Patriots Basketball Club, also known as Patriots, is a 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 (appro ...

club based in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

, Rwanda. Established in 2014, it plays its home games at Amahoro Indoor Stadium. The team is a four-time champion 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 BAL Qualif ...

(RBL). In the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, the Patriots played in the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Each season typically r ...

(BAL). The club gained worldwide attention when American star rapper J. Cole signed with the team to play in the BAL.

History

The club Patriots BBC was founded in 2014 by a group of top corporate executives from diverse sectors of the economy. In the Patriots' debut season, they immediately reached the playoff finals, but lost to Espoir 1–3. Two years later, the Patriots won their first national championship. On 21 September 2019, the Patriots won their fourth league title after defeating REG BBC in Game 7 of the finals, in a sold out

Kigali Arena BK Arena (formerly known as Kigali Arena) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Kigali, Rwanda, used mostly for basketball and volleyball matches. Built and finished in 2019, it hosts sporting events and concerts. It is the biggest indoor arena in Ea ...

. On 26 October, head coach Henry Mwinuka, who won three league championships with Patriots, parted ways with the club to join REG. On 6 November, assistant coach Carey Odhiambo was promoted to become head coach. In April 2021, ahead of the first-ever BAL season, the team signed American

Alan Major Alan M. Major (born June 21, 1968) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of Patriots BBC of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). He was the head coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 2010 to 2015. Before be ...

as new head coach. In April 2021, five days before the release of his album, ''

The Off-Season ''The Off-Season'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper J. Cole. It was released on May 14, 2021, by Dreamville Records, Roc Nation and Interscope Records. The album was executive produced by Cole, Ibrahim Hamad (music executive), Ibrah ...

'', American rapper J. Cole signed with the Patriots. The Patriots played their first BAL game on 16 May 2021 at home in Kigali, beating Nigerian side

Rivers Hoopers Rivers Hoopers is a Nigerian professional basketball team based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The team plays in the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) and currently in the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Established in 2005 as Royal Hoopers, the ...

83–60. Eventually, the team finished in an impressive fourth place of the tournament. After the 2023–24 season, Mwinuka left the team, and was replaced by new head coach Sunny Niyomugabo.

Sponsorships

In 2024, Patriots BBC signed a five-year sponsorship contract with the Rwanda Development Bank (RDB).

Players

Current roster

Retired numbers

Past rosters

2021 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 ...

Notable players

* Aristide Mugabe * Walter Nkurunziza *

Sedar Sagamba The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA; , ACVM) is an umbrella organization of Canada's provincial and territorial securities regulators whose objective is to improve, coordinate, and harmonize regulation of the Canadian capital markets. ...

* Jean de Dieu Niagunduka

Honours

National Basketball League *Winners (4): 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 BAL *Fourth Place (1):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Season by season

Head coaches

References

External links

Presentation at Afrobasket.comPresentation at facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patriots BBC Basketball teams in Rwanda Basketball teams established in 2014 2014 establishments in Rwanda Sport in Kigali Basketball Africa League teams Road to BAL teams