The Rwanda Basketball League (RBL) (formerly the National Basketball League Rwanda) is the top professional basketball league in

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. Its season usually runs from November to September. The winners of the NBL season qualify for the qualifiers for the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league. The league consists of twelve teams, each qualified through their domestic competition, similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League. The league is a joint eff ...

(BAL). The league currently consists of 14 teams, most of them being from the country's capital

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 has been Rwa ...

. The current champion of the NBL are

REG Reg or REG may refer to: * Reginald (disambiguation) * Reg or desert pavement * Raising for Effective Giving, a charity * Random event generator (parapsychology) * Raptor Education Group * Regal Entertainment Group * Regular language * .reg MS Wi ...

, having won the 2022 title. REG and their rival

Patriots BBC Patriots Basketball Club, also known as simply Patriots, is a basketball club based in Kigali, 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 (RBL). ...

have dominated the league, winning all titles since 2015. Since the 2021–22 season, the FERWABA also organises the

Rwanda Basketball League Division 2 The Rwanda Basketball League Division 2 is the second-highest men's 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 objecti ...

to which the bottom two teams of the RBL relegate.

History

Basketball was introduced in Rwanda in 1930 by Catholic priests, who first thought the sport at high schools in the Southern Province. The following decades, the presence of the sport increased as the military and some public institutions created basketball teams. In 1974, the national basketball federation

FERWABA The Rwandan Amateur Basketball Federation () is the governing body of basketball in Rwanda. It operates the Rwanda national basketball team as well as the top-tier NBL and other amateur leagues. History In 1930, basketball was first brought to R ...

was established. Three years later, in 1977, the first national league was created. The 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...

threw the sport back, because Tutsi players, spectators and administrators died and crucial infrastructure was destroyed. In the 2000s, APR was the dominant team in Rwanda and it participated in the

FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup The FIBA Africa Basketball League (formerly named the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup) was the highest caliber men's professional basketball competition for clubs until 2020, organized by the FIBA Africa and played by the champions of the league ...

thrice. Its best result was a bronze medal in 2009. From 2011 to 2015,

Espoir BBC Espoir BBC is a Rwandan professional basketball club based in Kigali. The club competes in Rwanda's National Basketball League. Traditionally, the club has provided several of Africa's national teams with key players.REG Reg or REG may refer to: * Reginald (disambiguation) * Reg or desert pavement * Raising for Effective Giving, a charity * Random event generator (parapsychology) * Raptor Education Group * Regal Entertainment Group * Regular language * .reg MS Wi ...

(owned by the Rwanda Energy Group) and Patriots entered the league. The two teams became rivals and played each other in the finals for several years. In the 2020s, the

(BAL) was introduced – the first editions were hosted by the BK Arena in Kigali. Patriots finished in fourth place in the inaugural 2021 season.

Current teams

The following teams will play in the 2022–23 season: Sources:

Champions

Performance by club

Individual awards

Most Valuable Player

* 2012:

Aristide Mugabe Aristide Mugabe (born 11 February 1988) is a Rwandan professional basketball player for Patriots of the RBL. Starting his career with Rusizi, Mugabe signed with Espoir in 2009 and helped the team win four RBL championships while winning two MV ...

(Espoir) * 2013: Bienvenu Ngandu * 2014: Mike Buzangu (Cercle Sportif de Kigali) *2017–18:

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. ...

(Patriots) *2018–19: Dieudonné Ndizeye ( Patriots) *2020–21:

Olivier Shyaka Olivier Shyaka (born 14 August 1995) is a Rwandan basketball player who plays for REG BBC club of the NBL Rwanda. He also plays for the Rwanda national basketball team. Club career Since 2018, Shyaka plays for REG BBC. In the 2020–21 season, ...

(

) *2021–22:

Axel Mpoyo Axel may refer to: People * Axel (name), all persons with the name Places * Axel, Netherlands, a town ** Capture of Axel, a battle at Axel in 1586 Arts, entertainment, media * ''Axel'', a 1988 short film by Nigel Wingrove * ''Axel'', a Cirque d ...

(REG)

Team of the Year

In African competitions

Each year, the champions of the NBL were placed for the qualifiers of the

FIBA Africa Basketball League The FIBA Africa Basketball League (formerly named the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup) was the highest caliber men's professional basketball competition for clubs until 2020, organized by the FIBA Africa and played by the champions of the league ...

, the premiere pan-African competition. Since 2020, this league is replaced by the

(BAL). The following list shows Rwandan teams which played in a main tournament:

In the Basketball Africa League

Notes

References

External links

Rwanda
at AfroBasket.com {{DEFAULTSORT:National Basketball League Basketball competitions in Rwanda Basketball leagues in Africa Sports leagues established in 1977 1977 establishments in Rwanda