Rwanda’s international basketball referee, Jean Sauveur Ruhamiriza, has been named among referees who will officiate at this year’s NBA Summer League from July 7-17 in Las Vegas.
The 31-year-old, who departed for the USA on Wednesday night, is the only African referee selected to officiate at the weeklong showpiece.
The 17th NBA Summer League will feature all 30 NBA teams playing five games each. After every team plays four games between July 7 and 15, teams with the best records will meet in the Championship game.
Ruhamuriza also officiated at the FIBA Women’s U-19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary, becoming the second Rwandan international referee to officiate a Basketball World Cup event after Didier Shema Maboko, the current Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Sports.
The latter refereed at the 2016 FIBA Men’s U-17 World Cup in Zaragoza, Spain.
The inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League Championships (BAL), which was staged in Kigali and lasted 2 weeks in 2021, was a ‘massive experience’ for Ruhamiriza.
In a recent interview with Times Sport, Ruhamiriza said he was satisfied with the exposure and networks he got from the continental showpiece despite only refereeing up to the quarter-finals.
He was also one of the referees who handled the second BAL season this year, from March 5 to May 28. For a second successive year, Rwanda’s BK Arena hosted the competition’s finals.