November 1, 2017

Indian basketball star Amjyot Singh makes OKC Blue roster in the NBA G-League


Last week, Indian basketball fans received a new excuse for celebration, a continuing Diwali miracle: homegrown basketball star Amjyot Singh had beaten the final buzzer and drafted among the final picks of the NBA's G-League Draft by the Oklahoma City Blue. Amjyot's selection was the 103rd pick (the 25th pick of the fourth and final round) of the night, ensuring that the Blue would have the rights to bring him in for his medical, training camp, and a possibility of making the team's final 2017-18 roster.

For the past week, the 25-year-old Amjyot has been in Oklahoma City, competing with other young dreamers for the final available spots. On Tuesday, the Blue waived two players from training camp and announced their final roster for the season - which included Amjyot! The 6-foot-8 forward will play stack up among Blue players such as PJ Dozier and Daniel Hamilton for a team led by Head Coach Mark Daigneault.

G-League contracts are non-guaranteed, which means that Amjyot can be dropped at any point in case of injury, better options, players being sent down from the Blue's NBA affiliate Oklahoma City Thunder, etc. Still, this is big news for Amjyot. He has become the third Indian citizen to flirt with the G-League, after India's first NBA draft pick Satnam Singh played for the Texas Legends for two years and Palpreet Singh was became the first Indian to be drafted in the G-League - by the Long Island Nets - last year. Palpreet, however, never made the Nets' final roster.

Amjyot is one of India's most talented basketball players, one of the national team's "Big Three" along with Amritpal Singh and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi. For the past five years, he has been India's most consistent scorer on the international stage and helped India to many high-profile victories. Amjyot played professionally in Japan's Summer League and Development League a few years ago and is an accomplished international 3x3 basketball star. Originally from Chandigarh, the 6-foot-8, 25-year-old forward was India's captain and leading scorer at the recently-completed FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon. Amjyot was trained at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy in Punjab and played domestically for IOB (Chennai), Punjab Police, and the Delhi Capitals of the UBA League.

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