Joe Guibert Nijimbere (born 26 December 1996) is a Burundian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player for

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of ...

and the Burundi national basketball team.

Early life

Nijimbere was born on 26 December 1996 in Mutanga-Nord, a suburb of

Bujumbura Bujumbura (; ), formerly Usumbura, is the economic capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton and tin ore. Bujumbura was formerly the country's normal capital. In la ...

, the largest city in the country. He was the second of 9 children. He grew up attending his father's Sunday league basketball games with his three brothers, all of whom ended up playing the sport.

Career

Starting his career for New Star in 2013, he became the youngest player to play at Burundi's highest level at the age of 16. In 2017, Nijimbere signed with IPRC-Kigali in Rwanda. In 2019, he joined Patriots BBC and was part of the team that qualified for the

2020 BAL season The 2021 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 1, was the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Established as a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA, the BAL is the highest tier continental leag ...

. He was named MVP of the 2019 Genocide Memorial Tournament and won the three-point contest in that year's All-Star game. In November 2021, Nijimbere returned to New Star to play in the second round of the

2022 BAL Qualifying Tournaments The qualification tournaments for the 2022 BAL season were the qualification rounds for the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The tournaments began on 19 October 2021 and ended 16 December 2021. The competition consisted out of ...

. In January 2022, Nijimbere Guibert signed a two-year professional contract with Urunani BBC and at the beginning of August 2022 Urunani became the champion of the national basketball league of Burundi: VBL (Viva Basketball League). On 14 August, Urunani BBC has drawn up a list of 12 players who will represent the club in the BAL Qualifiers with Guibert Nijimbere at the top of the list. He joined

Dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundat ...

in October 2023 ahead of the 2024 BAL qualification tournament. In April 2024, Nijimbere signed with Kepler BBC of the

Rwanda Basketball League The Rwanda Basketball League (RBL) (formerly the National Basketball League Rwanda) is the top professional basketball league in Rwanda. Its season usually runs from November to September. The winners of the NBL season qualify for the qualifier ...

Personal

Nijimbere has studied at the Free University of Kigali.

References

External links

Guibert Nijimbere
at

RealGM RealGM.com is a sports website created in 2000. The site was originally a basketball site, but has since expanded its scope to provide information about American football, baseball, ice hockey and soccer. According to Alexa, the site ranked in t ...

1996 births Living people Patriots BBC players IPRC-Kigali basketball players Point guards Burundian basketball players Burundian expatriate sportspeople in Rwanda Expatriate basketball people in Rwanda Sportspeople from Bujumbura New Star BBC players Urunani BBC players Burundian expatriate sportspeople Dynamo BBC players {{Burundi-basketball-bio-stub