Nairobi City Thunder will make their historic debut at the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Nile Conference on tomorrow when they take to the court at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Kenyan side, who are the country’s first-ever representatives in the continental tournament, flew out of the country on Wednesday with head coach Brad Ibs vowing to make Thunder the best outfit in Africa.

In an earlier interview ahead of the BAL championship, Ibs stated, “We want to be the best club in Africa. And we want to make our Kenyan fans happy.”

Similarly, Thunder’s assistant team manager, Bernet Ojay, had earlier indicated in an interview with People Sports that, apart from the team’s player roster forwarded to BAL, the team’s management and sponsor, Twende Sport, would also include other players who are not going to play, as part of a motivational trip. This would include the outfit’s staff and officials representing the team sponsor.

Ojay noted that Thunder’s playing team roster for BAL includes local players Derrick Ogechi, Taylor Ongwae, Garang Diing, Albert Odero, Eugene Adera, Okal Koranga, Ken Wachira and Dismas Onsongo.

The foreign imports are William Sidney Davis II, Uchenna “UC” Iroegbu, Ghanaian Nana Appiah and Evans Ganapamo, who last featured in the BAL Championship for South Africa’s Cape Town Tigers basketball team.

The assistant team manager added, “BAL will also assign Thunder one National Basketball Association (NBA) Elevate player and one NBA G-League player. BAL has already assigned Thunder a G-League player, Mbacke Diong, who is of Senegalese nationality.”

“We have also signed Kenyan basketball player Paul Ereng, who plies his trade in Burundi where he plays for Les Hippos basketball team. Ereng will also be part of the Thunder roster for BAL,” Ojay said.

However, Ojay explained that Thunder will link up with the BAL-assigned NBA Elevate player in Kigali, Rwanda, adding, “NBA Elevate players assigned to teams that have qualified to compete in BAL are normally deployed by BAL directly to the championship venue. The NBA Elevate player’s logistics and accommodation will be separately catered for and arranged by BAL.”

The BAL Nile Conference, which runs until May 25, features Thunder alongside Rwanda Patriotic Army (APR) BBC, Al Ahli Tripoli and Made by Basketball (MBB) from South Africa.

The competition will determine the qualifying teams for the BAL play-offs and the final set to be held in Pretoria, South Africa, in June.

Meanwhile, other BAL conference competitions are being held to determine additional play-off qualifiers. The Kalahari Conference in Morocco has already been played, with the Sahara Conference set to take place in Dakar, Senegal.