{"id":68342,"date":"2024-03-07T18:10:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T18:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=68342"},"modified":"2024-03-07T17:53:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T17:53:30","slug":"bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target","title":{"rendered":"BAL remains Blazers\u2019 ultimate target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. <\/strong><\/span><b>Since their arrival on the big stage, the Namuwongo Blazers have made it clear that competing in the Basketball Africa League was a big part of their interests.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In fact, the club pulled out of last season\u2019s National Basketball League playoffs after learning that winning the league would not guarantee them a ticket to the BAL.<\/p>\n<p>And, at the unveiling of Britam Insurance Uganda as the team\u2019s sponsor Wednesday afternoon, Club President George Nkya further emphasized the side\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to tell Britam that this is a growing club, they have made it from those dusty streets of Namuwongo to the league, to the excitement they have brought and we believe we can walk into the BAL with you,\u201d Nkya said in his speech on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The BAL is the premier men\u2019s basketball competition in Africa founded in 2019 by the NBA and Fiba. It attracts 12 teams from different countries and only City Oilers has represented Uganda thus far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur ambitions are set quite high. I said this last year when we were beginning the league that our goal has been BAL and we have chosen our partners very carefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the first sponsors that decided to join this journey was Motorola Solutions and it is a global brand and we believe, Britam, with the reach that it has, we are able to move this club to greater heights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Daunting task<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To qualify for the BAL, the Blazers must start with winning the league, something no other team, apart from City Oilers, has done in the last nine seasons.<\/p>\n<p>The nine-time champions remain the benchmark for the rest of the field and will test the Blazers\u2019 credentials when the two sides collide in what is expected to be an epic clash on Friday at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Tendo\u2019s Oilers have 5-0 record compared to the Blazers\u2019 4-1 but those records will be put aside when the game tips off until the final buzzer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor us, this is just another league game and we will treat it as such,\u201d Blazers\u2019 head coach Stephen Nyeko told the press ahead of the clash.<\/p>\n<p>Motivated by the latest Shs20m sponsorship, Namuwongo will be looking to set the Oilers ablaze and send a message of intention to dethrone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\">Uganda<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. Since their arrival on the big stage, the Namuwongo Blazers have made it clear that competing in the Basketball Africa League was a big part of their interests. In fact, the club pulled out of last season\u2019s National Basketball League playoffs after learning that winning the league would not guarantee them a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":68341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-68342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>BAL remains Blazers\u2019 ultimate target - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since their arrival on the big stage, the Namuwongo Blazers have made it clear that competing in the Basketball Afric ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BAL remains Blazers\u2019 ultimate target\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since their arrival on the big stage, the Namuwongo Blazers have made it clear that competing in the Basketball Afric ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T18:10:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/03\/sm_1709820781.037225.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"BAL remains Blazers\u2019 ultimate target\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-07T18:10:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\"},\"wordCount\":399,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/03\/sm_1709820781.037225.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/bal-remains-blazers-ultimate-target\",\"name\":\"BAL remains Blazers\u2019 ultimate target - 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