shashank

December 23rd, 07:25 AM

“I think girls should do more than be married at 18.”

There are few better examples of basketball’s power to transform lives than the remarkable work Rajesh Patel and company have been doing at the Chhattisgarh Basketball Development Academy. The academy operates at Pant Stadium, Sector 1, Bhilai on the ground which they call their temple. If this is a temple, one man is the head priest, coach, scout, mentor, teacher, guide, counsellor and everything else which the academy and players might require him to be. This holy ground is adorned and worshiped since it has given livelihood to hundreds, uplifted countless families by extension, done its part for gender equality and put the state on the national basketball map.

In India, almost one in three girls are married before they turn 18 and the Central India tribal belt is no stranger to this practice. Families of young girls are accustomed to having ‘rishtas’ (matrimonial alliances) come their way for their daughter’s hand. But they are in for a surprise when an earnest man approaches them with the proposition of allowing him to adopt their daughters as his own, and raising them in his academy. “There’s no one better than him [Patel]. No one works harder than him. He’s the best person in the world for us,” said Seema Singh, a product of the academy who’s been a regular fixture on the Indian women’s team.

Standing at 5 ft 6 in, Patel played basketball for Indore and Bhilai Steel Plant for 12 years from 1974 to 1986. With the blessing of the late J.M. Sharma, former president of Madhya Pradesh Basketball Association, he joined Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) through sports quota in 1979 and began a lifelong association which changed thousands of lives.

After his playing career, Patel topped in the National Institute of Sports in 1987 and became the coach at BSP. He’s now won multiple awards in recognition of his service and is perhaps the only coach to have won the Nationals at the sub-junior/youth/junior/senior levels, along with winning the National Women’s Games, Federation Cup, National Games, and School National Games. Patel, though, is quick to deflect praise. He attributes his success to well-wishers and the love of the students who found employment through sports.

Having coached over 8,000 players to over 800 medals at the national level, what makes Patel most proud is the lives he’s changed. San Antonio Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich recently said that winning an NBA championship is not a priority for him as much as knowing that his players will make the society a better place. Patel follows Pop’s credo. For him, success is as much seeing his players stand on their own feet as it is about winning. His own family had to struggle to make ends meet and he’s seen first-hand what that feels like. Most of the players Patel uplifts are from humble backgrounds where families rely on their daily labour to put food on the table.

Hailing from Raipur, 5 ft 10 in Aruna Kindo was the first player Patel admitted into the academy in 2002, which now houses 20 girls for free. Kindo’s parents were averse to the idea, but to overcome their reticence, Patel invited Kindo’s father and school principal to Bhilai to stay at his home for two days. He explained to them the bright future that awaited Kindo through basketball. Kindo stayed at Patel’s home and went on to become a success story as she represented the Indian team and is now employed with the Railways in Bilaspur.

Anju Lakra is another such story of a player, who went on to play for India and gained employment through the Railways sports quota. Much like MS Dhoni’s school coach spotted him playing football and nudged him towards cricket, Lakra’s talents in handball were observed by Patel who told her to try her hand at basketball in the seventh standard. She’s effusive in her gratitude towards him, saying, “He is like our God. Today I’ve played for India and my name stands for something. Without the support, dedication and security which he gives us, we’re nothing.” The 7-feet tall Poonam Chaturvedi is another gem polished by Patel as he recruited her from Uttar Pradesh and moulded her into a formidable talent with WNBA aspirations.

Gut wrenchingly, Patel suffered a heart attack on the auspicious occasion of Diwali this year when the courts at CBA are outlined with lamps. He had to undergo angioplasty. He’s been asked to take it easy, but for Patel that means continuing to do what he loves. When your heart beats to the rhythm of bouncing basketballs, nothing can provide greater solace than continuing your life’s work on the court. “I retired this year, but I still want to coach for as long as I’m physically capable. This is all I know. I’ve spent most of my life here and my wife Anita and I consider these kids as our own.”

Clearly, the Iron Man of Bhilai is in no mood of slowing down anytime soon.

You can follow the writer SIDDARTH SHARMA on Twitter @sidbreakball.

All images are courtesy Rajesh Patel.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs. 

The post Rajesh Patel: Using Basketball To Transform Lives appeared first on NBA India.

NBA.COM Staff

December 30th, 07:06 AM

“What makes you a great player? Is it the vicious dunks? The haircut? The shoes? The long shorts? The short socks? It’s got to be the shoes!”

So went a famous 1991 commercial where filmmaker (and New York Knicks superfan) Spike Lee tried to breakdown the surreal greatness of Michael Jordan.

Several thousand miles away and a decade later, similar questions were being asked of another, slightly taller athlete. And like Michael Jordan, Sozhasingarayer Robinson Fathimanathan’s mystique lives on.

Hoops by chance

“Initially I started with football. But by age 14, I was already 6 ft 4 in tall with size 11 feet. I searched the whole city but couldn’t get studs my size so I dropped out,” says Robinson, during a sit-down in Chennai over steaming cups of filter coffee. The city he is referring to is Surat, in Gujarat, a western Indian state known more for its business acumen than sporting prowess. The Puducherry born Robinson soon migrated to being a forward in another sport.

“I used to play many sports in my school, St Xavier’s. One day after class, a man from across the street gestured for me to come over.” That man turned out to be local basketball coach Raju Bhalawala. “I don’t know what he saw in me. Even if I missed a day of practice, he’d come home and ask ‘Kya hua beta (what happened son)?’”

“I guess you could say, “Heere ki parakh sirf johri hi kar sakta hai. (Only a jeweller can assess a real diamond).’” The analogy is spot on. After all Surat is a world-renowned diamond cutting and polishing hub.

At Bhalawala’s recommendation, Robinson joined the elite Sports Authority of India hostel in Gandhinagar. His game improved drastically and by age 17, he made his India team debut at an international schools tournament in Delhi. A year later, he captained the Indian team at the 1998 Junior Asian Basketball Championship in Kolkata.

Battling Yao Ming

On one end was the skinny 7 ft 5 in Yao Ming, who would go on to transform the basketball landscape in China; on the other end, the 6 ft 8 in Robinson. Their teams would enjoy diverging fortunes. China, a perennial giant, would win yet another gold, while India would stumble to an 11th place finish. But there was one bright spot for India: the performance of a fearless 18-year-old centre. Robinson had made his mark as one of the top three scorers in the league stages with a knack for shot blocking. By 2000, he had the distinction of getting selected to the Asian All-Star team in Manila.

He finally got a chance to face off against Yao at the 2003 Senior Asian Basketball Confederation Championship held in Harbin, China.

“I blocked two of Yao’s shots and became the talk of Chinese journalists, who started calling me [Dikembe] Mutombo. But for me it was just about doing what I had to do.”

In a league of his own

Back in the late ’90s, sports in India still meant cricket. So while the nation could relate to a certain 5 ft 4 in superstar named Sachin Tendulkar, Robinson — with his 6 ft 8 in frame, aerial game, straw-coloured long brown hair tied in a man bun, white head band and earrings — was an outlier.

Hotly recruited by leading employers after his exploits at the Asian Juniors, Robinson skipped college and joined Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Chennai. This marked the beginning of his senior career. Between 1999 to 2004, his Tamil Nadu state team won five straight National championships, while his IOB club team dominated at All India meets. His ferocious facials and flamboyant style earned him a legion of fans.

At most of these events, Robinson was swarmed for autographs, with spectators climbing trees to catch a glimpse of ‘His Airness’. His ardent following stretched from the villages of Tamil Nadu to the farmlands of Punjab. “I remember after a tournament in Punjab, the crowds didn’t have any paper for autographs, so I signed on people’s forearms. When I returned the following year, one of them had converted my signature into a permanent tattoo!”

A notch higher

At the international stage, Robinson’s brilliance continued and in 2003 he received an offer to play in Iran, one of the toughest leagues in Asia. Playing in the Middle East, took Robinson’s game to the stratosphere, as he transitioned from playing the 5 spot, to a versatile 3-4 combo forward.

The first victim of his expanded repertoire was continental powerhouse Korea, whom he scorched for 36 points en route to a historic upset at the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in 2004. It was a win never achieved before and never repeated since.

Invitations to play professionally in New Zealand followed. Robinson even recalls NCAA offers. “Foreign coaches asked me if I had trained in the US, because apparently the way I moved was just like an American.”

But by his late twenties the all-or-nothing style of playing through injuries, coupled with poor handling from physiotherapists, had taken a serious toll on his body. To complicate matters, Robinson spoke his mind, which irked administrators and led to suspension. So he took a considered call to retire at age 31 in 2011.

***

Robinson is now a senior bank manager and doting family man. “On our son’s first birthday, he was gifted a small plastic backboard, ring and ball. We had never taught him anything about basketball. So I just hung the board on a grill without telling him anything. My wife and I got the shock of our lives when he climbed up on the sofa and dunked.”

While we may never see Robinson lace up again (even YouTube searches of his game highlights show search results, “Did you mean David or Nate Robinson?”), there is the enticing possibility of a certain Robinson Jr to look forward to.

Image courtesy S. Robinson

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

The post The Legend Of S Robinson Lives On appeared first on NBA India.

NBA.COM Staff

January 15th, 07:32 AM

At the Sree Kanteerava outdoor basketball courts in Bengaluru, two young players were immersed in an intense one-on-one scrimmage.

The bright afternoon light was blinding, yet, BS Gautham, through his two-tone sunglasses, effortlessly dissected their game from afar before walking over to them.

It must have been hard for these youngsters to listen to a middle-aged stranger, with a black bandana, blue shades and a handle-bar moustache, teaching them the nuances of a behind-the-back dribble. Little did they realise that the man who pioneered the move in India — with a little help from Magic Johnson VCR tapes — was the one taking them through it.

“Not Basketball Material”

Born in the Malleshwaram locality of Bengaluru in 1969, Gautham would often find himself sidelined at the local Beagles club courts and told he was not “basketball material”.

“When we used to play, there was just one ball between 40 people so young players like me would not get the ball,” said Gautham. “People told me that my body language was too slow and I should stop playing basketball. The only way to work on that was to practice when no one was around.”

Late night sessions improved his shooting touch, but he needed to do more to overcome this “body language” situation. A four kilometre jog to neighbouring Mahalakshmi Layout at 4 am was followed by 40-metre uphill sprints with weights tied to his feet.

The extra speed work helped. Gautham was included in Karnataka’s under-13 squad, but didn’t get much playing time. The trend continued into his under-16 days, until a slew of injuries to teammates left the management with no choice, but to start this scrawny kid. An MVP award at the Pre-Asian Under-16 Tournament in Mysuru followed and the journey of Gautham had begun.

Defying the odds to play for India

“When I was 16, I got selected for the Karnataka under-18 and under-21 teams, and that really motivated me. I didn’t know how far I was going to go, but I knew basketball was the answer,” said Gautham.

By 1988, the same year he was promoted to the helm of the state team, he was made captain of the Indian Junior team. But soon disaster struck when he met with a serious accident and was in coma for 41 days.

“I had seven fractures on my face. A fractured collar bone and several fractures to my legs,” he said. “People didn’t think I was going to walk again, let alone play. I remember the surgeon telling me that if the ball hits my face, chances are that I would not survive.”

Defying the odds, Gautham returned to the starting five of the Indian men’s team in 1991. Already putting in eight hours between the court and the gym, he also started shooting in the dark with a lamp on top of the board — a trick he learnt from Rajasthan’s Surendra Kumar Kataria, one of India’s finest shooters — to improve his accuracy. He also trained with judokas, wrestlers and sprinters to mix up his workouts.

The Basketball Federation of India rewarded Gautham by making him the captain of the senior national team in 1996, where his reign as floor leader continued till 2002.

International coaching consultant

Fast forward to 2017, Gautham is a manager at a bank. He is married to Sushma Vasudev, a former State-level basketball player, and is a father of two doting children — Adhya and Ananya. Now, nearing 50, he still makes time to play almost every day at the local IISC Gymkhana courts.

“When I look at school kids play even now, I watch with the intention of learning,” said Gautham. “See, youngsters are free in their mind. They are far more creative. They don’t know what they’re doing but everyone has something unique.

“I used to call five kids and play one against five to develop my skills. I also used to play with my dog. I had a German Shepherd and I used to dribble and try to avoid it from getting to the ball.”

Gautham always had it all charted out, and his teammates loved him for it.

“I used to assess my opponents and then my team-mates. I could tell by looking at my teammates’ faces, their state of mind. If a player looks a bit stressed, I would not give him the ball for a few minutes. I used to give him one if he was 100 per cent free. If that one goes in, he gets into a flow,” he explained with gusto.

The Karnataka State Basketball Association may have forgotten to utilise his understanding of the game, but Bangladesh, who witnessed Gautham play during the 1990s in their league, used his experience for their men’s side.

“They (Bangladesh) hired me in 2006. I go for 21 days every year,” said Gautham. “If somebody asks me to coach, I would. But no one from Karnataka has asked me so….”

**

Gautham, although happy with the abundance of talent available in India, isn’t satisfied with the quality of coaching or administration. He repeatedly derides their ever-changing views, saying they need to “have a strategy, show dedication, allow creativity and not come down on children for being expressive.”

He speaks from a place where he was given a free hand in dictating plays. He looks back and thinks of a time when no one gave him a manual and forced him to adhere. He reminisces of the very first time he tied on his bandana and felt freedom.

“It was just to stand out,” he says when asked about his bandana. Well, No. 7 did stand out, but it wasn’t just because of the bandana. It was always much more than that.

A glimpse of Gautham, even now, and you’ll understand that. Just ask those two kids at the Kanteerava stadium.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

The post BS Gautham: A Bandana-Clad Basketball Legend appeared first on NBA India.

NBA.COM Staff

January 23rd, 11:59 AM

You could call it destiny or a fortunate confluence of circumstances, but you shouldn’t. The idea that two of India’s finest basketball talents hail from Kerala, have captained India, have an undying passion for the sport, and are both each other’s better halves, does seem like a story meant to be. Something penned by Cupid with the ink of inevitability. But surrendering to the idea that fate ordained this blessed union would be a disservice to the extraordinary couple that Prasanna Kumari and Jayasankar Menon make.

The truth is neither of these two would be where they are now without a seemingly endless reservoir of perseverance and a deeply rooted love for the game. The young are entitled to their indiscretions. There were flirtations with handball for Jayasankar Menon in his youth. Prasanna Kumari was shining on the track and in high jump. But the moment the basketball started to swish through the net in their teens, everything else washed away to insignificance for this duo as they heard their true passion calling on the hardwood.

Two isolated incidents played a huge part in shaping their lives by nudging them towards basketball. Prasanna could have had a promising career in athletics if a basketball team competing in a mini-state championship in Kerala wasn’t looking for players to fill its ranks. Her athletic background served her well in migrating to basketball. Jayasankar’s transition was a tad bit more painful, to say the least.

Son of government employees, Jayasankar was supported by his parents in his passion for sports. “I first started playing basketball when I was 13, my father encouraged me to participate in a tournament in Trichur. I joined a summer camp after that and put more time in basketball.” His handball aspirations were laid to rest when he was attending the Senior State coaching camp for Kerala’s senior handball team and an autorickshaw ran him over. The resulting injury made him take a step back from sports for a while. When he came back, it was through a foray in Kerala’s U-16 basketball team. His performance paved the way for him to join the Sports Hostel in Kerala in 1984. Three years later he joined the Railways and moved to Chennai where he played his first Senior Nationals. He made his debut for India on the biggest stage in 1987 in the starting lineup for the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship in Bangkok.

While he was finding his footing for India, Prasanna had assumed the mantle of captaincy for the Indian team for the 13th ABC Championship in Singapore in 1990. The same year, she was awarded the Indira Gandhi National Award. Prasanna went on to become the very first women’s player from India to play in five ABCs. Displaying remarkable consistency, Prasanna also participated in 12 Senior National championships and nine Federation Cups as she represented India for almost 12 years.

Jayasankar played the centre position in domestic competitions and power forward when he represented India. But he was a talent capable of filling whatever role a team required of him as he displayed in the 1995 ABCs. With India struggling to counter a full court press, the 6 ft 5 in Jayasankar channelled his inner Charles Barkley by manning the point and bringing the ball up court in addition to working in the post. His stellar performances earned him a spot on the Asian All-Star team in 1997, as he became the first player from India to earn that honour.

Prasanna and Jayasankar met for the first time at the Junior Nationals in Baroda in 1985 and were married almost a decade later in 1994. Together, they’ve acted as a tidal wave to help usher in growth in basketball well after hanging up their jerseys. They’ve formed the Professional Basketball Academy in Chennai in 2000, through which they’ve held numerous coaching camps and tournaments.

“Do you have a problem with a lady being your coach?” asked Prasanna of her team in a pro league. No hands emerged as her pedigree speaks for itself. Prasanna is a part of the national selection committee for the women’s basketball team and is on the coaching staff of the Indian Railways women’s team as well while being employed as the Senior Welfare Inspector/Sports with the Southern railways.

Jayasankar has formed two associations for the growth of the sport: the Integrated Basketball Players Association and the Kerala Sports Person Association. He’s worked with numerous organizations including FICCI, and he’s conducted events across multiple sports including athletics, carom, chess, swimming and powerlifting among others. You may have heard his clear voice giving colour commentary on DD Sports during basketball events as well. “I’m an optimistic person by nature. I always hope for opportunities through which I can give back to the game in some way,” said Jayasankar. With demonetization increasing the workload at banks, he’s been working overtime at his bank branch in Delhi, where he’s monitoring cash movement in about 70 branches of the bank in the capital city.

The couple has two daughters, Archana and Krishna. Krishna, the younger daughter, is showing flashes of brilliance on the field, having won the bronze medal in shotput at the 2016 CBSE All-India U-19 meet. Archana, the elder one, has graduated from college and is pursuing modelling aspirations.

Arjuna from Mahabharata himself would blush at Cupid’s adroit aim that brought these two together. If that auto had been off course by a minute, or if that basketball team was not looking for another player, we might never have heard of these two legends. As it is, the greatest beneficiary from their union has been basketball in India, to which these two continue to give selflessly. And so next time you’re on a basketball court, don’t discount the possibility that the person launching up shots on the other end of the court might just be your future significant other.

You can follow the writer SIDDARTH SHARMA on Twitter @sidbreakball.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs. 

The post Prasanna Kumari And Jayasankar Menon: Indian Basketball’s First Couple appeared first on NBA India.

yash

January 30th, 10:30 AM

Never has a name been more apt. Vishesh. That’s Hindi for ‘Special’.

When it comes to basketball, the special ones are those who hustle after every loose ball, dominate each possession and have an uncanny knack of always making the right play. They leave records behind, stop numbers from defining them, go beyond the call of duty and always emerge victorious.

When they move up the court with the ball, you sense something vishesh is going to happen.

***

Vishesh Bhriguvanshi was born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh (UP). As a 12-year-old, Vishesh used to follow his brother, Vibhor, to the basketball courts of Udai Pratap College in Varanasi every evening.
“The first few days when I started playing with my elder brother and his friends, it was a weird feeling for me,” said Bhriguvanshi. Within weeks, he competed in the Varanasi U-13 district meet, and soon developed a liking towards the sport. So much so, that on days he could not hoop, he felt like something was amiss.

His now famed “court presence” and intuitive feel for the game didn’t occur by chance. “It’s not how people think. Everything didn’t happen overnight. I gradually learnt how things worked in a team. I studied how others played and understood how I play. I put in hours, not because I was asked to but because it became a habit. Life became basketball.”

Within a year of playing basketball, Bhriguvanshi represented his district and state in 2000. He kept developing exponentially and six years later, at age 17, bagged himself a spot on the Senior Indian men’s team.

This stupendous achievement ensured that even before having given his class 10 board examinations — the first ‘test’ of any Indian kid’s academic aptitude—he had his family convinced that sports was his calling. His elder brother’s early success only assured everyone that the youngest Bhriguvanshi would follow suit.

“My father was a lecturer and my mother was a principal, so naturally there was pressure to perform academically. But then again, I had other things in mind,” he says.

***

Sports Authority of India’s Amarjeet Singh was Bhriguvanshi’s first coach. Singh taught him the basics and provided similar guidance to many other future international stars from Varanasi like Trideep Rai and the ‘Singh Sisters’. “After Amarjeet sir I was fortunate to be guided by Harjinder sir who kept a close watch on my mistakes.”

Representing Uttarakhand in the National Championships, Bhriguvanshi is seen executing one of his trademark drives to the rim against Railways in the 2017 Senior National Championship in Puducherry.

It wasn’t necessarily all smooth sailing. Despite his UP state team’s first and only gold at the U-19 Junior Nationals in 2006, Bhriguvanshi was omitted from the Indian team for the Asian Championship games in Kazakhstan.  The disappointment of getting cut angered and frustrated him, a far cry from his current ‘Captain Cool’ persona.

“Learning basketball is a process. In your formal coaching you learn to dribble, pass and shoot but I learnt something greater than that, through absorbing the knowledge and mindset of Trideep bhai. I admired him and his game sense and I was really fortunate to have him around during practice in Varanasi. The composure and focus that you see when you see me on court, I learnt from him.

“Starting early on the senior team exposed me to a variety of situations. Playing with the older players helped me mould myself and focus my energy only on the game. Soon I realized that anger and frustration had no place on the basketball court.”

Since starting off on the Indian team as a rookie, the 26-year-old shooting guard has come a long way in leading India to memorable victories over Angola, China and Philippines.

“As a kid I liked to go around and travel with friends even if it was just within the city, but thanks to basketball, I have gone to places I never thought I would. I think I have another 5-6 years [left in the game] but I’ll play for my country as long as my body supports me. When the day comes where I’ll be given a spot just because of my name, I’ll quit.”

***

When you envision a player of Bhriguvanshi’s calibre, one would imagine a proud and arrogant star who prefers to stay reserved and aloof. But while the 6 ft 4 in bearded playmaker has a commanding presence on court, he is also one of the simplest and humblest human beings off it.

The Varanasi veteran’s importance in Indian basketball’s scheme of things cannot be overstated. He adds an X-factor to a side that is otherwise disciplined yet not particularly creative. He provides the team with the mental stability and resolve to go beyond the ordinary. His willingness to share the ball and get others involved is something of a rarity in today’s ‘me-first’ sporting world. His unselfishness underscores his innate appreciation of basketball as a ‘team game’ first and foremost. Of course, when the time does come to take over, Bhriguvanshi reminds everyone just who the ‘Special One’ of Indian basketball really is.

As legacies go, it won’t be a stretch to say that Bhriguvanshi’s playing style and impact rivals that of LeBron James. Little surprise then that Bhriguvanshi idolizes Cleveland’s King.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

The post Vishesh Bhrighuvanshi: The Special One appeared first on NBA India.

Anthony Oliva

February 09th, 08:02 AM

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) today announced the top 67 boys and girls from 32 countries and territories who will travel to New Orleans for the third annual Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp. The camp will be held Feb. 17-19 at the New Orleans Pelicans’ practice facility as part of NBA All-Star 2017, and Nike will serve as the official partner.

The good news for Indian hoops fans is that youngsters Aashay Verma and Priyanka Prabhakara have been selected to the BWB Global Camp as part of the boys’ and girls’ squads respectively. Verma (17) is 7-foot, 1-inch tall and plays center while Prabhakara is a 5-foot, 10-inch tall player, who hails from Kerala.

“The Basketball without Borders Global Camp is a great opportunity for the top male and female prospects from around the world to compete against one another, learn directly from NBA and FIBA players, legends and coaches, and experience the excitement of NBA All-Star,” said NBA Vice President, International Basketball Operations & Head of Elite Basketball, Brooks Meek. “The Basketball without Borders program was founded on the belief that basketball brings young players from different backgrounds together and transcends cultural boundaries.”

Players and coaches will lead the campers through a variety of activities on and off the court, including movement efficiency, positional skill development, shooting and skills competitions, 5-on-5 games, and daily life skills seminars focusing on health, leadership and communication. One boy and one girl will be named BWB Global Camp MVPs at the conclusion of the three-day camp.

The campers will attend the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge, State Farm NBA All-Star Saturday Night, and the 66th NBA All-Star Game at Smoothie King Center.

The following is a complete list of players participating in the third annual BWB Global Camp:

GIRLS ROSTER:

BOYS ROSTER:

This article Indian Youngsters Aashay Verma, Priyanka Prabhakara Selected For 2017 All-Star BWB Global Camp can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

yash

February 13th, 11:30 AM

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the ACG Worldwide Group (ACG) on Saturday (Feb. 11, 2017) announced top 21 players from this year’s ACG-NBA Jump National Finals.  The selected 24 (inclusive of the 3 players, who will be selected in the months prior to the opening of the NBA Academy) will become the first class to receive scholarships and training at NBA Academy India.

The selection of the 24 players at the National Final, held from Feb. 9-11, marked the culmination of the three-month nationwide program that conducted tryouts in six regions including Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata.  The three-day camp held at the Jaypee Greens in Noida featured the top 45 prospects from across the country.

“ACG-NBA Jump has given basketball playing youth in India a pathway to make a career out of the sport We are committed to growing the program in the years to come,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco.  “The 24 players will now have a solid platform to prepare for the opportunity to move into the professional ranks.”

“The final pool of players represented the very goal of the program that was to identify, hone and create a pathway for the untapped talent pool of basketball players in India,” said ACG Director Karan Singh.  “We wish the 24 winners all the very best for their future and hope they make the best of this unique opportunity they have earned through their hardwork and dedication.”

The 24 players will get scholarships and training at the NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR).  NBA Academy India, the first of its kind in the country and the NBA’s fifth elite training center globally, will be fully funded by the NBA and will open in April 2017.

NBA Academies will employ a holistic, 360-degree approach to player development extending beyond the court by focusing on education, leadership, character development and life skills.  NBA Academy India builds on the NBA’s existing basketball and youth development initiatives in India.  The Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program has reached more than 2.7 million youth and trained more than 2,000 physical education instructors nationwide since its launch in 2013.  The NBA launched ACG-NBA Jump, India’s first national basketball talent search program, in 2015 and provided the top player with the opportunity to attend the NBA Development League National Tryout in the United States.

This article Top 21 Players For NBA Academy India Announced can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

yash

February 27th, 12:00 PM

Born into a huge joint family in Karnal, Haryana, Shiba Maggon didn’t have many friends. She spent most of her childhood with her cousins in a big house playing hide-and-seek and Taboo.

A stubborn girl, Shiba used to complain how she never understood why she was being dragged down to the basketball court by her elder sister Shelly. Yes, Shelly, the athletic 6-ft 1-in gifted and ambitious athlete, who was a member of the Indian korfball and netball teams. The same Shelly who was also trying out for the national basketball side, and had already been selected to the junior India camp on her very first attempt.

It was at Shelly’s and their father’s collective adamance that, in 1991, Shiba was coerced into joining the Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel in Chandigarh to learn basketball the ‘right way’.

And it was within days of joining SAI that Shiba received word of Shelly’s tragic passing in a car accident. The Maggon family was devastated. But through Shiba’s anguish, she also found clarity.

“I wanted my parents to smile again.” And she would aim to achieve that through basketball.

Going to work

At the SAI hostel, Shiba honed her skills night in and night out, for more than 10 hours a day. Within six months of Shelly’s loss, it was Shiba who was now part of the national camp.

After graduating from SAI with a degree in arts, Shiba joined the Western Railways in 1996 as a senior clerk, and finally in 1997, six years since getting her first call up, she got to play for India at the FIBA Asia Championship held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thereafter, Shiba represented the nation for 12 straight years, leading the side in multiple Asian Championships, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, invitational tournaments in New Zealand and Malaysia, and even a year of college hoops in the US.

Shiba as skipper of the Indian team at the Asian C’ship in Japan. Image courtesy- Shiba Maggon.

Finding her Master Yoda

For all her accomplishments, interestingly, Shiba recalls her training with ex-St. Stephen’s College, Delhi’s star player Maan Singh in 2001, as a game changer.

“He was an NBA maniac. He taught me a lot of ball handling, dribbling and shooting moves that he learnt from watching the NBA. I remember when I copied these moves on court people used to tell me: ‘That’s a Michael Jordan fadeaway’ or ‘Hey, that’s an [Allen] Iverson crossover’.”

During her three month-long session with Singh in Ajmer, Rajasthan, Shiba pushed herself to another level. “I never compared my training regime with the girls, but rather with the boys. I always wanted to do what a boy could do on the court.”

Shiba became unstoppable, getting named among the top three players at the Senior Asian Basketball Championship in 2001. On the domestic circuit, she transferred from Western Railway to MTNL Delhi and in 2002, led the Delhi state team to a monumental win over the combined Indian Railways team at the Senior National Championship.

Giving Back

Maggon training the St Stephen’s College women’s team.

After dominating Indian basketball for almost 20 years, she finally decided to hang up her boots in 2010.

On a quiet afternoon, just after her retirement was announced, she was offered a coaching position with the Indian women’s teams. She chose the junior side, but found that certain bad habits had already been ingrained in the players. The experience made her realize the need to start younger, through the launch of her own academy.

“I’m hoping to start an academy for girls in the 13-14 age bracket, so that I can build in basic concepts early. When I say that, I mean that when they play for India, they won’t have to be told what to do. They will know their job and won’t be scared of anything.”

Walking the talk, Shiba regularly houses talented kids from poorer backgrounds at her home in Delhi, training them free of cost. Some of them have gone on to secure futures for themselves, with scholarships at leading private schools or by landing stable government jobs.

Interestingly, for all her playing and coaching achievements, Shiba also managed to record her name in history books as India’s first female FIBA certified international referee, alongside Maharashtra’s Snehal Bendke.

“I just want to be remembered by everyone for [my work in] basketball. I don’t want to be remembered for anything more than that.”

Maggon poses for a picture alongside men’s star S Robinson. Image courtesy- Shiba Maggon

***

We all have people in our lives, who make us who we are today. These are the people who inspire us, guide us, teach us and make us laugh. Some even make us cry.

The same was the case with Shiba.

“Shelly believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I began to understand her value, her worth only after she left. What I do now, I wish I had done it while she was still around.”

Shiba Maggon continues to live her sister’s dreams.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

This article Shiba Maggon: Living Her Sister’s Dream can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

yash

March 05th, 07:30 AM

“He was unorthodox … the type of player we had never seen before.”

– MA Parthasarathy, former India player

“He was someone who lived for the team.”

– MC Selvakumar, former India player

It was in 1978 when IT happened. An incident that lives on purely by word of mouth, snaking its way as a whisper from one basketball fan in Bengaluru to another: “Do you know there was an Indian guy who scored more than 100 points in a single game?”

A fellow journalist colleague got word of this apocryphal piece of ‘trivia’ over two years ago. Not sure what to make of it, he filed this little gem of information in his head. Earlier this year, the same story resurfaced again during a local tournament in Malleshwaram, the Bengaluru locality where the ‘100-point man’ lived.

Basketball was his escape

RT Viswanath from his younger days. Image courtesy RT Viswanath.

RT Viswanath a.k.a. ‘RTV’ was born on 25 December 1946 in the fascinating basketball hub of Malleshwaram, a residential suburb in the north-western part of Karnataka’s capital city, Bengaluru, that has incredibly produced over a dozen international basketball players.

RTV belonged to a middle class family. His father passed away when he was just seven. The responsibility of running the household fell squarely on his mother. Amidst all these trials and tribulations, RTV and his two siblings found their escape – the world of sports. RTV and his twin brother Jagannath were coaxed into switching from cricket to basketball by their elder brother the late RT Subbarao, who was a talented player himself.

The proximity of the basketball court to their house meant RTV could dedicate hours and hours to his new-found love affair. But sensitive to the financial situation at home, he struck a balance between academics and hoops.

In 1967, RTV graduated and joined the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), a company that encouraged its employees to play sports. At ITI, RTV was surrounded by top basketball talent from Karnataka. Back in the 1960s, the jump shot had just been introduced, and at a mere 5 feet 5 inches, RTV knew he had to master this art to have a lasting impact. An early practitioner of the now ubiquitous ‘run-and-gun’ philosophy, the high-scoring ITI teams won tournament after tournament at the regional and national level.

The 100-point game!

RT Viswanath being felicitated by Indian badminton superstar Saina Nehwal. Image credit- Malleshwaram Cup, Bengaluru.

In the 1978 season, ITI was taking on rival club Devanga Anekal in a state level tournament.

The match began in familiar fashion for ITI. Comfortably ahead early, a quick time out was called where it was decided that ITI would keep its foot on the gas pedal.

“We knew we were pretty strong and absolutely anyone could score, but we noticed that Viswanath scored all his baskets. We then made a conscious effort to get him the highest possible points he could. He did a fantastic job of converting all our passes,” said MA Parthasarthy.

Anekal was a weak side, but never would have imagined its fate that day. The score line at the end of the game read: ITI – 130 points – of which 108 were scored by RTV; a feat all the more remarkable considering that it was achieved in an era without the 3-point line!

RT Viswanath recreates the iconic Chamberlain picture at a court near his home, in Bengaluru.

Comparisons between Chamberlain and RTV become inevitable. Besides the obvious physical dissimilarities — Chamberlain was a seven footer, and Viswanath is a mere 5-5 — it is pertinent to note that the Big Dipper’s 100 came out of a total team score of 167, while RTV’s teammates tallied just another 22 points combined.

“I don’t know what it was about that day, but his conversion rate was very high. We would pass the ball to him the near the half-court line and he would still go into the opposition half by himself and score,” recalled Parthasarthy.

Word of this virtuoso performance spread far and wide. Players, coaches, selectors and fans were stunned. Many refused to believe it. It was rumoured that leading national daily The Indian Express carried the news on its front page, but no record of that edition has been traced.

Soon after, RTV, who often missed out on representing Karnataka at the junior level due to academic compulsions, was called up to play for the senior state team. However, he never got to don national colours. RTV makes light of this omission. “India, at that point of time, had better players than me. I often missed out because of my lack of height. However, I have no regrets because I knew that those players were better than me and deserved to be there,” he said over a phone chat.

Into the sunset

RT Viswanath shakes hands with a local Bengaluru college team during a recent state level tournament. Image credit- Malleshwaram Cup, Bengaluru.

One of the pet peeves of Indian journalists covering the local basketball scene is the appalling lack of documentation. Score sheets are destroyed immediately after games, carelessly handed over to raddi wallahs in exchange for a few rupees of loose change. Important matches aren’t videotaped, forget being televised, and advanced stats, of the kind seen in the NBA, remain a distant dream. In this scenario, anecdotal sources are the only windows into India’s landmark basketball moments. The same was the case with RTV and his 100-point game.

RTV stopped playing in 1990, but stayed associated with the sport as a selector for Karnataka’s senior and junior teams. He is now living a peaceful retired life in Bengaluru. It is both funny and scary to think that we nearly missed out on this unique milestone, had it not been for a fortuitous discovery!

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

This article RT Viswanath: India’s 100-Point Man can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

March 08th, 10:40 AM

17-year-old Aashay Verma was recently selected to be a part of the third annual Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp held in New Orleans during the 2017 All-Star Weekend. Hailing originally from Patna, Bihar, the 7-foot, 1-inch tall Verma played basketball for the most part in Hyderabad before transferring to play in Australia.

Verma has been in Australia for the last three months where he is currently training at the Australian Institute of Sport. He caught up with NBA.com and spoke about being part of the BWB Global Camp, his basketball heroes and the All-Star Weekend experience.

How did you start playing basketball? Did you have any influences while growing up?

Aashay Verma: I started playing basketball when I was a teenager (13 or 14 years old). I was inspired after I saw LeBron James dunk on television when he was with the Miami Heat. I went to the court day and night to pull that off and after learning how to, I fell in love with basketball. I never looked back. Since I did not receive any formal training, I used to learn the moves of certain players I used to watch such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

Did you watch any NBA games or did you have a favourite player?

AV: I did watch NBA games. It was an interesting aspect to learn different plays, moves and emulate them in real life. My favourite player at the time and still is LeBron James. He inspires me to play every day and I hope to get the chance to play against him soon.

How was the Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp experience in New Orleans?

AV: The camp in New Orleans was unreal. It was such a different camp. I met players from countries all over the world and that showed me the way they learnt and grew up playing basketball. It’s really cool meeting different people and learning about them. I loved the competition and playing against players better than me because it pushed me to my limits and even more. I made a lot of new friends and coaches and will always cherish it.

What was your 2017 All-Star Weekend experience like?

AV: The All-Star experience was a dream come true. I have always wanted to attend an NBA game and attending the All-Star game was beyond it. We watched everything on the All-Star Weekend (the dunks were insane). We met some players at the camp such as [Festus] Ezeli and Thon Maker and the advice they gave influenced me and is making me work harder each day.

How do you think this experience will help you become a better player?

AV: This experience has certainly made me a better player already and will continue to do so. Talking to NBA players has certainly told me all I need to know about how hard the NBA is and how hard it is to stay in the NBA. I have to take care of my body to excel in this field and will certainly help me in the long run.

What are your basketball aspirations?

AV: My ultimate goal is to play in the NBA and for my country.

What advice would you give children younger to you who want to make a career in basketball?

AV: It’s not easy. It is a long road ahead. But if you love playing basketball, you will enjoy the journey.

This article ‘I Want To Play In The NBA And For India’: The Aashay Verma Interview can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

March 13th, 06:59 AM

In the 1970s and ’80s, cricket was one of the few outlets for Indians to seek cheer away from the daily routine of life. Back then, one diminutive cricketer in particular, Sunil Gavaskar, showed exemplary fearlessness in dispatching intimidating pace bowlers to the boundary, that too without wearing a helmet. The nation’s millions lived vicariously through Gavaskar’s exploits until he finally retired in 1987.

As one ‘Sunny’ disappeared into the sunset, another shone on the horizon. He too was much shorter than his opponents, and like Gavaskar, he also, had the will to dominate, albeit in a different sport.

***

Muscle memory is a funny thing. It kicks in without you even realising it. For CV Sunny, his muscle memory kicked in at a veteran’s basketball event back in 2013 in his home state of Kerala.

CV Sunny’s Kottayam district team was down by double digits against hosts Thrissur in the fourth quarter. Channelling his inner Tracy McGrady, Sunny suddenly began to see the rim as wide as the ocean, making shots from different angles beyond the arc. But just when a miraculous comeback was a near certainty, the final buzzer sounded and Thrissur escaped with the win. Sunny smiled as he walked back to his team bench. By now, wins and losses had little impact on the 46-year-old. For he had fought and won far bigger battles.

Lifetime Of Overcoming Challenges

Born in the small village of Pala in the Kottayam district of Kerala, Sunny was the third of five siblings. Life was hard growing up. “My father had no permanent employment. He used to take up odd jobs like being a coolie,” said Sunny over a phone conversation.

CV Sunny used to walk to his St Thomas Higher Secondary School, which was a stone’s throw away from home. “Our school had a mud court and I would sit and watch our seniors play.” He would often wait for hours on the sidelines, and in the few minutes that it took for his seniors to cool down and get dressed, he would step onto the court, pick up the ball and start shooting.

“Our school physical educator teacher Mr VC Joseph didn’t know much about basketball, but taught me all the basics.”  Despite not coming from a sporting family, Sunny’s innate game sense, coupled with his natural quickness, meant that by seventh standard he had made it to the sub-junior Kerala State team.

If he thought basketball could be his ‘escape’, then, unfortunately, on court he faced taunts over his lack of ‘size’. To make matters worse, the same GV Raja Sports School in Thiruvananthapuram — that had initially recruited him to their basketball programme — asked him to switch to football because he wasn’t tall enough.

His father, though, considered football to be a “dangerous sport”, and so Sunny got himself reinstated into GV Raja’s basketball programme. The decision immediately paid dividends as he led the Kerala team all the way to gold at the 1986 Junior National Basketball Championship.

It was time now to go international.

Representing India

CV Sunny, standing far right, with the rest of the Indian national team that included the likes of the legendary Ajmer Singh (standing third from right), Reginald Rajan (standing second from right), sharpshooter Ram Kumar (standing third from left), Unwin Antony (standing second from left) and the maverick Shahid Qureshi (sitting far right), to name a few. Image courtesy- Shiba Maggon

Based on his junior heroics, Sunny was immediately named captain of the national U-19 side. Within months, multiple job offers followed from leading national recruiters like Railways, Tata Iron and Steel Company, Indian Overseas Bank and Customs. He eventually chose Kerala Police before switching to Indian Bank, Chennai.

Considering his financial background, landing a job was a big relief and Sunny could now focus on representing India with distinction. In the 1989 Asian Championships, featuring a 22-year-old Sunny, the side finished a creditable 6^th, a standing that has never been achieved in the almost three decades since. The next few years, the Indian men’s team travelled across the globe, playing ‘test’ matches against American college teams and national teams from Yugoslavia and Russia, as well as competing in the Asian Championships and South Asian Federation Games. In doing so, Sunny got to play alongside all-time legends like Ajmer Singh, Ram Kumar, Unwin Antony, Jayasankar Menon and Shahid Qureshi, among others.

By 1995, the Kerala point guard had been named national team captain. Having reached the zenith of what can be achieved in India Basketball, he chose to retire in his prime. But he was itching to contribute in other ways.

Xs And Os

CV Sunny coaching the Tamil Nadu men’s state team during the 2015 National Games.

Sunny first got the opportunity to coach the Loyola College team in Chennai in 2008. The Tamil Nadu capital is a perennial powerhouse of school and college basketball in India. After seeing Sunny taste success with the Loyola team, the sports loving director of city rivals Jeppiaar Institute of Technology (JIT), Mr Marie Wilson, reached out to him to handle JIT’s basketball programmes. With Sunny helming affairs,   JIT’s men and women teams were consistently ranked among the top college sides in South India for three straight years between 2009 to 2011. Not coincidentally, current India point guard and JIT alumnus Akilan Pari was one of Sunny’s mentees.

Just like his playing days, Sunny has also climbed the coaching ladder, moving from collegiate to the pros. In 2015, he guided the Tamil Nadu men’s state team to a silver medal finish at the 2015 National Games, and a year later, was named the head coach of the senior Indian Men’s team for the 2016 William Jones Cup.

It was a moment to cherish for Sunny. Two decades after leading India as player-captain, he had now returned as coach. Not bad for a kid from a poor family, who still retains a boyish mop of hair and an innocent wide smile. “Basketball has given me so much, so it is my duty to give back to the game.”

The ‘Little Master’ continues to inspire.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

This article CV Sunny: Indian Basketball’s ‘Little Master’ can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

March 19th, 07:28 AM

It’s been nearly three years since Pratham Singh made his career’s — and arguably Indian basketball’s — biggest offensive plays down the stretch to beat China at the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup.

A lot has changed for the 25-year-old since then. While that win put India on a steady climb up the Asian ladder, for Pratham Singh, it turned out to be an unlikely dead end. The ecstasy of that night has since been replaced by an equanimity that can only come with having dealt with numerous ups and downs.

Chhattisgarh’s Adopted Son

Pratham Singh (right) with fellow India teammate Narender Grewal at the 2015 South Asian Qualifiers in Bengaluru. Image credit: Basketball Federation of India.

Pratham Singh was born in Amritsar, Punjab. His father ran a transport business, which meant that by age six, Pratham had moved to Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. In any other scenario, relocating from a popular basketball hub to a lesser known state in central India would have meant a death knell to hoop dreams. But in Pratham’s case, it proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Punjab is sought after for its frontcourt players trained at the famed Ludhiana Basketball Academy. But Pratham Singh — who would grow into a 6-foot-2 guard — needed to hone his backcourt skills. And Chhattisgarh, which is a ‘small-ball state’, proved to be his ideal nursery. Having picked up a basketball “for fun” during his summer vacations at the age of 11, Pratham’s competitive fire was stoked when he saw his teammates’ names appear in local newspapers as top scorers. Under the guidance of Coach Rajvender Singh Gaur, Pratham worked on different aspects of his game and in 2004 was selected to the Indian youth team that travelled to Russia. He hasn’t looked back since, participating in numerous international events across China, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Iran and Qatar.

The Gym Rat

Pratham Singh of IOB Chennai draws contact against ONGC Dehradun in the final of the 2016 Federation Cup. Image credit: Basketball Federation of India.

A tattoo of an eagle is etched on Pratham’s right upper arm. “I didn’t get it for any reason as such, I just liked it,” says Pratham Singh over the phone, speaking a mix of English and Hindi. The Hindi bits retain traces of a Bhojpuri accent, no doubt picked up from his formative years in Chhattisgarh.

While he may refuse to read much into his body art, the comparison between the elegant bird of prey and Pratham’s play is unmistakeable. Lightning quick, razor sharp in his movements and precise in his point of attack, Pratham Singh constantly circles the perimeter before identifying the opportune moment to either fire from long range or else drive into the paint. The former invariably ends with the ball at the bottom of the net while the latter is usually a tough made-layup or a drawn foul.

WATCH: The game where Pratham Singh made Indian basketball’s greatest offensive plays.

It is this perfect combination of accuracy and aggression that Pratham Singh brings to the national side, that India seemed to have lacked in years past. Both these aspects of his game have been consciously worked on. By his own admission, Pratham has been a gym rat. But his promotion in 2014 to ‘Manager’ at Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Chennai —the organisation that had recruited him right out of high school back in 2009 at age 18 — has been eating away at crucial practice time.

IOB, Chennai is among the finest club teams in the nation, second only to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), Dehradun. Between them, the two clubs recruit the majority of India’s top male players, habitually setting up mouth-watering clashes at the national level.

In these domestic duels, Pratham Singh is assigned the not-so-pleasant task of guarding ONGC’s international star Vishesh Bhriguvanshi. The two understand each other’s games perfectly, and it is this synergy that has contributed towards India transforming into one of the most exciting teams in Asia in 2014. But from 2015 onwards, Bhriguvanshi was denied the support of his running mate, as Pratham’s work commitments at IOB compelled him to skip international events.

The Second Coming

Pratham Singh standing second from right with the rest of the Indian team after winning the 2015 South Asian Qualifiers. Image credit: Basketball Federation of India.

In December 2016, Pratham Singh made a comeback to the national side for the 21st Super Kong Sheung Cup in Hong Kong. He immediately had an impact, stretching the floor and in turn creating more space inside for India’s bigs to operate, not to mention lessening the playmaking load on Bhriguvanshi. The side ended up with a memorable podium finish and suddenly, it felt like India was a supremely formidable unit again. The bronze in Hong Kong was particularly special for Pratham, as his very first senior India appearance back in 2009 had been at the same tournament, when the team had ended last.

“The absence of Pratham [for a few years in between] after he had become ‘set’ into the side obviously makes a difference. Without him, we lacked experienced shooters at the international level,” says fellow India teammate Yadwinder Singh, underlining the value that Pratham brings to the national squad.

With the all important FIBA Asia Cup 2017 —that will now notably also feature New Zealand and Australia —just a few months away, Pratham’s return could not have come at a better juncture.

“I definitely think that both I and the entire team can improve further. Other countries now know what to expect of us. So we will have to come up with a completely new game plan. But I’m sure we can pull it off as our confidence level is high,” says Pratham.

It’s safe to say that Pratham and India’s basketball fortunes will remain inextricably linked for the foreseeable future.

Feature image used in this piece is credit to Rajan Vellingirinathan.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

This article Pratham Singh: A Second Coming can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

March 31st, 07:15 AM

It’s been over a year-and-a-half since Satnam Singh became the first Indian-born player to be drafted into the NBA. It wasn’t easy to get there, but Satnam hasn’t stopped getting better. Meanwhile, we take an inside view of what Satnam has been upto over the last few months.

To begin with, there’s more to life than basketball. Satnam seems to know that as he spends time with the children from Wipe Out Kids Cancer, a non-profit foundation.#ThisIsWhyWePlay

But to get back to how committed Satnam remains to staying in shape, you just have to see this:

In the midst of all the training and workouts, Satnam is as excited as us about Kevin Durant coming to India this summer:

Away from the rigours of basketball training, and his punishing schedule, Satnam also lives it up on the style front.

From a village in Punjab to Dallas and now Ontario in Canada, Satnam’s admirers are everywhere. Congratulations Satnam! Well deserved.

There will never be any place like home. As Satnam continues to put in the hard yards, sweat it out and be an inspiration to all budding young aspiring ballers in India, it’s important to remember that he’s spent nearly a decade away from home to get there. What a fascinating journey it has been for Satnam!

This article ‘One In A Billion’ Satnam Singh Continues To Amaze, Motivate And Inspire can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

April 04th, 10:28 AM

His cream shirt is spotless and crisp, the veshti an impeccable white. A brown tilak is streaked across his forehead like a meteor hurtling through space. His lanky near 6-foot frame is imposing and the grey strands of his hair instinctively command a respectful deference. But it is the eyes that really capture my attention. Clear, piercing and youthful, ensconced behind non-fussy, thick plastic brown framed glasses that are still so popular among our elders.

M S Venkataraman greets me with a smile and firm handshake after I ring the doorbell to his 11th floor apartment in suburban Bengaluru. His house is airy and clean, sparsely yet practically furnished. There are two basketball paintings mounted on one of the living room walls by the renowned Tamil artist K M Adimoolam.

I loved this house already.

“You shouldn’t get me talking about basketball,” Venkataraman says as we settle down. “People have warned me that once I start I never stop.”

Baller Since India’s Independence

Born in Mannargudi in Tamil Nadu, Venkataraman grew up in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru. He was introduced to basketball at age 13 in 1948.

“We started off playing barefoot on mud courts. In those days the captain himself used to be the coach. There were no jumpshots, just the two-handed ‘set shot’. A layup was known simply as ‘under basket’. Two players usually stayed in the defensive half throughout. The matches ended with scorelines reading just 14 or 16 total points,” Venkataraman rattles off, even getting up from his couch to animatedly demonstrate the two-handed ‘set shot’.

Player-Administrator

After finishing his schooling in Bengaluru, Venkataraman moved to Chennai and joined the Loyola College, captaining both the college as well as the combined Madras University team in 1954.

Back then, in the entire erstwhile state of Madras (now Tamil Nadu) there was only one tournament each year. This prompted a 20-year-old Venkataraman to launch the Ace Basketball Club, under which he started Chennai’s first league tournament featuring 10 teams.

Venkataraman went onto become one of the youngest members of the newly formed Tamil Nadu State Basketball Association. Simultaneously, he continued playing, developing into a reliable centre and representing the State team between 1954 to 1961. He was even named among Indian basketball’s top 20 All-Star players in 1956 and ’59 by the Basketball Federation of India.

At the 1959 Senior National basketball championship in Chennai, Venkataraman played a dual role of player-administrator. “The 1959 Championship was the first ever with ticketing. We put up banners along the beach and charged 5 to 10 rupees per ticket, but still had as many as 4000 people turn up for the finale,” Venkataraman recalls. This is a startling revelation, considering that virtually all of India’s present-day tournaments are ‘entry free’, yet struggle to attract decent crowds.

Post the Championship, Venkataraman represented India in a friendly fixture against Australia in 1960, a game that featured future Arjuna Awardee and one of India’s finest point guards, Abbas Moontasir. Five years later, during his stint with the Army, he captained the Western Command basketball team that was headlined by arguably Indian basketball’s greatest scorer Khushi Ram.

Tryst With The Basketball Gods

By 1978, ‘Venky’, as he was now widely known, was elected Secretary of the powerful Tamil Nadu State Basketball Association.

“I spearheaded a number of initiatives, from issuing ID cards to players, establishing a calendar for All India tournaments to avoid overlap, sending inspection teams to local tournaments before granting them recognition, amending our Association bye-laws to ensure merit-based affiliation of clubs, to starting India’s first ever ‘Dribblathon’ (a promotional event where a series of basketball players dribble the ball in relay fashion across a pre-determined distance).”

He was then named the manager of the Indian women’s team for the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, and from 1984-86, was a member of Basketball Federation of India’s prestigious national selection committee.

And it wasn’t just India’s basketball trajectory that aligned with Venkarataman’s personal journey. In 1982 he was invited for a World Coaches Seminar in New Orleans where he witnessed Michael Jordan hit THE game-winning shot for North Carolina that sealed the NCAA National Championship.  He even made it a point to visit basketball’s Mecca, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

During his US visit, Venkataraman had networked enough to ensure he kept receiving, through ‘sea mail’, boxes of the latest Converse sneakers and media guides from the NBA. He even has a rare autographed copy of Red Auerbach’s bestselling classic Basketball for the Player, the Fan and Coach. (“I had lost my first copy so I wrote a letter to the Celtics organization and asked for an autographed version. Luckily they obliged.”)

A Life Well Lived

It’s now been over two hours since Venkataraman and I began our interview. I can hear his wife in the kitchen setting up lunch. As I bid him farewell and head back home, I can’t help but ponder over how time stops for no one. When Venkataraman began playing basketball, India had only just attained independence. Nearly 70 years later his love for the game is still intact. He hasn’t “outgrown it”, despite his friends and family predicting otherwise.

One of the questions we often ask ourselves: ‘Does my life have meaning?’It’s a query filled with foreboding, trepidation, and perhaps even regret, when we are unsure if what we are seeing ahead is light or a continuing labyrinth.

For true fans of basketball in India, M S Venkataraman’s life has had meaning. Lots of it.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

This article M S Venkataraman: A Lifelong Love For Basketball can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.

NBA.COM Staff

April 09th, 07:28 AM

It all started with a ball and a ring. In the Mahabharata, Dronacharya became the guru of Pandavas and Kauravas after retrieving a ball and a ring from a well around which the young princes were playing. Guru Dronacharya’s training ground, Gurugram, is some 350 kms from Ludhiana, where another guru, Dr. Subramanian, gave decades to his disciples in a sport involving, coincidentally, a ball and a ring. Hopefully, a lifetime achievement Dronacharya Award might unite these teachers soon.

“Had we not had him in our lives, we may not be where we are now,” said Amritpal Singh, one of India’s finest players currently, who has captained India.

Embodying a ‘Nishkama Karma’ (selfless action) approach to teaching, Dr. Sankaran Subramanian’s till-death-do-us-part approach towards basketball set a standard of excellence few can match. His hoop dreams were on a galactic scale and he lived every single day with an exemplary ethos of personal and professional conduct to realize that vision.

Did It Like Pop

Be it coincidence or a rite of passage ordained by fate, one of the NBA’s greatest coaches Gregg Popovich and India’s pride Dr. Subramanian share uncanny similarities in their careers. Scholars at heart with experience in the Air Force, they never stood in the way of players pursuing better opportunities. Told they weren’t good enough to coach, they persisted nevertheless and produced a stupendous lineup of talent, which continues to proliferate. Not to mention a heart of gold masked by an acerbic impatience and low tolerance for ineptitude. Those who learned under them are now growing the game as coaches/players.

“Whatever we are today, is all thanks to him. He grilled us in the fundamentals and initially it felt unnecessary, but over time we saw the benefits. Now when coaches from USA teach us the same, it reminds me of him telling us, ‘This will help you later in life,’” said Jagdeep Singh Bains, another stalwart of the Indian team.

Having joined the Air Force in 1958, Dr. Subramanian sharpened his on-court skills with American Air Force pilots, who’d play and train in a court set up in an airport hangar. Since then, he played and coached in the National Basketball Championship and won multiple medals as a coach. In 1973, he moved to Patiala with his family and joined National Institute of Sports (NIS) as a coach. His children excelled in sports, with daughter Indira Bali, who’s now a teacher herself, being proficient in swimming, and son Jai Shankar wielding a badminton racket with aplomb.

A certified FIBA referee, Dr. Subramanian was a scholar and a student first and foremost who continued to add to his resume. “During his tenure with the NIS, he coached numerous men’s, women’s, and junior teams as he continued to learn about the sport and shape lives of some of India’s finest players,” said Mrs. Indira Bali, his daughter, when I spoke to her over the phone. “He would come back from coaching trips abroad carrying heaps of NBA VHS tapes to dissect. He’d pore over them way past midnight and promptly be back on court at 5 a.m. in the morning, with the enthusiasm of a young child who can’t wait to experiment and incorporate his newfound knowledge. His boundless energy would sometimes outpace his wards.”

The Ludhiana Chapter

“He retired from his post as Director of Training at NIS in June 1998, and the same day he was taken away in an Ambassador car to Dashmesh Girls School in Badal, Punjab. They wanted him to be the school principal as well, but he solely wanted to be involved in sports. In his tenure there, the idea of a full-fledged basketball academy began to take shape in his mind,” recalled Mrs Bali. “Out of a sense of loyalty and nostalgia, he had a dream to set up an academy in Tamil Nadu, but they told him to stick to coaching schools.”

Spurned by Tamil Nadu, Dr. Subramanian found a home in Ludhiana as he set up the Ludhiana Basketball Academy (LBA) in 2003 at the Guru Nanak Stadium. Employed as the Director/Chief basketball coach at the Academy, he took the avatar of coach, warden, parent, tutor, clerk and peon among other roles for his wards till his passing. The academy did not have every facility which he dreamt of. But you wouldn’t know it by the long line of players he produced. The irony was that Dr. Subramanian would train students knowing very well that one day they would move on, but he never stood in their way. Being deeply attached to them, he’d often come home dejected and tearful, saying, “Today another boy has left.”

He never missed a practice and never let his students miss one either. He would say, “Nothing doing. You’ll go back to zero,” if a student requested a vacation. When it came to selection, he’d apply a scientific method of selection. Coming to him with a ‘sifarish‘ (request) to put a player in a team was a futile endeavor. “Extremely punctual, always well prepared, he was usually dressed in shorts or a tracksuit. If he wasn’t on the basketball court, he would either be on his way to or back from it. There were days he’d be so tired after a day’s work that he’d hit the bed in his training clothes. He rarely visited us at his home in Patiala, only once in a month or two,” said Mrs Bali.

Taunted as ‘Silver Subramanian’ for not winning gold at the Nationals, indifferent to the fact that many of his players were competing against his team, he was vindicated when he led Punjab to the gold against Tamil Nadu at the 2011-12 National Basketball Championship. He had mentioned that gold medal tasting especially sweet as it came against Tamil Nadu in Tamil Nadu.

Once A Coach, Always A Coach

The same year saw his health deteriorate. “While he was ill, his phone would be ringing almost non-stop with students enquiring after the daily training plan and parents calling and coming to our home to discuss future prospects for their children. He always attended every single call,” remembered Mrs. Bali.

Later in his life, he suffered from paralytic attacks, blood clots, high blood pressure and a litany of other ailments, which would be aggravated because of his physically strenuous lifestyle. To Dr. Subramanian, though, walking away would be tantamount to giving up, and that would be in direct contradiction of the basic principles by which he lived every single day. “We’d argue with him, insisting he take it easy on himself as we tried to keep him at home. But he’d walk out and catch a bus and go right back to the academy regardless of how he felt physically. In ill-health, he still insisted on attending tournaments,” said Mrs. Bali.

Dr. Subramanian’s health worsened in October in 2012, and he passed away in May, 2013. His ‘bhog’ ceremony was attended by thousands from the basketball community. Satnam Singh came to him as a blank canvas, an extremely raw prospect. Dr. Subramanian, instead of pushing Satnam relentlessly, took a meticulous and measured approach to grooming Satnam with patience and foresight. Many a big man’s career has been cut short due to overexertion, but the Doctor wouldn’t allow Satnam to suffer the same fate. After Satnam was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, he came back to Dr. Subramanian’s house in Patiala on 8th August, 2015 and tearfully laid his team cap aside his portrait in gratitude.

His Flame Burns Eternal

A candle burns itself to give light unto others. Dr. Subramanian exhausted every last breath of his body for the sport, firmly etching a prominent place for himself in the Mt. Rushmore of elite Indian coaches. He wouldn’t go out on a wheelchair, idling his days away, basking in peaceful nostalgia of a life well lived. He’d go out on his own terms, serving the game right to the end. He was selfless in his dedication to the game and selfish in placing love for the game over his health. Only his death at the age of 75 could make Dr. Subramanian part from basketball.

If Dr. Subramanian were to peek down from the heavens, he’d observe Satnam Singh grinding his way to make it the NBA, Amjyot and Amritpal Singh playing professional basketball in Japan and Palpreet Singh winning top scorer’s honors in FIBA U-18 Asia Championship. All the while students from the first batch of LBA, Jagdeep Singh Bains and Yadwinder Singh, continue to be India’s finest talents. Observing his lifelong fruits of labour coming to fruition across the globe, he would be smiling in contentment as he watches his wards keep his dream alive.

All images in this piece are courtesy Mrs. Indira Bali.

You can follow the writer SIDDARTH SHARMA on Twitter @sidbreakball.

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NBA.COM Staff

April 14th, 10:59 AM

In one sense, basketball and computer programming couldn’t be more different. One of them is a meticulous hunt for perfection, a dream for lovers of mathematics and statistics, a vocation best pursued in solitude with clear rights and wrongs, 0s and 1s. The other is fluid, the athletic answer to jazz, where one structure flows into another without rigidity, where each individual is a fit within a complicated team framework, and data is parsed in waves instead of particles.

But Gokul Natesan – who helped the Colorado School of Mines to their historically most-successful season in NCAA Division II while pursuing a Computer Science Degree – strolled his way to success in this strange duality.

“Computer science and basketball are polar opposites,” says Natesan. “In computer science things are set in black and white. There are definite right and wrong answers. In basketball, often times, it’s said there’s nothing absolutely right or wrong. You think of decisions that seemed wrong in the first half that make a right impact later in the game.

“I have been able to separate the two,” he adds. “Basketball happens in real time, with both internal and external pressures. Your thought process is different.”

WATCH: Gokul Natesan stars in the top play of week 16 of 2016-17 RMAC

It has been both his thought process and his elite athleticism that helped Natesan, a senior, enjoy a memorable college career in Colorado. After finishing as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Defensive Player of the Year in 2015-16, Natesan finished 2016-17 in the All RMAC First Team and as the RMAC Academic Player of the Year. He led his team in minutes, scoring (18.5 ppg), and assists (4.1 apg). He helped the Mines – a college historically known more for its engineers than its elbow-jumpers – to an RMAC title and a best-ever regular season finish. The Mines reached uncharted territory this season, playing in the Elite 8 stage of the NCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time. By the end of his four years, he had totaled over 2,000 points.

“He is one of the best players to ever play for the Mines,” says Pryor Orser, head coach of the Mines. “He should’ve been the player of the year in the conference.”

Natesan gives credit for the inception of his basketball journey to his family, particularly his father who he says is a basketball fanatic. Natesan’s parents immigrated from Tamil Nadu’s cities Chennai and Salem to the United States in the late ’80s, first to Michigan, and later, settled down in the Bay Area.

“It all started with my Dad,” Natesan says. “He watched basketball all the time. My family has been incredibly supportive and encouraging through this whole journey for me as a basketball player. I wouldn’t be who I am without them.”

WATCH: Natesan’s post-game interview after winning the 2017 RMAC Regular Season Title

Natesan has stayed close to his Indian roots, and with his success on court, is looking forward to challenging stereotypes of Indians. In California specifically, he has been involved with the Tamil community and spoken in the past about the opportunities and challenges of being a college athlete of Indian descent.

“It’s super important for me to represent my culture,” says Natesan. “In previous experiences, people had looked at me in a weird way as an Indian basketball player. They often don’t expect us to be there. It’s important to break that stereotype and show people that we can push our limits and boundaries in everything in life. It’s bigger than basketball.”

“Even when he was getting recruited, he was knocked-on for being Indian,” says Akshay Mani, Natesan’s trainer and coach with the Oakland Soldiers, an elite youth basketball programme in the Bay Area. “But he ignored the negativity and took the game seriously.”

Basketball was the second thing where Natesan’s father was an influence; the first, was his choice of major. When he wasn’t shepherding his team on both ends of the floor, Natesan followed in the footsteps of his father, a computer programmer, in the classroom. Now, as Natesan graduates from college, he faces a daunting dilemma: stay in school for a Master’s degree or make the most of his basketball career with professional opportunities.

The historic season ended with an RMAC championship for the Mines and a loss at the Elite Eight stage. A few weeks later, Natesan says that he is now evaluating his options and talking to his head coach for the best options in the future, including declaring for the 2017 NBA Draft.

No matter what decision he makes, Natesan has already demonstrated his mastery of the duality, baller and programmer, guard and forward, offense and defense, scorer and distributer. With the first chapter of college basketball over, he will look to double up with professional success.

 The feature image used in this piece is courtesy Gokul Natesan

You can follow the writer KARAN MADHOK on Twitter @Hoopistani.

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NBA.COM Staff

May 14th, 02:20 AM

The sweltering heat inside the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi made even sitting uncomfortable, let alone competing in a high-intensity game of basketball. But one young girl in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) state team — a short-haired, strongly-built point guard — was going about her business like a seasoned professional.

Distributing the ball, making plays, getting her teammates involved and hustling after loose balls, it was just another day in the office for Barkha Sonkar. Her UP team would eventually go on to secure a historic bronze in the 65th National Basketball Championship for Junior Men and Women. And it was no coincidence that the barely 5-ft 5-in Sonkar had a key role to play in this podium finish.

For Sonkar, though, the stirring run in Kochi was just another milestone in a spectacular journey that has taken her all the way from the banks of the Ganges to the sunny beaches of Florida.

Yet Another Varanasi Gem

The fourth daughter in a family of seven, sports was perhaps the last thing that Barkha Sonkar’s motor-mechanic father and homemaker mother expected her to pick up. “I started off playing cricket, but then switched over to basketball in fifth standard,” Sonkar says over a phone chat.

Sonkar’s first few months of hoops were just about getting a feel for a new sport, but after seeing her teammates and friends making it to the district and state teams, she decided she needed the same for herself.

Not coincidentally, Sonkar’s upward trajectory began at the iconic Udai Pratap College in Varanasi — the hallowed venue that has thrown up legendary international names like the ‘Singh Sisters’, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Trideep Rai.

Rising Through The Ranks

Within a year of picking up basketball for the first time, Sonkar began steadily rising through the ranks, representing Uttar Pradesh state at the U-14 and U-16 levels, while simultaneously getting called up to Indian national team camps. It was during one of these camps in 2010 that the prestigious IMG Academy conducted special tryouts at the Sanskriti School in New Delhi.

The petite Sonkar was nowhere close to being the tallest player on the floor. But pitted against 27 other hopefuls that included national standouts like Poojamol KS, Sharanjeet Kaur and Sangeeta Kaur, it was Sonkar, along with Delhi’s Soumya Babbar, and Chhattisgarh’s Kavita Akula and Pooja Ambastha, who made the final cut. IMG coaches Daniel Barto and Andy Borman were particularly impressed with Sonkar’s ball handling, stamina and willingness to play hard on every possession.

Eventually, the four girls, along with four boys (one of whom was none other than future household name Satnam Singh), received full basketball scholarships to train and study at the state-of-the-art IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

The North American Experience

“My parents were really worried. How would I cope? How would I manage? I didn’t even know any English back then,” Sonkar says. Hearing her now speaking flawlessly with a strong American accent, it’s hard to believe that this confident girl was once a shy, timid teenager back in Sarsauli, Varanasi.

“The first few months in the US were hard, but I adjusted after that.” Adjust she did, so much so that Sonkar’s American friends now outnumber her Indian ones. She doesn’t even miss Indian food much. “I know it is not good for me,” she explains. The butter-drenched parathas and spicy curries have been replaced by a healthy staple of boiled eggs, brown bread, milk, cut fruits, grilled chicken and salads.

“Now whenever I go back home, little girls come up to me and tell me that they want to be like me,” Sonkar says. “Who would have thought that?” she adds rhetorically, the pride in her voice palpable.

If the narrow bylanes of ancient Banaras taught her to dream about playing for India, the sprawling IMG Academy has made her aspire for more: become the first Indian national in the WNBA.

Fundraisers From Indian Well-Wishers

Now 20-years-old, Sonkar has just completed her freshman year at Hillsborough Community College, Florida. But as recently as last summer, after her graduation from IMG, Sonkar’s extended stay in the US had looked unlikely. That was until numerous well-wishers from the Indian basketball community, led by yesteryear star Shiba Maggon, rallied to collect funds for her college tuition.

Since then, Sonkar has conveyed her gratitude with consistent performances for Hillsborough. Competing in Region VIII of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) circuit, which comprises community and junior colleges across the state of Florida, Sonkar started 16 of her team’s 27 regular season games. Despite limited minutes, she still averaged close to 10 points per game, leading to her selection in the mid-Florida Conference All Second team. While her team didn’t make the playoffs, Sonkar has received interest for her performances from scouts. She is hopeful of a transfer to a Division 1 or Division 2 college in the much more competitive NCAA circuit after her sophomore year.

For now, though, the psychology major is happy to enjoy her offseason, and continue honing her academic and hardwood skills.

“As my parents keep telling me, ‘Tum wahaan mann laga ke padhna, mann laga ke khelna.’” (Focus on your studies and play with passion.)

All images are courtesy Barkha Sonkar.

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NBA.COM Staff

May 19th, 07:28 AM

Saturday mornings at the Andheri YMCA basketball courts in Mumbai are peculiar. While children practising on one end is a given, what makes this day of the week different is a 50-year-old man on the other end — fit as a fiddle — nonchalantly draining three-pointers. From a distance, his laidback attitude may fool onlookers, but upon closer inspection, you’ll realise he is counting every make. Welcome to the unassuming world of Rajesh Srivastava.

An Early Start

Born in the city, now famously known as ‘the cradle of Indian basketball’, Srivastava holds the distinction of being the first player from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to don the Indian colours. The son of a Railways’ employee, Srivastava lived with his parents in the quarters opposite the Railways’ sports complex.

Srivastava loved sports and was drawn to athletics and cricket in particular. However, late in the evenings, he found himself sitting in his balcony and staring at the floodlit basketball court. “I never considered playing basketball. I only joined because the seniors practising there asked me to try the sport,” Srivastava says.

Srivastava began practising with the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) Railways’ team. As fate would have it, he grew fond of seeing the ball go through the net. “Basketball challenged me mentally as well as physically. I wanted to master it.”

Hours of repetition bore fruit and in 1978, Srivastava broke into the U-13 Varanasi district team. But he was nowhere close to being satisfied.

Putting In The Hard Yards

During evening practises with the Railways, Srivastava came across Mangat – a hockey player for the Railways team. “Mangat was 5 ft-8 in, but jumped high enough to touch the rim with his head. I knew I wanted to jump as high as him and decided to mimic his training.” Srivastava joined Mangat for his morning practises at 5 am, running 10-15 kms before returning home in time for school. The extra work paid off and in 1980 he broke into the Junior Indian team where he often outran, outjumped and wore down his teammates in scrimmages.

In 1981, his hustle and dedication at the junior level led to a call up to the Senior India camp at the age of 16. He immediately realised that he was in the presence of greatness, with legends like Abdul Hamid and Ajmer Singh taking him under their wing. In 1982, Srivastava was named captain of the Junior India team. The very next year, he broke into the senior India rotation under the captaincy of his mentor Abdul Hamid.

A New Chapter

1985 was an important year for Srivastava’s development. He decided to move to Malleshwaram, Bengaluru to pursue his engineering degree from RV College of Engineering. To ensure his complete focus on studies, he made himself unavailable for Team India duties. His practise hours reduced and hence his physical prowess and dominance diminished. “I was finding it difficult to compete with even local players. My stamina and fitness were my major strengths. My fundamentals were never the strongest.”

Srivastava’s move to Malleshwaram coincided with the golden era of Malleshwaram basketball. There Srivastava saw international players like SV Ganesh, G Dilip, RT Viswanath, and many more share the same court. Srivastava knew he was at the bottom of the pecking order and needed to work his way up. “Those guys weren’t as physically fit but somehow always outplayed me. Their games were refined and had finesse.”

Srivastava had found a new challenge – refining his game. He spent hours on the sidelines observing players, and picked their brain to learn new techniques. “SV Ganesh rarely played basketball, but still always outrebounded everyone every single time he stepped on court. He taught me the importance of positioning for rebounding.” Srivastava grew exponentially and became a much more complete player. In his four years there, he represented Karnataka every single year.

The ‘Crossover’

In 1989, Srivastava completed his mechanical engineering and got placed at Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), Bihar. Upon joining, TISCO encouraged Srivastava to play for their corporate team and he complied. He represented Bihar and made his comeback into the Indian squad. However, he felt his work was suffering. “Due to India camps, I was away for over six months at a stretch and once I was back, I felt I was losing touch with the work I was hired for.”

Srivastava was in a dilemma: either to quit and become a full-time player or to carry on in his current job. During this critical phase of his life, he received guidance from his boss, who told Srivastava, “Nothing stops you from contributing towards the sport [even] if you stop playing [actively].”

With his boss’s advice etched in his mind, Srivastava knew he had to find a balance and decided to move away from mechanical work. “I needed something mentally stimulating and began exploring my interest in software.” In 1994, Srivastava put in a request seeking a transfer to the software division of the Tata Company. To his happy surprise, his request was granted.

Basketball And The Corporate World

Srivastava stopped representing India in 1996, but continued to represent Bihar state until 1998. Currently 50 years ‘young’ and still in the best shape of his life, he often takes on the younger players of the Andheri YMCA and teaches them the ropes of the game, while successfully managing his software career. Now working at Mastech Digital, he sees a lot of parallels between the corporate world and basketball. “The rules of both the worlds are the same – Success at any cost!”

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NBA.COM Staff

June 18th, 02:35 AM

Basketball was a game that was invented back in 1891 to keep young students in a Massachusetts gym constructively occupied during the cold winter months. The sport has since evolved, teaching millions of people worldwide much more than just winning and losing.

Destined To Be A Trainer

Born exactly 100 years later in 1991, halfway across the world from Massachusetts in New Delhi, Pradyut Voleti seemed destined to a life in hoops.

An alumnus of Mayo College, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and Amity University, Voleti learnt aspects of life through basketball. “When things got frustrating, when nothing was going right, I used to go play basketball to make it alright. I needed it,” Voleti says. “Basketball has taught me who I am, it’s more than just a game. It’s become a mode of communication for me, a common language to reach out to the kids around the world.”

While he loved basketball growing up, playing in teams didn’t appeal to Voleti. He felt something was amiss. His understanding of the game seemed at odds with what Indian players and coaches thought and taught.

Having always paid extra attention to the basics, Voleti’s notion of basketball stemmed from a position similar to that of James Naismith, the game’s founding father, that basketball had to have a positive impact on young impressionable lives.

Path Less Taken

“Kids should have the privilege of learning basketball the right way,” Voleti says. In this search for putting the right practice in place, Voleti, at age 22, decided to move out of India to learn from the very best. He trained under the acclaimed Ganon Baker in Florida, as part of the Shadow Coaching Programme at Elev8 Sports Institute. He was also personally tutored by Cody Toppert, a Cornell legend, who has played nine years in Europe and in the NBA D-League. Young as he was, Voleti wanted people to take him seriously in the world of basketball. He wanted to be heard. He knew his basketball credibility in India needed to be quantified for others to hear him out.

“I didn’t always plan on becoming a coach. I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. Unfortunately I couldn’t work it out, and like always, I hit the basketball court once again and that’s when it all started.”

Born into a family of doctors, there was a social stigma in the community that “Doctor ka beta basketball coach bann raha hai (The son of doctors is becoming a basketball coach).” But nothing would now stop Voleti from taking that leap. He studied players, teams and coaches in different settings across India and realized that there was no structure in the way basketball was being taught to kids in India. So he took it upon himself to develop basketball from the grassroots.

The Gheja Village Project

Voleti returned to India in 2014 and was eager to put his learning into practice and founded the ‘Dribble Academy’. Like Naismith tutored young athletes at YMCA, Springfield with a peach basket, Voleti began by putting up a couple of bamboo sticks and a hoop for the underprivileged kids in his Noida neighbourhood. This would eventually lead to the creation of the Gheja Village Project in the backyard of a public school tucked in behind the tall residential buildings of Noida Sector 93A.

Voleti’s intention was to keep the kids of the village away from drugs and give them a platform to forget all their sorrows. “Most of these kids face domestic violence and are victims of their parents’ alcoholism. They do petty crimes and aimlessly live out their childhood. I wanted to keep them from doing such things. I wanted them to channelize their energy and do something productive.”

What started off as a single hoop planted in that small assembly ground, is today a dance floor for 300 underprivileged kids to dream big. Focusing on fundamental basketball and life skills training, Voleti has transformed the lives of some of these kids by ensuring scholarships for them in elite institutions.

Aiming Higher

The 26-year-old Voleti is now a FIBA Level II Certified Coach, one of only 75 such coaches in India, and among the youngest.

Since the Dribble Academy & Gheja project tipped off in 2014, Voleti, has since travelled across the nation conducting short duration camps at schools, colleges and even Army battalions. He has visited his own alma mater Mayo from where the word of mouth caught up and soon there were other schools like Lawrence School and Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya that started inviting him to do programmes. Kids from Gheja village regularly travel together and conduct special exhibition workouts at prominent public events and schools across north India.

Voleti continues to invest his own money into the Gheja Village project and has also started raising funds to extend its reach.

His plan is to adopt more villages under the brand of ‘Dribble Academy Foundation’ and give hope to many other underprivileged kids. He is also looking to open an elite indoor facility where he would invite different players, teams and coaches and continue ‘impacting lives’ as the Dribble Academy motto proudly professes.

The feature image used in this piece is courtesy: Ananth Kumar

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NBA.COM Staff

June 25th, 02:30 AM

When Geethu Anna Rahul was contacted for this article, she had a two-month-old in her arms and a two-and-a-half-year-old in tow. Arguably the greatest female basketball player to come out of India, Geethu was besieged by her domestic obligations. Aaryaan – the youngest – and Aaradhan are now the top priority for her. Not the Arjuna Award — something she won in 2014 to end a 13-year long wait for the Indian basketball community — that is tucked away in a crowded trophy case.

Perhaps a life of domestic routine suits her just fine, and why not? Unconditional devotion to basketball has brought her to this phase of her life, where at age 31 she can put up those tired legs and catch a ball game on TV without being involved. But can you rob an athlete of their love for a sport when all they’ve done for a large part of their lives is love the sport? Of course not. Geethu’s case is no different.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

“I come from a middle-class family in Kottayam (Kerala) where my father, mother, elder sister and younger brother lived in a small house,” Geethu says from her humble abode in Thiruvananthapuram. “Sport wasn’t a big deal in our place so they weren’t going to invest money. But once they understood that basketball isn’t a fad, they catered to my basic needs. We were made to understand our financial limitations early on so we never asked for more than what was absolutely necessary.”

Lessons learnt at home were further accentuated at Carmel High School in Kottayam where Geethu did her schooling, but true learning happened on court. “We only had a coach for basketball in our school, and one of the biggest tournaments in our town was the Senior Virginia Memorial tournament, which was a big deal back then. As a kid, I remember wanting to be like those people, who played there so I thought I’d give basketball a shot,” Geethu explains. “You must understand, I was a district level champion in athletics in 1998 and I would’ve continued with that had there been a good coach. Unfortunately or fortunately there was only a basketball coach.”

The naive but obviously talented girl ticked all the boxes for school coach Venu Gopal. She had the height, athletic build, intelligence to understand a complex sport and a high threshold for pain. Above all, by the time Venu Gopal took her under his wing, she was in love with basketball.

Her skill level grew as rapidly as her frame and before she knew it she was “forcefully” on a train to Chennai to attend Southern Railways’ trials in 2003. “I only went because my friend Cimi forced me to go,” Geethu says.

DEADLY DUO

It is at those trials that Geethu met another budding superstar, Anitha Pauldurai and the two complemented each other perfectly. “She [Geethu] was just an innocent little girl when she came. She had the athletic ability but she had zero game sense. That changed fast,” Anitha says.

As these two worked with a Karl Malone-John Stockton-like efficiency — Geethu, a 6 ft 2 in centre and Anitha, a 5 ft 7 in shooting guard — Southern Railways grew into a dynasty. Their alliance was such that the senior Indian women’s team had to bring them in. Therein began their next phase, one where they would rule women’s basketball in India with iron fists. “I think we must have played around 200 games together,” Geethu reminisces. “We were a superb combination.”

WATCH: Geethu Anna Rahul – Dunking hard and dreaming big 

While Anitha’s playmaking skills were without a doubt the best in the country, Geethu’s presence under the board at 6-2 was a never before seen sight. Her movement under the rim was so good she was eventually signed up by Ringwood Hawks to play the Australian Big V tournament in 2006. She was even called on by Dandenong Rangers to feature for them in the Women’s National Basketball League in Australia in 2008. Unfortunately, it was an offer she had to refuse. “I came back to India for a week, but I couldn’t go back,” Geethu says. “I cried a lot for missing that chance, but that’s fate.”

Still, she had learnt enough by then to turn heads back home. Her growth prompted the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to name her the captain of the senior side in 2009.

WNBA DREAMS

Geethu finished as the overall leading scorer in the 2009 Asian Championships, a remarkable feat in itself, but began to fear that her career was going to be limited to the Indian and Southern Railways teams.

But soon an incredible opportunity presented itself in 2011, when WNBA teams Chicago Sky, Los Angeles Sparks and San Antonio Silver Stars called her for tryouts. “I couldn’t even arrange tickets to travel,” Geethu says. “Eventually Hindustan University in Chennai and BFI managed to pay. Players usually take two years to prepare with international coaches and specific diets to make it to that league. I had nothing. I ate at home like always and trained like always. By the time I got there I was too weak, but I still impressed a lot of them. I didn’t make it but I went further than most.”

Listening to her, you can tell she isn’t content with just being ‘further than most’. Geethu has her sights set on a return to the court, either as a player or a coach. It won’t be easy for this mother of two, but she has all the motivation she needs. Mary Kom — the legendary Indian boxer who won two of her five World Championships and the bronze medal at the London Olympics in 2012 after giving birth to two kids — is Geethu’s inspiration.

For now, though, this down-to-earth superstar is happy being a mother first, baller second.

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*Feature image courtesy Basketball Federation of India

This article Geethu Anna Rahul: India’s Legendary Basketball Star Isn’t Quite Done Yet can be found on NBA.com, India's exclusive destination for the latest on the NBA.