Basketball was introduced in Bahrain through schools’ matches at the early 1940s when the first game between Kuwait and Bahrain teams was played at the Industrial School grounds in Manama. In 1974 the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) was established, thanks to zealous efforts by H. H. Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the promoter and first BBA president, a position he held up until 2000, and oversaw the development of the game from its inception to full-fledged stage, until the attainment by Bahrain of a pioneering role in the game among Arab countries.