For me to make a clear determination in terms of giving a timeline would be presumptuous.
"Everything will hinge on what's happening in the local environment right here in Africa, as we have teams playing in different locations. So, there's a lot going into the decision.
"While we continue to prepare for when the time comes to launch, and have a historic launch, right now that's really secondary."
Basketball Africa League will provide job and career opportunities across the continent, and also offer exposure and a pathway to greatness for the talent Africa produces.
"That is something that basketball players look forward to, and we cannot wait for life to get back to normal so that the players can return to the floor to show what they can do," Ozaka said.
"It's important to the extent that it will encourage players to strive to be the best, knowing that if they work hard they will have the opportunity to play at such a level as the BAL and earn well."
