NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 29 – National men’s basketball league champions Nairobi City Thunder have bulked up their squad ahead of the Elite 16 round of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) with the addition of two international stars to their roster.
Thunder have signed Niger shooting guard Abdoulaye Harouna and Lebanese power forward Majok Ater for what is expected to be a tougher round in their quest to become the first ever Kenyan team to qualify for the final BAL tournament.
The two players have vast experience playing at the BAL with Harouna having played in all four of the tournament’s edition. He has played for home side AS Nigelec, Cameroon’s Forces Armées et Police Basketball (FAP), AS Sale of Morocco, ABC fighters of Ivory Coast and Senegal’s AS Douanes.
The Nigerien was named in the All BAL defensive team of the tournament this year.
Power forward Majok, nicknamed AJ, was born in Sudan, raised in Australia and represents Lebanon internationally. He arrives at Thunder from Libyan outfit US Monastirand has previously played for AL Ahly Benghazi, Rwanda’s Patriots and Angola’s Petro de Luanda.
The two new signings will be a massive boost to Thunder as they prepare for the Elite 16 round of the BAL qualifiers, the final round to earn a ticket to the main tournament.
Thunder lost their American power forward Will Sydney to injury in the East Division qualifiers, and hence the arrival of Ater from US Monastir of Libya will be a massively timely boost for their bid to qualify.
Thunder finished second in the East division of the qualifiers, narrowly losing out to Burundi’s Urunani who were heavily stacked with foreign talent.
With a bigger stage to play in, Thunder coach Brad Ibs needed to bulk up on size, especially with Will’s recovery time at play.
