The roots of the Kent Crusaders began in the early 1990s when Kevin and Christine Paice, Dave Hooper and Hill Lingham began developing junior basketball at Canterbury College. Through their work, the Canterbury Jazz and CK Heat were born. As the club gathered momentum, the College became the place to be for basketball in East Kent. Trevor Acres and Kevin Maloney joined the coaching staff and numerous boys were given the opportunity to play National League and the club won numerous Kent cups.

In 2000, ex-player and young coach Jay Gifford took over the club. He was joined a year later by Canadian Jesse Sazant. Coach Sazant took the team to new heights, including a National Under 16 quarterfinal in his first season. At this point the club was relaunched as the East Kent Crusaders.

After losing older players to London for years, the club decided to launch a men’s Division 3 team in 2004. In their first season the club finished third in Division 3 South East. The initial season saw a number of the club’s former junior players return to the Crusaders to be joined by a number of local players. In their second season, the team quickly progressed, winning Division 3 South East and making the finals of the National Shield. The club also signed their first foreign player (Walter Moyse) and foreign coach (assistant Mads Olesen).

The Crusaders have now been promoted to Division 2 and renamed the Kent Crusaders. On the 2nd of April 2007, Jesse Sazant stepped down as Head Coach, passing the reigns onto Mads Olesen.

The club has continued to grow with a 6th form academy based at Canterbury High School launched in 2007 and stronger links being formed with the juniors in 2008 as the club expanded to included Men’s, Under 18, Under 16 and Under 14 National League teams.