Enabu, Drileba, and Okello lead Namuwongo’s charge to dethrone City Oilers

National Basketball League

Women: JKL v JT

Men: Oilers v Namuwongo

After a successful start to the year for Ugandan basketball marked by Afrobasket qualification for both the Gazelles and Silverbacks, the focus shifts to the National Basketball League (NBL), where a raft of changes awaits, albeit with the central question still unchanged.

Will the City Oilers be dethroned?

If history is anything to go by, the answer is no. But, then again, the record 10-time champions cannot win forever? And every season in the recent past has started with the hope, if not expectation, that the Oilers dynasty will finally fall. 

The Namuwongo Blazers have come to assume the mantle of the team most likely to dethrone the Oilers, and the hype is on again as the two sides go into today’s season opener at Lugogo. And the reason is one, or, to be exact, three, as in Jimmy Enabu, Tony Drileba, and James Okello.

The star trio built the Oilers dynasty, with Enabu and Okello being part of the defending champions since their NBL debut season, until their surprise exits last season. Drileba was part of the ride since joining the Oilers in 2015, before equally stunning the league by taking his talents to Congo last season.

The three players are now part of Namuwongo, and the fact that they all joined the same team suggests they are motivated to continue doing what they were accustomed to as Oilers players—win.

The Blazers have undergone a complete overhaul with the arrivals of the Oilers legends and several departures from last year’s side. That will necessitate an adjustment period for Blazers coach Steven Nyeko and his roster.

The Oilers themselves have a hugely altered lineup from the one they started with last season, and have signed as many as five players, including Joseph Chuma, Edgar Munaba, and Bolton Rujumba—from Namuwongo, KIU Titans, and Ndejje Angels.

The Oilers will also start the season without star centre Titus Lual, who is recovering from knee surgery.

In other words, the two sides will begin the season a long way away from where they will be when the business end of the season arrives. But the local basketball fraternity cannot wait to witness the first chapter.