Top African prospects for NBA Academy Women’s Camp

The National Basketball Association, NBA Africa yesterday announced that the fourth NBA Academy Women’s Camp Africa would take place from Monday, December 5 to end on Thursday, December 8 at NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center in Saly, Senegal, for the top high-school age prospects from across the continent.

This year’s women’s camp will bring together 25 of the top female prospects from 11 African countries to learn directly from current and former WNBA players and coaches, including Seattle Storm head coach and 2021 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup winner Noelle Quinn (U.S.), 2005 WNBA champion Hamchetou Maïga-Ba (Mali), two-time WNBA champion Taj McWilliams-Franklin (U.S.), 2003 WNBA champion Astou Ndiaye (Senegal), 2021 WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings; U.S.), and 2017 WNBA All-Star Jasmine Thomas (Connecticut Sun; U.S.).  The campers and coaches will also participate in life skills programming and leadership development sessions.

“In just a few years, the NBA Academy Women’s program has helped identify and develop some of the best female prospects in the world, many of whom have gone on to attend NCAA Division 1 schools,” said two-time WNBA champion and NBA Elite Basketball Women’s Operations Lead Monica Rogers. “We look forward to building on that success with our fourth NBA Academy Women’s Program camp in Senegal as part of our continued efforts to make basketball more accessible in Africa and provide a predicable pathway for African youth to learn the game and maximize their potential.”

Launched in 2018, the NBA Academy Women’s Program is a series of basketball development camps for top female athletes from outside the U.S. at the league’s academies in Australia, India, Mexico and Senegal. The three previous NBA Academy Women’s Camps Africa were held at NBA Academy Africa in May 2018, November 2018 and November 2019.  Eight former NBA Academy Women’s Camp Africa participants have committed to or gone on to attend NCAA Division I schools in the U.S.

Nigeria’s representatives, Ayah James, Bright Eze, Franca Iyamah and Patience John would join their counterparts from all over Africa for this year’s camp experience.