The Saigon Heat is a Vietnamese professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team based in

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

. Since the 2014 season, the Heat's home games are played at the CIS Arena on the campus of the Canadian International School in

District 7 District 7 could refer to: *District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam * District 7 (Zürich), Switzerland * District 7, Düsseldorf, Germany *VII District, Turku The VII District is one of the central districts of Turku, Finland. It is located on th ...

. Saigon Heat is the first professional basketball team based in Vietnam. The Heat also operates a developmental team that plays in the

Vietnam Basketball Association The Vietnam Basketball Association ( vi, Giải bóng rổ chuyên nghiệp Việt Nam), often abbreviated as VBA, is a Vietnamese national professional basketball league founded in 2016. History The formation of the VBA was announced by charter ...

, Vietnam's first professional basketball league.

History

Saigon Heat is the first professional basketball team in Vietnam based in Ho Chi Minh City. They were officially announced as a member of the ASEAN Basketball League in October 2011. The team was formed by the Saigon Sports Academy, a multi-sports training academy launched in January 2009 and located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In their inaugural season, the Heat finished sixth in the ABL with a regular season record of 8–13. The Heat did not qualify in for the 2012 ABL Playoffs. The Heat followed up their inaugural season with another disappointing sixth-place finish in an injury plagued 2013 season, highlighted by a twelve-game losing streak. Thirteen games into the 2014 season, head coach

Jason Rabedeaux Jason Rabedeaux (April 4, 1965 – September 22, 2014) was an American college basketball coach who served as the head coach of the UTEP Miners from 1999 to 2002. Rabedeaux was also a top assistant at Washington State and Oklahoma prior to b ...

suddenly died, the main cause of death was traumatic brain injury. Coach Rabedeaux's assistant Anthony Garbelotto was named the new head coach. The Heat finished the season in fourth place, clinching their first ever playoff berth. The Heat were swept 0–2 by the

Westports Malaysia Dragons Kuala Lumpur Dragons is a professional basketball team based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that currently plays in the ASEAN Basketball League. It also played as the Blustar Detergent Dragons in the Philippines' PBA Developmental League in 2016. H ...

in the

2014 ABL Playoffs The 2014 ABL Playoffs is the postseason of the 2014 ABL Regular Season. The regular season begins on 16 July 2014 and end 26 October 2014. The playoffs will begin in November 2014, with the top four teams (out of six). All playoffs series are in a ...

. Following the completion of the 2015–16 season, the Heat announced the formation of Vietnam's first professional basketball league, the

, where they would field a developmental team. The Heat VBA team consists of local players, with several of the ABL side's players being distributed among the other VBA teams for league parity purposes.

Logos

Image:Saigon_Heat.jpg, 2011–12 Original logo Image:heatsquare.png, 2013 season logo Image:Saigon_Heat_logo_2014.png, 2014–present Current logo

Season-by-season record

Home arenas

Tân Bình Stadium Tan or TAN may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black and Tans, a nickname for British special constables during the Irish War of Independence. By extension "Tans" can now also colloquially refer to English or British people in general, es ...

(2012–2013) * CIS Sports Arena (2014–present)

Roster

Depth chart

Head coaches

* Robert Newson (2012) * Jason Rabedeaux † (2012–2014) * Anthony Garbelotto (2014–2017) *

Kyle Julius Kyle Julius (born June 20, 1979) is a Canadian former professional basketball player and coach, He currently serves as General Manager and head coach for the Vancouver Bandits of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) for the Taiwanese tea ...

(2017–2019) *

Kevin Yurkus Kevin Yurkus is an American professional basketball coach who was most recently head coach of Saigon Heat and the Vietnam national basketball team. Coaching career Club coaching career From 2016–2017, he coached the Nakhon Pathom Mad Goats in ...

(2019–2022) * Matthew Van Pelt (2022–Present)

References

External links

* *
Saigon Heat
at ASEANBasketballLeague.com {{Vietnam Basketball Association ASEAN Basketball League teams Basketball teams established in 2011 Basketball teams in Vietnam 2011 establishments in Vietnam