Know Your Team: Joel Kindred
KW Titans
6’4
Guard
From Raleigh, North Carolina
Joel Kindred's talent flew under the radar until he landed in Canada, where his unique scoring ability, physicality and relentless tenacity while in possession made him a valuable asset to his NBL Canada teams and a major threat to opponents.
Prior to his professional career, Kindred played three seasons with NCAA Division 2 team the St Augustine’s Mighty Falcons. He was named 2012 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Rookie of the Year and named to three consecutive All-CIAA conference teams. He averaged 12.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest by the end of his tenure with the Falcons.
He then played for two years in Spain with Cantaires Tortosa, averaging 19 points per game and shooting 56% from three-point territory. He also has professional playing experience in Northern Cyprus and represented Raleigh 919 in The Basketball Tournament.
2018 saw the start of his NBLC newcomer season with the Halifax Hurricanes - and it didn't take long for him to make a big impression. He debuted with 27 points against the Moncton Magic, going on to eight more twenty-point games and 30 against the Cape Breton Highlanders in the penultimate game of the regular season. The same team Halifax beat in five games in the first round of the playoffs, with Kindred contributing 20 points and 15 rebounds in game five, before losing to eventual champions Moncton in the Atlantic Division finals.
The Hurricanes were beaten in seven games by eventual champions Moncton, while Kindred finished the season with a 15.2 scoring average and was among the league's top ten three-point shooters and in the top twenty for steals and scoring. He then played for the Guelph Nighthawks in CEBL and Benicarlo in Spain before making the trip back to Halifax.
Rejoining the Hurricanes for the 2019-20, he opened the season with a double-double against the Island Storm. Days later he followed that up with the second of his six double-doubles on the season and on February 9th he had his career game, scoring 37 points against the London Lightning, which started an eight game streak of double-digit performances from Kindred.
He ended the shortened 2019-20 season with 13.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, then spent some of the long NBLC hiatus playing with Cafeteros de Armenia in Colombia, before making a comeback in Canada in 2022. Playing for the KW Titans, he opened the season leading the team with 24 points against the London Lightning, then followed it up with two subsequent twenty-point performances, which earned him player of the week honours.
Improving more and more each NBL Canada season, Joel Kindred's stock has grown a great deal in the league and in only a few years have transformed from a prospect into an elite scorer and guard.
