Olivier Turatsinze, a 22-year-old point guard who features for Espoir Basketball Club has been a key revelation in the 2022/2023 season of the Rwanda Basketball League (RBL).
The little-known basketball prodigy did exploits as he earned the top scorer accolade of the league with 507 points, beating elite players from most feared clubs in the domestic league.
Though many may have noticed him this season, it is not his debut in the topflight. Turatsinze made his debut in the league in 2018 as a 17-year-old after Espoir gave him a chance to showcase what he could offer to the game.
At the time, he was a secondary school student at IPRC-Kigali, but his exceptional talent impressed Espoir’s technical team to the extent that they acquired his services and introduced him in the league at a young age.
Espoir is pretty much a mid-table team that finishes between fifth or sixth over the past six to seven years. The Nyamirambo-based club went through a difficult 2021/2022 season to the extent that they were on brink of relegation before they finished 11th place out of the 14 teams that participated.
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In the 2022/2023 season, they staged a comeback, fighting their way to the playoffs, before finishing in the third place overall.
Among their standout players who made the feat possible is Turatsinze, who contributed not only with his top scoring spree but his creativity and team work also made an impact to the team’s outcomes.
Who is Turatsinze?
Born on 1 July, 2001 in Gisenyi sector, Rubavu District, Turatsinze completed his primary education at Stella Maris after which he joined IPRC-Kigali for secondary and university studies respectively.
Growing up, he saw his older brothers, including current teammate Jean Claude Mudahunga, go to Stella Maris to practise.
"In 2013, Charles Makombe, who was a coach at Stella Maris, told my elder brother to invite me to do regular training so that once there was a tournament I could play," the youngster recalls in an interview with Times Sport.
That was a good step in growing his love for basketball.
"One day we came to play with Club Rafiki youngsters and I was able to perform well. I realised that I should continue to play the basketball game," he notes.
In 2017, after joining IPRC-Kigali to pursue his A level education, he immediately made it into the school’s team and eventually helped them finish fourth in inter-school competitions.
In the same year, he participated in the Giants of Africa camp where he became one of the five best players. A year later, Espoir showed interest in him but he was not ready to take up the assignment yet.
"Former Espoir head coach Maxime Mwiseneza asked me to join his team. They had good players but I was determined to try little by little," he says.
"In 2019, many players left Espoir for other teams during the transfer, so my chance to get more playing time had come," he says.
But Turatsinze’s first spell at Espoir only lasted two seasons as he moved back to IPRC-Kigali with whom they finished the 2021 season in seventh place.
After a couple of seasons, he returned to Espoir where he helped them finish third, in addition to clinching the MVP accolade for himself in the regular season.
"Being the top scorer of the regular season was not something I expected, but I thank God for giving me the strength to achieve this result," he told Times Sport.
National duties
In 2018, Turatsinze earned his maiden callup in the U-18 national team that played in Afrobasket in Mali and helped them finish in sixth place, contributing 5.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.
In 2023, he debuted in the senior national team. He was part of the 2023 AfroCAN squad that won bronze at the tournament in Angola.
The eight-day showpiece, which is exclusively for players who ply their trade on the continent, attracted 12 nations out of which Morocco victorious after a 78-76 victory over Cote d’Ivoire.
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Though he got limited playing time, he can be proud that the coaches noticed his performance I the league and summoned him for international duty with the national team.
Playing at the 3x3 continental tournament
Turatsinze impressed at the FIBA 3x3 Africa Cup 2022 held in Cairo, Egypt, in December last year as Rwanda won bronze after beating Tunisia 21-17 in the third-place match.
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He was also with the national team that participated in the FIBA 3x3 World Cup held in Israel in May.
Dreams before retirement
Asked about his career ambitions before his retirement, Turatsinze said "I would love to play professional basketball, preferably in the United States, but if it doesn’t work out, France would be the second option. I believe that, with discipline and hard work, I can achieve my dream.”
The youngster says American professional basketball player for Milwaukee Bucks’ new signing Damian Lamonte Ollie "Dame" Lillard is his role model.
"I picked interest in basketball because of Damian Lamonte Ollie "Dame" Lillard. I used to watch his videos and I fell in love with his style of play and skills," Turatsinze says.