LUANDA (Angola) – The Angolan Basketball Federation (FAB) and FIBA Africa honored individuals who have contributed to the growth of basketball in Africa.<\/p>\n
FIBA Africa Regional Director Alphonse Bile and FAB Chairman Jos\u00e9 Moniz Silva hosted the ceremony at the Hotel de Conven\u00e7\u00f5es de Talatona (HCTA) in Luanda on Friday, August 22, during the only non-game day of the 2025 AfroBasket tournament.<\/p>\n
These individuals were recognized for their significant contributions to African basketball as players, coaches, referees, executives, and national federation leaders.<\/p>\n
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Those in attendance included FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, Angola’s Youth and Sports Minister Rui Falc\u00e3o, representatives of the teams competing in the 2025 AfroBasket, and current and former players.<\/p>\n
FIBA Africa honored the current and former presidents of the FAB: Jos\u00e9 Moniz Silva, Carlos Teixeira, Ant\u00f3nio Pires, Gustavo Concei\u00e7\u00e3o, and Paulo Madeira. The organization also acknowledged the efforts of former Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Sofrimento and Minister Rui Falc\u00e3o.<\/p>\n
Other individuals celebrated for their contributions to the advancement of Angolan and African basketball included former Olympian Jos\u00e9 Carlos Guimar\u00e3es; media personality Arlindo Macedo; and Ant\u00f3nio Sousa Manuel.<\/p>\n
During the ceremony, FIBA Africa honored Hall of Famers Medhat Warda (2019), Romain Sato (2024), Jean Jacques Concei\u00e7\u00e3o (2013), Mathieu Faye (2021), Mame Maty Mbengue (2022) and Alphonse Bile (2025). <\/p>\n
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In his welcome speech, Angola’s Youth and Sports Minister Rui Falc\u00e3o welcomed all the delegations “on behalf of the Angolan people and the head of state to celebrate an event that will stay in our memories forever.”<\/p>\n
“This AfroBasket occurs at a special time for Angola, as we celebrate our 50th anniversary of independence. There is no better way to celebrate our independence than with the biggest basketball event in Africa.<\/p>\n
“We would like to thank FIBA, the Angolan Basketball Federation (FAB), the players, officials, and volunteers for their contributions to this special event. This celebration of basketball is not just for Angola; it’s for all of Africa.”<\/p>\n
“It’s an event that helps us overcome barriers. May the best team win the championship,” said Mr. Falcao. Mr. Falcao noted.<\/p>\n
During his speech, Alphonse Bile said, “We need female African players in the Hall of Fame.”<\/p>\n
The highlight of the night was the recognition and tributes to Kim Bohuny, Lubomir Kotleba, Pierre Dao, and Amadou Gallo Fall. Alphonse Bile described these individuals as key contributors to African basketball.<\/p>\n
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Bohuny, an American, oversees the NBA’s international basketball development strategies, including the planning and implementation of NBA Academies. These are elite basketball training centers around the world for top high school\u2013age prospects from outside the U.S. There is also Basketball Without Borders. Bohuny also supervises the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development.<\/p>\n
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Lubomir Kotleba, a Slovak who first engaged with African basketball as a referee during the 1977 Junior African Championship in Nigeria, revealed that he recognized Africa’s talent early on.<\/p>\n
Pierre Dao is a French former coach and executive.<\/p>\n
Amadou Gallo Fall is the current president of the Basketball Africa League and former president of NBA Africa.<\/p>\n
“These four people believe in African basketball,” Bile said.<\/p>\n
FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUANDA (Angola) – The Angolan Basketball Federation (FAB) and FIBA Africa honored individuals who have contributed to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-90910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}