Rwanda Energy Group (REG) men’s basketball club assistant coach Maxime Mwiseneza has described taking part in the NBA Summer League as a valuable opportunity in his basketball coaching career. Mwiseneza and his REG women counterpart Jacques Bahige are the only two Rwandan coaches selected, alongside other 26 African coaches, to participate in the 2023 NBA summer league which is underway in Las Vegas, Nevada until July 17. “Participating in the Summer league is valuable because the NBA is the highest level of Basketball, which integrates the coaching staff of an NBA Franchise. It's really valuable to learn from the best to acquire knowledge and exposure of the highest level,” he told Times Sport. “It is where you can learn everything from NBA coaches and players and even how teams are managed.” “We learn a lot because we live with the team day by day, everything they do and everything they talk about we are impressed with and they also show us how they are doing and ask us how we are doing it,” he added. The 2023 NBA Summer League, also branded as the NBA 2K24 Summer League 2023, is the off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada. At least one coach from the six teams that took part in the 2023 Basketball Africa League season is participating in the Summer League. The teams represented include Al Ahly (Egypt), Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), City Oilers (Uganda), Petro de Luanda (Angola), REG (Rwanda) and US Monastir (Tunisia). REG has two representatives in Mwiseneza who will be on the technical staff of the Philadelphia 76ers and Bahige who will be with the Indiana Pacers. From taking his deputy coach role from REG to the 76ers, Mwiseneza said, “Being in such a team [like 76ers] as a coach allows you to learn better. You get enough time to work with experienced coaches in different things because you live with them every day and it gives you an opportunity to ask questions and understand better.”
