Rumors

Angola has won its record-setting 12th AfroBasket championship, defeating Mali on Sunday by a score of 70-43 in the tournament’s championship game. Angola, the host of AfroBasket 2025, was led by Childe Dundao, who scored a game-high 16 points vs. Mali to go along with five assists, four rebounds, and three steals. The 27-year-old point guard was named the Most Valuable Player of the event in addition to earning a spot on the AfroBasket All-Tournament team.

Hoops Rumors

Marc Stein: Jonathan Kuminga was on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s preliminary roster for @AfroBasket in Angola, which starts Aug. 12, but I’m told Kuminga is not expected to play for his national team due to his ongoing restricted free agency stalemate with Golden State.

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The Toronto Raptors are expected to place 26-year-old forward/center Bruno Fernando on the waivers list over the next few hours to avoid picking up guaranteed salary for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. The decision has been confirmed by multiple reports in the United States, including notes about links between the Angolan big and Turkish Airlines EuroLeague outfit Fenerbahce Beko. It remains unclear whether Fernando will consider options outside the NBA as a free agent. However, potentially becoming an unrestricted free agent will indeed open a path toward Fener.

EuroHoops.net

Metta World Peace: So, I told my agent, “I want to go to Greece. I really don’t want to play with anyone else.” My agent, David B., and I discussed it, and I said, “I want to go to Europe. There’s nobody I want to play with.” I got a call from a few players—some really good players—but I said no. It’s not because I didn’t like them. I just respected them enough to want to compete against them. I wanted to test where I was at. When I tried to sign with the team in Greece, they said, “No way Ron Artest wants to come to Greece.” I was like, “Why didn’t you even give me an interview?” I took it a certain way. Then, I tried to go to Angola. I wanted to play in Africa—in the motherland. The people in Angola were like, “No way.” They weren’t taking my call. I was like, “How do you not take my call? I just averaged 25 points against the Lakers.” It was unbelievable.

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Former Blazers player Jarron Cumberland signed with Angolan team Petro de Luanda for the 2024 season.

HoopsHype

Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic told ESPN that signing Angolan center Bruno Fernando from the Atlanta Hawks was a no-brainer, and that the team had been following Fernando 'for years'. Fernando is currently in Johannesburg for Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa and confirmed his move to the Raptors in an interview with ESPN, having been waived by the Hawks last week.

ESPN

The team coached by Nestor Garcia defeated Angola on Tuesday and completed a 3-0 sweep in their group in the FIBA World Cup 2023. Karl-Anthony Towns, who had foul troubles in the aforementioned game, appeared in the post-game conference and had high praises for the head coach and the whole team. "We have a special team. Everyone counted us out and didn't think we could be great," he began. "But practice with one of the best coaches in the world, Che, we believed we could do something unique.”

BasketNews

Overcoming adversity to go through to the next round of the 2023 FIBA World Cup with a 3-0 W-L tally, the Dominican Republic narrowly held on for the 75-67 victory versus Angola in Smart Araneta Coliseum Tuesday. Joventut Badalona’s Andres Feliz was once again crucial for Nestor Garcia’s team, scoring 17 points with 6 assists while shooting 6/7 from the field and 4/4 at the charity stripe.

EuroHoops.net

Delivering double-doubles in back-to-back figures during his first two appearances on the big stage with the Dominican Republic, Karl-Anthony Towns had a pretty flat performance in the win, scoring eight points with two rebounds by spending only 15 minutes on the court due to foul trouble.

EuroHoops.net

BasketNews: Karl-Anthony Towns enjoying his life representing 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 😍 #FIBAWC #WinForAll

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Despite trailing in the first quarter off to a powerful start from the hosts in front of the Smart Araneta Coliseum firing crowd, Angola came back and beat the Philippines 80-70. Making some damage to Italy’s frontcourt, Bruno Fernando had a great showing against the Philippines as well, ending with 12 points and 5 rebounds.

EuroHoops.net

As expected, Jordan Clarkson led the Philippine national team once again with 21 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists despite a rough shooting night with 7/21 from the field and 1/7 from deep. Right after the morning shootaround, he said to Eurohoops they wanted “to put on a show tonight”.

EuroHoops.net

On how much this 87-82 win against the Italian national team meant for them, Towns had nothing but great words. “It’s huge, we came here to win. It feels good to know that we are 2-0, we’ve got another one still against Angola. We have to keep fighting and playing well. Thinking about wins, you’ve got to get them all”, the 27-year-old also said.

EuroHoops.net

Playing in front of that crowd was definitely an experience to remember for him. “It was fun, it was definitely amazing. The turnout and the support were great. For us, being the host city is definitely felt. A lot of our games will be loud and packed out: we looking forward to those”, the 31-year-old shooting guard continued. The Philippines will now have to play against Angola, which had a promising outcome against the Italian national team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup opener. “They’re physical, athletic, they defend. They have a really good big guy. It’s a big challenge ahead of us tonight”, Clarkson added.

EuroHoops.net