CAIRO -- Cape Town Tigers forward Evans Ganapamo feels he is playing the best basketball of his career, after his NBA Summer League stint with the Milwaukee Bucks, and will take those lessons to the Basketball Africa League Nile Conference.
Last year, after their run to the quarter-finals, Ganapamo became the second BAL player ever to receive a Summer League invite after Anas Mahmoud (then at Zamalek, now at Al Ittihad) played for the Toronto Raptors the previous year.
The Central African Republic international told ESPN: "Summer League was a very good experience as far as being in that world [goes], because I'd never been in the NBA circuit, so it's definitely a learning experience. I feel like I can play at pretty much any level now.
"Something that I could take back to Cape Town would probably be just attention to details. There's a lot of stuff at that level where it's all about the details that make the difference."
Ganapamo is eager to apply what he learned in Cairo [April 26 to May 6], to help the Tigers succeed where he admits they failed last year: playing as a team.
In qualifiers for the 2023 BAL, the Tigers showed that they have learned from last season's mistakes, at least to some degree. Last year, they scraped through qualifying, but this year, they left no room for doubt, breezing to victory in the Elite 16 East Division.
Ganapamo added: "We saw that it didn't work last season and everybody as a team realised that in order for us to be competitive at the BAL, we had to make a change. The whole team came together; we clicked a little bit more and started playing as a team and it showed."
BAL teams are only allowed a maximum of four foreign players, excluding Elevate players who are drafted from the NBA Academy. At present, it looks likely that the Tigers will proceed with Ganapamo, Gbinije and American duo Josh Hall and Zaire Wade as their four.
It is easy to understand why the Tigers saw value in Wade, the son of Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade. The 21-year-old point guard has G-League experience with the Salt Lake City Stars and is likely to attract significant fanfare.
READ: A guide to everything you need to know about BAL 2023
Likewise, 22-year-old small forward Hall comes with both youthful exuberance and high level experience, having played in the NBA with the OKC Thunder.
On Wade, Ganapamo said: "I trust my staff. If they feel that they made a good decision, then I'm going to be completely fine with it. I'm ready to work and see what he can do. I definitely think that he's going to be able to help our team.
"At the end of the day, as players, we control what we can control. We're still focused on the goal of being in the competition, of winning the BAL.
"I think everybody on the team is still working and I think we'll be ready. I think we'll be ready when it comes and I trust my guys to get the job done."
The Tigers are at the BAL with a more star-studded roster than last year, and all that remains is for them to prove that they can all pull together in one direction and make the transition from exciting underdogs to genuine contenders.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa.