PRETORIA, South Africa – Two-time NBA All-Star Joakim Noah, NBA champion Ian Mahinmi and former NBA center Ruben Boumtje Boumtje were in the house when the Basketball Africa League’s 2024 season debuted March 9. The best basketball player of everyone at SunBet Arena and perhaps the entire continent of Africa on this day, however, was likely a woman sitting courtside.
Seattle Storm and USA Basketball guard Jewell Loyd.
“I have a great opportunity to be a BAL ambassador from the WNBA,” Loyd told Andscape on March 9. “They presented a chance to come over here and they weren’t sure of logistics or timing because my schedule’s been crazy. I was actually still planning to come out here after my season and it just worked out that they were like, ‘Oh, come out now for BAL and help us with some clinics out here for the women.’ So, I was like, ‘Why not?’
“I’ve never been to Africa. So, I’ll take this as a test run before I come back. And hopefully when I come back, I will have more stuff to do to give back. It’s a special place for sure.”
Lloyd was the WNBA’s scoring leader during the 2023 season, averaging a career-high 24.7 points for the Storm. The five-time WNBA All-Star has averaged 16.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists during her eight-year career. The two-time WNBA champion won a 2020 Olympic gold medal with USA Basketball’s women’s team and is on the roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The disciple of the late Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant has also played pro ball in Turkey, China, South Korea and Spain.
In celebration of the arrival of the 2024 BAL season and International Women’s Day on March 8, 23 young women participated in a BAL 4HeR workshop at the NBA Africa headquarters in Johannesburg, where they received motivational words from Loyd and other women working in pro sports. Loyd also participated in a girls basketball clinic.
Through BAL 4HeR, the NBA and NBA Africa are hoping to raise awareness of gender-based violence, support girls education and increase opportunities for women in BAL gameday operation jobs, including referees, scorer’s table officials, match commissioners and announcers. While there are girls playing in the NBA Academy Africa program in Saly, Senegal, there are no plans for the NBA to start a BAL for women at this time.
The following is a Q&A with Loyd. She discussed her first trip to Africa, her involvement with the BAL, the Storm adding basketball stars Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith to the roster, USA Basketball’s quest to win gold in Paris, her favorite women’s college basketball player to watch, and more.
NBA Academy Africa
As an African American, what kind of emotions were there when you landed on African soil for the first time during this trip?
For someone who’s never been here and had dreams of coming, in some ways talk about coming here on vacation, you don’t really experience it until you get here. So, when you land, we walk off and obviously the weather is superhot. I’m like, ‘Awesome.’ But then the people, the smiles. And it’s not often where you walk into an airport and you see nothing but people who look like you. That’s not always the norm. But they’re so embracing and that’s something that’s nice to see. So, being able to walk around and see and see the culture here is definitely a feeling of home. It’s like, ‘OK, this is where we’re from.’
To be here in Africa, it’s like that’s the start of everything. So, it brings up just obviously emotions of this is the homeland [and] emotions of just seeing our people in certain places and that be the norm. That is always nice to see, too.
How excited are you about the Olympics?
I’m superexcited. I’ve never been to Paris, so I’m excited for that. But I’m also excited because for us, making history, trying to kiss [the gold medal] again. But it’s always an honor to represent my family, my culture, obviously USA on your chest. But also, there is representation. This group that we have now, we look different. We have a different wave of women’s basketball coming in and pride. We have a lot of pride in who we are and what we’re trying to do. And it’s not just about basketball, it’s about really leaving a mark.
What is the difference between winning a gold medal and a WNBA championship? Can you compare and contrast?
Olympics is the highest honor. It’s the highest you could possibly win. It’s the world, everything. The top amazing athletes are all at one place and it’s not easy to get there. Trust me, winning a WNBA championship is not easy either. But [in the Olympics] it’s a different field because you’re also playing with a Hall of Fame roster and that’s really rare, too …
Our roster is phenomenal. That’s something that no one could take away in the history books, the gold medals, the highs of it.
Do you feel like the challenge is getting greater from the world now more than probably four years ago?
Everyone wants to beat America. Everyone wants to come for us. And we’ve seen that shift. We’re fortunate. We kind of said this in one of our practices: We’re very fortunate to have a roster full of All-Stars. Some countries only have three or four, and those three or four are really freaking good.
But we’re able to also look at our bench and be like, ‘All right, sub,’ and we have another [star] coming in. So, we have the luxury of that. But the world’s definitely good. We feel it every time we play. We’re like, ‘Dang, it’s getting harder and harder.’ We definitely see that, which is good. We want that competition.
How do you feel about the rejuvenated Storm with Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, and you being the longest-tenured player?
I’ve been there 10 seasons, 10 years, and we had this phase of rebuilding and people leaving and there was a lot of questions, what do we do, do I stay, do I leave. I didn’t feel like it was my time to leave that. And we ended up bringing in Nneka and Skylar and now our rebuilding was only a year, which is just rare in any league. And we’ll see how we go this year. We’re excited to have a good group, a different culture feel, and I’m excited to see how that turns up.
What has been the key for the recent rise of women’s college basketball?
One is visibility. That helps a lot. That’s really what has separated a lot of women’s basketball, and women sports in general, is visibility. Also, the game has obviously gotten way better now. Girls are starting to train earlier. In the games they’re doing a Euro-step now in fourth grade. That’s just a difference. But honestly, from a business standpoint too, the NBA is obviously going to make money and always make money. But it’s also kind tapped out. I don’t know how much more it can grow playerwise.
For the women, it is so untapped. The market has to grow. There are too many good teams. Too many good players. The marketing is still low. It’s skyrocketed. It has no choice. That’s just where the shift is. And obviously, the wave now from a marketing standpoint, is to want to invest more and see that it’s another market that hasn’t been really tapped in to.
The money is coming in. Sponsorship is coming in. Honestly, NIL is helping a lot too. We’re starting to see the college girls make money early. So. that is also pushing more investors to do it for the pros. And obviously, if people are marketed in high school and college, they’re able to be seen more, which forces you to watch it and subconsciously know who these players are all the time. So, it’s exciting. It’s a good time to do it. And good time to turn the wave.
NBA Academy Africa
There are some really talented women starring in college basketball now. So, who are you enjoy watching the most?
I might be biased, but I’ve been working out, knowing [USC freshman guard] Juju [Watkins] for a long time. It’s cold working out with [Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach] Phil [Handy], I got to know her since before she was in high school. She’s a pro. [College basketball] is all just G League for her. Just reps.
It’s fun to watch her and see her. She is repping for USC in California. She’s changing the mindset and put a team that wasn’t really talked about back on the map.
Have you learned anything about the state of women’s basketball on the continent of Africa during your visit with the young girls or otherwise?
You have women, girls, people who want to see it rise. There is a will that they want to play, but the resources are just slow. I was able to do the clinic the other day, and [I] walk in and more than half the people have no shoes, but they’re there with a smiling face, ready to play, ready to learn. So, you have the eagerness to learn and build it and you have to obviously have talent here. But the question they always ask is what do I do next. I play in my league, I play college. And now what’s next?’ And so, you have the hunger. They are just under-resourced.
BAL 4HeR is awesome. It’s an amazing opportunity. It’s a great program not to just learn basketball skills, but life skills as well. And that’s superimportant. When you’re here involved in the communities that don’t always have resources or privileges, you’re able to teach them how to become entrepreneurs and learn life, which is great. Obviously, basketball is a vehicle for so many different things. So, you’re teaching them how to build camaraderie and skill work on the basketball court, but off the court they’re able to have other avenues too. I’m superpassionate about that.
I currently do work in Rwanda, so I know the benefits there of really giving people resources and see how profitable they can be. The last four years we’ve seen more than 20 businesses sustain just the knowledge of learning and teaching them how to understand finances and generational wealth and they want to learn. So, it’s the same thing with basketball here. They want to learn, so we’re able to give them things to capitalize on as women.
How did you get connected to Rwanda?
Me and my brother are just superpassionate about it and we connected through churches through our Loyd Foundation. My brother came out here three years ago. And we are able to just find a good group of people that allowed us to connect with the community down there, and it’s been fantastic. We able to donate computers and technology. Microsoft has been a great partner of mine and helped with that as well. We have medical staff as well out there.
You have people who are just eager to learn and the whole. I believe I’m here and we’re here to serve as much as possible. And so, it’s been the last six years total of just trying to really embrace people as one. And there were a group of people that valued us, accepted us, and then we were like, ‘All right, how can we do more?’
I want to come back to Africa and go to Rwanda. I know this country [South Africa] itself is superprogressive in business and sports as well, and that’s definitely a place I’ll go back to for sure. But I told my friends when I came here in Africa, I’ve been told this is luxury of Africa, so I’ll work my way up [to Rwanda]. That’s my plan.
What did you talk to the young ladies about on Friday?
A lot of it’s just sharing my story and just sharing the ups and downs of how everyone has a journey. The one thing I believe that stuck with me the most is that I told them Kobe and I were pretty close and he always told me to create forever and be epic. And those two things that really transformed my mindset of how I approach basketball, but also how I approach life. A lot of stuff we talked about was off the court. So, I looked in the room and told them, ‘This is what creating forever is. This is what being epic is: coming here and sharing my stuff and my story with you guys and helping you guys build.
This is what, for me, generational wealth is. This what generational history is. It’s coming here and sharing that and exploring stories and building that. I’m truly passionate about that, and hopefully they were impacted.
Was there anything you gained from being around those young African women?
Everything. We are so privileged in a lot of ways, but to see that they’re so hopeful regardless of the situation or the circumstances … they’re playing basketball not knowing what’s next. In America, we play basketball, then you go to high school, we have junior varsity, we have [varsity]. And then if you’re good enough to go to college, after that there’s so many options. They don’t always have those options. So, they’re really playing for the joy of the game.
So, when you think about it that way, it’s like you all play for the joy of the game and that’s what really makes basketball pure. And then when it is gone, you get a job and you could lose that kid curiosity. But they had that always. Something that I took away is no matter what, they had this joy of just wanting to be on the court, just wanting to get a ball, just going to get a shot, whatever it is. And you take all those things for granted.
