The Namuwongo Blazers have already started their preparations for the Elite 16.
This is a tournament that will be held next week in Nairobi, Kenya, their passport to the Basketball Africa League (BAL) next year. Making it to the elite basketball tournaments has always been Namuwongo’s dream, yet, they have also been well aware that to play among the top teams, one must win their domestic league.
That was realized last week, following a 4-2 aggregate win over the 10-time defending champions, City Oilers in the best-of-seven series. It is Namuwongo’s first-ever championship, which has set a new and very important tone in Ugandan basketball.
With the dominance of City Oilers, which started in 2013, when they beat the Falcons 4-3 to be the last new team to win the National Basketball League (NBL), the league had become so predictable.
This created a hangover for many basketball fans because it was easy to know who would eventually be champions. While City Oilers cannot be blamed for their dominance, which had them attract the tag of ‘Dictators’, it was an indictment on the rest of the league being unable to measure up.
The likes of Falcons, Warriors, Power, Charging Rhinos and the Nkumba Marines, which competed fiercely from the first NBL season in 1995, sharing championships became lame-duck teams at the advent of City Oilers.
Others, actually became defunct. So, City Oilers could only face those that were put in front of it at the time. Yet, their standards and quality could not match what City Oilers had set. Funded by one of the richest men in the country, Omar Mandela, City Oilers have been a fully-fledged professional side since they joined the top flight.
They ensured that their players more importantly spent a lot of their time on the basketball court, which made them better than most of their opponents. But also, the team’s organization also ensured that there was utmost discipline, and as their team manager, Grace Kwizera has repeatedly said, this made the difference beyond anything else.
For that reason, something had to give. That was the Namuwongo Blazers, who joined the topflight in 2020. In a way, Namuwongo, unlike many other teams, was organized to match the standards of City Oilers.
Firstly, they signed quality players, both local and foreign, like City Oilers did. It is on that backdrop that the first time the two faced off in the final in 2022, the series went all the way to game seven.
Essentially, the two teams closely matched each other on and off the court. As a result, this has ensured that there has been an equilibrium in the game of basketball. That has played a big part in attracting back a host of fans, who were tired of City Oilers’ dominance; the kind that saw them win championships easily against teams like KIU Titans and Power, for example.
When they ever got stressed a bit, City Oilers would at worst win a best of seven series 4-2 or 4-1. They were in a league of their own. But at the same time, it proved to be a wake-up call to the basketball fraternity; to be good, one has to invest money in anything they would want to achieve in. Make no mistake, City Oilers have not only bagged 10 championships.
The fact that they have played at the lucrative BAL has brought in some big revenue to the club, a reward for their huge investment. It is exactly the same ambitions that Namuwongo Blazers has had, which is why the exodus of Jimmy Enabu, Tonny Drileba, James Okello and Ivan Muhwezi from City Oilers, was manna from heaven.
Namuwongo knew that they had to break the bank to acquire the services of the aforementioned quartet because they had been instrumental in City Oilers’ ten titles. Bob Buga, the former Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (Fuba) vice-president, noted that Namuwongo winning this year is a breath of fresh air to the game.
“To have one very strong team among very average ones kills the competitiveness of the sport, hence making it boring. But now, we are sure, we have at least two on near-equal footing. That will revitalize the league tremendously,” Buga said.
Before the playoffs tipped off, City Oilers had acquired two top foreign players, Chad Bowie and Kurt Curry. The two never played a part in the regular season. They were brought in to improve a team that had struggled in the regular season, which saw them finish seventh out of 12.
That was a show of power, might and, most obviously, money by City Oilers. Inevitably, it caused worry among many basketball fans especially seeing how Bowie and Curry elevated City Oilers efficiency.
Apart from Namuwongo, no other team can shop as City Oilers do. It showed the way the whole championship ended. There should be heightened anticipation for the 2026 season from now on.
City Oilers are definitely not expected to take kindly to being dethroned as the undisputable champions of Ugandan basketball. Apparently, they have already started shopping for new players, ready to wrestle back a title they have held as their own for more than a decade.
But Namuwongo Blazers’ ability to knock City Oilers off their perch has not only triggered a sigh of relief among many. It may just have saved the game from losing more fans!
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