The Basketball Africa League Hakeem Olajuwon Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Basketball Africa League (BAL) award given to the best player of a given season. The award is named after all-time great Hakeem Olajuwon. The award was first handed out in the inaugural season to Walter Hodge.[1]
From the 2024 season, fan voting was introduced in the process with 25% of the score being determined by online fan votes. Fans could vote on a selected pool of players.[2]
Three players have won the award thus far. Nuni Omot from South Sudan is the only African player to have won the award.[3]
Winners
Key
Player (X)
Name of the player and number of times they had won the award at that point (if more than one)
†
Player was on a team that did not win the BAL championship
Nuni Omot with the MVP award in 2023. He was the first African player to win the award.
^Hodge, born in Puerto Rico, also owns the Puerto Rican and American nationality but represents the US Virgin Islands in international competition.
^Dixon was born in the United States but became a naturalised Georgian citizen in 2016.
^Omot was born to South Sudanese parents in a refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya. He also owns the American nationality as he moved to the country at age 2.[6] He represents South Sudan in international competition.
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