When Brad Ibs took charge of Nairobi City Thunder at the start of last season’s Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Men’s Premier League season, few people knew what to expect of the American tactician.
Ibs was tasked with leading the team into the new season, under a new ownership with an ambitious target of dominating the local scene and guiding Thunder to their first ever top flight title.
With the injection of quality players signed from various teams across the top leagues, Thunder made their first statement of intent. They went on to clinch the title with an unbeaten run, and have now qualified for the NBA-run Basketball Africa League (BAL) for the first time.
Ibs, who has been in Kenya since 2008 coaching grassroot teams and schools, now says that there is pressure on them to take Kenyan basketball to the next level, via the BAL.
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The Road to BAL 2025 tips off in October. There are two levels to beat before reaching the crème de la crème; the regional qualifiers, the Elite 16 and then, the major tournament, which will be staged in Kigali, Rwanda.
Thunder have been strong in the transfer business and have brought in six new players, all with international experience to join in. Kenyan small forward Tyler Okari has been signed after a stint in Germany while shooting guard Derrick Ogechi joins in after a stint in Mexico.
Thunder have also snapped up guard Eugene Adera from local rivals Equity Dumas.
They have also brought on board USA’s power forward William Sydney Davis, Senegalese Michel Diogoye Diouf and American-Nigerian Uchenna Iroegbu.
No Kenyan team has ever gone past the Elite 16 in the first four editions and Ibs, named coach of the year in last season's Premier League, wants Thunder to break that barrier.
He speaks exclusively to Telecomasia.net on the team’s ambitions, preparations and what they aim to achieve on the Continental stage.
– You won the league unbeaten last season. Just how difficult was it? Did it surprise you that it happened?
– Well obviously that was a really exciting journey. You know, actually, the longer the season went, the more we went on to feel a certain sense of pressure to win the league and not just win it, but do it unbeaten. It added some level of stress to the campaign. As confident as we were that we could do it, there was some sense of relief when we completed the journey. All of us could now breathe, take a break and look back at a journey that we all could be proud of.
– And it was your first time coaching in the Premier League. Did you enjoy the challenge?
– The thing that I was most proud of is the fact that we had a team of very high level talent and we created an environment where guys were willing to sacrifice for one another for the good of the team. More importantly, we were building that team culture which was the biggest reason we had that run.
It was a really valuable and humbling experience for me. I learnt lots of things that I believe make me a better coach by the day.
– With great success obviously come great expectations. Is it building pressure on your side ahead of the new season?
– Yeah, definitely, we expect a tougher season locally. We know how hard it is to play with a tag on our backs from last season and the expectations will be enormous. But I have confidence in my team, because seeing the level of basketball we have been playing the last few weeks in training, I believe we are stronger.
We don’t have to teach a system or our identity and culture from scratch because we have the same team from last season and only added a few new players. We are not starting from zero like we did last time, so I feel really confident that we are going to be better.
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– Apart from the local league, the big target in the new season is definitely BAL. How massive is this for you and Nairobi City Thunder?
– When we started the campaign last season, the primary target was to win the league and qualify for BAL. This is a massive tournament for us and we have already started our preparation. The approach is the same as last year in the league, where we try to get better each day.
We are getting to bind in our different strengths and talents to make sure the team rolls well. There’s no secret formula, we just need to work and I am confident with the level of talent that we have, we will perform really well at the BAL and we will go to the highest level.
We are taking each tournament at a time; from the regional qualifiers, then we think about the Elite 16. Of course, we want to go all the way to the main tournament.
– With BAL in mind, you have had quite some good transfer business coming in. Are you optimistic with your roster that it is possible to get to the final tournament?
– Definitely. We want to compete at a high level continentally and you have to bring in players who can achieve that. We have really talented players coming on board, and they will definitely pull us up as we aim to take Kenyan basketball to the Continental map. We want to go out there and show the rest of Africa that we have quite some talent here, and we can only do that through having a good tournament.
The first two weeks of practice were a bit challenging because we had new players coming in every week and we had to sort of start all over again each time, and that was a bit challenging. But now, we are all settled, and there is an excellent atmosphere with the new and old players now all gelled up together.
– Finally, having been here for a decade and a half, what do you think about the potential of Kenyan basketball?
– I believe that we are really an underrated league. There’s lots of talent here and if given an opportunity can comfortably succeed in other leagues. I think there’s a very strong culture of basketball in Kenya and the fan base is quite massive.
In terms of growth, the graph is pointing up and with us now playing in the BAL, and the targets we have set for ourselves, I believe the graph is pointing up.
