ESPN Acquires ‘Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League’ Ahead of TIFF World Premiere

“Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League” has found a home.

Richard Brown’s Passenger and Fremantle announced on Monday that ESPN has acquired exclusive U.S. rights, with Bell Media taking the rights in Canada (where it will stream on Crave and TSN), ahead of the documentary’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

According to the official synopsis, the four-part series “documents the creation and launch of the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America, a pan-African professional basketball league in partnership with FIBA featuring 12 top club teams from across Africa’s 54 countries competing in a caravan format. The series captures the realization of a vision decades in the making, spearheaded by Amadou Gallo Fall and Masai Ujiri, who transformed their long-held dream of elite African basketball into reality, and goes behind the scenes throughout BAL’s first season as it follows the stories of key players, coaches, and teams as they compete to be the historic first BAL champions.”

Executive produced, written and co-directed by Richard Brown, with executive producers including Masai Ujiri, Akin Omotoso and Fisher Stevens as well as co-director Tebogo Malope, the docuseries “follows the BAL’s inaugural season and playoffs while exploring the league’s potential to transform both large-scale sporting and socio-economic opportunities across the continent.”

Doc participants include President Barack Obama, Masai Ujiri, J. Cole, Adam Silver, Dikembe Mutombo and Steph Curry.

“The BAL is the culmination of decades of work by the NBA and FIBA to grow basketball in Africa and give aspiring African players a predictable pathway to learn the game and maximize their potential,” said Amadou Gallo Fall, President of the Basketball Africa League. “Through these agreements with ESPN and Bell Media, fans across North America will get a behind-the-scenes look at the BAL’s historic inaugural season and the impact that the league is having on lives, communities and economies across the continent.”

“As filmmakers, we were granted remarkable access to chronicle not only the inaugural season of The Basketball Africa League itself, but the personal journeys of the competing players and coaches, as well as the visionaries who are building something historic,” Richard Brown added. “To have ESPN and Bell Media — two of the most respected and far-reaching platforms in North America — bring Origin to audience is truly exciting. Their belief in this series ensures this series will have the visibility and impact we hoped for; these are stories of ambition, competition, resilience and transformation.”

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