Rajesh Patel: Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame

Dedicated to basketball development for over three decades until this death a year ago, Rajesh Patel is today's addition to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame. For over 33 years, Patel excelled at coaching and developing Madhya Pradesh, and more prominently, for Chhattisgarh basketball programmes, helping dozens of young players win medals and achieve their dreams. He passed away in May 2018 at age 62.

Patel will be remembered as one of the most dedicated and hard-working leaders in Indian basketball. He played briefly for Madhya Pradesh in his youth and joined the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in 1980. By 1985, he turned all of his efforts into coaching the basketball recruits at Bhilai. When Chhattisgarh gained independent statehood from Madhya Pradesh, Patel became the state’s basketball secretary. He set up a residential basketball academy in Bhilai and recruited dozens of players from nearby regions — many of whom were from tribal or underprivileged backgrounds — to teach them the game.

Over the years, he helped 85 young women secure jobs under the sports quota at the Indian Railways. 41 of his alumni have represented the Indian national team at various age levels, and seven have been Indian national team captains. Some of the top players to have risen under Patel’s tutelage include Anju Lakra, Bharti Netam, Seema Singh, Poonam Chaturvedi, Kavita Akula (the first Indian to win NCAA D1 scholarship in the United States), Akanksha Singh, Maddu Pushpa and many more. Several male players like Ajay Pratap Singh also credit Patel and the BSP for their rise to prominence.

As head coach of Chhattisgarh since 2001, he delivered 104 medals, including 69 gold medals, to the state in the 17-year stretch in National Basketball Championships, National Games, and the Federation Cup. In 2015, he was named India’s Most Successful Basketball Coach by the Limca Book of Records. For his contributions to grassroots basketball in India, Patel was felicitated at the FICCI sports summit in 2010.

Click here for more of the Indian Basketball Hall of Fame.

Rajesh Patel, the most-decorated basketball coach in India, passes away at 62

This article was first published in my column for The Times of India Sports on May 8, 2018. Read the original piece here.

I vividly remember one of the first times I saw Rajesh Patel—coach and spearheading force of Chhattisgarh basketball—in action on the side-lines of a basketball court. It was the 2010 Junior National Basketball Championship in Vashi, Maharashtra, the annual tournament featuring the top under-18 players in the nation. By then, Patel had already turned Chhattisgarh’s junior, youth, and sub-junior level girls into the most successful programme of the decade, winning dozens of medals across the various competitions. He was Chhattisgarh basketball secretary, its chief talent scout and recruiter, it’s media relations-person, and on this day in Vashi in a preliminary round game against Delhi, he was there in his favourite role: head coach.

Chhattisgarh had begun the game in a blitz, leading 25-2 after the first quarter. But as the girls walked back to the bench, Patel still seemed unhappy.

“You slowed down in the end,” he told them. “This is a 40-minute game, and we have only played 10. We lead by 20 now, I want us to lead by 50 by the time the game's over.”

With ruthless efficiency, they followed his command, and by the game ended, Chhattisgarh had secured a 69-48 victory. Not quite the margin he had envisioned, but it would be good enough.

Ironically, the 2010 Junior Nationals were one of the few years when Chhattisgarh’s girls didn’t win a medal. For Patel, such failure was a rare, almost alien occurrence. For 33 years, he dedicated his life to coaching the game to youngsters from Chhattisgarh’s rural, tribal, and other nearby regions. As head coach of Chhattisgarh since 2001, he delivered 104 medals, including 69 gold medals, to the state in the 17-year stretch in National Basketball Championships, National Games, and the Federation Cup. In 2015, he was named India’s Most Successful Basketball Coach by the Limca Book of Records.

It was en route to another Junior National Championship—the 2018 Junior Nationals in Ludhiana, Punjab—that he breathed his last. Patel got a sudden cardiac arrest during the train journey on Monday, May 7, and passed away in Panipat. He was 62-years-old, and was reportedly diabetic and suffering from kidney issues.

Patel will be remembered as one of the most dedicated and hard-working leaders in Indian basketball. In his youth, he played for Madhya Pradesh and joined the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in 1980. By 1985, he turned all of his efforts into coaching the basketball recruits at Bhilai.

In 2000, Chhattisgarh gained independent statehood from Madhya Pradesh and Patel became the state’s basketball secretary the following year. He set up a residential basketball academy in Bhilai and recruited dozens of players from nearby regions—many of whom were from tribal or underprivileged backgrounds—to teach them the game. His mission was simple: to help these young girls earn employment through the sports quota.

He found astonishing success. Patel’s Chhattisgarh teams were renowned for their speed and efficiency, running lesser prepared opponents off the floor with ease. They won or were in the mix of winning every under-age championship in Indian domestic basketball for nearly two decades, and it was only when his top players were successfully recruited by units like the Indian Railways that the senior level Chhattisgarh teams saw a dip in results.

Over the years, he helped 85 young women secure jobs under the sports quota at the Indian Railways. 41 of his alumni have represented the Indian national team at various age levels, and seven have been Indian national team captains. Some of the top players to have risen under Patel’s tutelage include Anju Lakra, Bharti Netam, Seema Singh, Poonam Chaturvedi, Kavita Akula, Akanksha Singh, Maddu Pushpa and many more. Several male players like Ajay Pratap Singh also credit Patel and the BSP for their rise to prominence.

Notable stories among these players include that of Poonam Chaturvedi, originally from Kanpur, was discovered by Patel and grew to be the tallest woman basketball player in India at 6-foot-11. Chaturvedi was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2014 but made a comeback to the game and continued to be a major part of Patel’s Chhattisgarh state team. On the other side of the “height” spectrum is 22-year-old Kavita Akula, a five-foot-six point guard who earned scholarship to the IMG Academy in Florida at 14 and, last year, became the first Indian to be offered a full basketball scholarship in an NCAA Division 1 university, the Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.

For his contributions to grassroots basketball in India, Patel was felicitated at the FICCI sports summit in 2010.

Twice during his tenure, Chhattisgarh’s Senior teams reached the finals of the prestigious National Championship. In 2014, Chhattisgarh pulled off a stunning upset of Railways in the final of the National Championship in New Delhi, ending Railways’ ten-year winning streak. The victory inspired Bollywood, too, and a production team led by Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi has since shown interest in making a film about Patel and his squad.

Patel continued to lead and coach until his last days, and his sudden death on Monday brought an outpouring of respect an emotion from Indian basketball veterans on social media and in the news.

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) wrote in a statement: “The Indian Basketball family lost a legend today as former Indian team Head Coach and current Chhattisgarh team Head Coach Mr. Rajesh Patel passed away. Coach Rajesh Patel was one of the best Basketball Coaches in India and was a true gem of a person. May his soul rest in peace.”

“His dedication to basketball is beyond everything,” wrote India’s veteran coach, former player, and referee Shiba Maggon. “His life is a complete journey of basketball. His efforts gave hundreds of families food in the house, jobs to the girls. He raised hopes for the girls to make something out of life.”

Anju Lakra, one of the many success stories of Patel’s programme, summed up the coach’s extraordinary influence: “He helped us break free.”

Patel will always be synonymous with Chhattisgarh Basketball, and will particularly be remembered for leading the charge to help female athletes in a culture where their efforts are often undermined and their opportunities few and far between. He exemplified the potential of the sport, it’s power to provide both excellence on the court and hope off of it.

On the way to the Junior Nationals, Patel passed away doing what he loved best, leading a group of young women to more basketball opportunities. His legacy will now be carried forward by the athletes whose lives he transformed.

Indian star Kavita Akula gets full college scholarship to play D1 basketball for Grand Canyon University

Seven years ago, the IMG Academy in Florida selected eight Indian teenagers on scholarship to be trained in basketball and educated in the United States. The youngsters developed in different ways and some found more success than others. The biggest name in the group turned out to be Satnam Singh, a seven-footer from Punjab, who in 2015 bypassed college to become the first Indian player to be drafted to the NBA.

But while Satnam hogged the limelight, another star from the original group of eight has blossomed from the shadows.

Talented guard Kavita Akula - from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh - has made history by becoming the first Indian-born female basketball player to receive a full scholarship from a Division 1 college in the United States, the Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. After making a name for herself in two years of junior college at the Garden City Community College (GCCC) in Kansas, this is a major step forward for the 21-year-old.

Akula signed a letter of intent with Grand Canyon on Monday and will be joining them in September this year. ESPN reported that Akula will major in business management and marketing.

More reporting from Aishwarya Kumar for ESPN.com:

Akula had two offers on her plate -- one from Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Arizona and another from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania -- but she decided to sign with Grand Canyon because of their new head coach, Nicole Powell, who is a former WNBA All-Star.
"Coach Powell has great energy and she is looking for somebody who can lead the team, and I thought I will fit in well," Akula said. "Coach said my experience playing junior college will help the team."

Before she begins her new journey, however, Akula's attentions will be diverted back home. Over the next few months, she will be practicing with India's national women's team as the prepare for the prestigious FIBA Asia Women's Cup, set to be held on home soil in Bengaluru in July. Akula was last part of Team India at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship where she couldn't break into the rotation. With her game seeing rapid improvements over the last couple of years, she will be expected to play a much bigger role this time around.

At GCCC, Akula led the team in three-pointers in both her freshman and sophomore campaigns, falling five treys short of the school’s career record, set by Marci Johnson from 1999 to 2001. She was a rising star in Chhattisgarh before being picked for the IMG Academy and has played for India at the junior levels in the past. You can read more of her fascinating basketball journey in this older article by Aishwarya Kumar for ESPN.

Chhattisgarh Women's incredible basketball team could soon be the subject of a Bollywood film

Sports, some may argue, are just a pastime, a distraction to keep the average person relieved from a life that can be filled with otherwise serious challenges of family, work, politics, and survival. In the big scheme of things, who really cares which way the ball bounced? Who cares about heroes on a basketball court of a cricketing field when there are greater heroes fighting for humanity in the 'real life'?

No, sports may not save humanity, but I believe that sporting stories can definitely help improve humanity a little. In many ways, the basketball court or that cricket field serves as a timely metaphor for us of the stage of life. How you perform, how hard you work, how you overcome adversity, how you fight to win, and how you remain a 'good sport' through the ups and the downs can indeed teach us much about living a fulfilling and successful life. This is why sports remain popular, and why stories about sports continue to inspire us.

This is why Bollywood - another medium of distraction and escapism which can also serve as a teaching metaphor - has often chosen sports as its muse in the past. Films like Lagaan, Chak De! India, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Mary Kom, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Iqbal, and more have caught the public's imagination in the past through sports like Cricket, Hockey, Athletics, Boxing, Cycling, etc. It seems that now, thanks to the success of an inspirational team from the state of Chhattisgarh, Basketball will be given another shot in Indian cinema.

The central Indian state Chhattisgarh was formed back in November 2000 by by partitioning Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh. MP has always featured decent basketball teams, and a small pool of that talent would now form the base of the basketball programmes in the new state. But the efforts of one man - Rajesh Patel - didn't just help jump-start basketball in Chhattisgarh; he made the sport almost synonymous with the state. Working at the coach at the Bhilai Steel Plant and as the Head Coach of all of Chhattisgarh's State women's teams, Patel has led the teams to extraordinary success, dominating the Sub-Junior (U14), Youth (U16), and Junior (U18) national tournaments, and most recently, winning back-to-back championships in India's largest domestic basketball meet - the Senior Nationals - in 2014 and 2015. The girls' in Patel's programmes have overcome underprivileged backgrounds, a patriarchal society, and the the case of 2015 national MVP Poonam Chaturvedi, a brain tumour, all to become India's fiercest women's basketball team and go on to earn a better future for themselves through government jobs (that sponsor basketball) and India's national team.

The Indian Express writer Shivani Naik spoke to Patel after his team's most recent national triumph and divulged that several influential names in the Bollywood world have expressed interest in turning the story of his team into a Chak-De style film for Indian Basketball. According to Naik's, actor-producer Lara Dutta Bhupathi has been a fan of Chhattisgarh basketball and is looking to back a project to oversee the production of this story. Naik's article also connects names such as Vikramaditya Motwane (the brilliant young director of Udaan and Lootera) and Dutta's husband and tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi to those interested in the making of this film.

“Yes, Lara Dutta had read about the academy [in Bhilai] and wanted to make a movie on the state women’s team," Patel was quoted as saying, "We’ve had detailed discussions and two of their team members flew down to Bhilai last September and spoke to the girls who are very excited. They promised that it would not be a masala film."

Dutta has a history as a basketball fan; she was famously given an all-access trip to the Los Angeles Lakers back in 2008, and it's great to hear that she's turning her interest in the sport to focus the attention on hoops back in India.

This is of course not the first flirtation of Bollywood and Basketball. Several years ago, I wrote about pivotal scenes from three famous Bollywood movies that included the game, including Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan playing in the most cringe-worthy full-court one-on-one flirtatious game of All Time in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. But except for a few moments of hoops action, these films focused on entirely different issues. Last year, "Vallinam", a Tamil movie based on basketball was released to moderate/low fanfare. And I have no clue what has happened with the promise of '4 PM on the court'. If this project sees the light of the day, it would be the first re-telling of a true basketball story in India and - judging by the names attached to it - by far the best one.

The story will probably focus on Bhilai and how Patel's academy has turned unknown youngsters into basketball wonders. The Bhilai Steel Plant is the financial powerhouse behind providing infrastructure and manpower for Chhattisgarhi basketball, including four well-maintained outdoor courts. The Bhilai Engineering Corporation sponsor the state’s ‘Basketball Hostel’. At this hostel, around 20 girls and 10 boys, usually from poor families, are housed all year long, where they eat, pray, and love basketball, practicing 10 hours each day, morning and evening, on repeat.

At the helm of this project is the coach, Rajesh Patel. Patel is Honorary Secretary of the Chhattisgarh Basketball Association, the Deputy Manager (Sports) at Bhilai Steel Plant, and has invested over 30 years into the game. He has built a well-planned system, where his scouts bring young players (around age 10-11) from deprived conditions and offer them a chance to make a living through basketball. “These are really poor kids from all around the state of Chhattisgarh,” Patel told me in an interview several years ago, “Some are from tribal families. Some can't even afford to buy a pair of slippers for their feet. Some have father’s who drive auto-rickshaws, or sell paan. We offer them the opportunity that if they are successful in basketball, they will be able to land a government job. By the time they leave, I want them to earn for themselves and be able to stand on their own two feet.”

And they don’t just stand, they stand tall. In his several decades in coaching, hundreds of players that have trained under Patel have received government jobs under the sports quota. A few dozen that haves trained under him have represented the Indian Sr. National team. He has worked with close to eight thousand young players in the state. For his contributions to grassroots basketball in India, Patel was felicitated at the FICCI sports summit in 2010.

In the interview with Naik this week, Patel said of the girls in this team, “The kind of families they come from, even their next meal is not assured, forget about completing their education. I think girls should do more than just be married off at 18 years. My girls play aggressive ball and are posted as ticket collectors at big stations. They go to work from 7 am to 5 pm, and come back and train. Nothing makes me more proud than seeing them in their blazers going about their work professionally. On the court, they are expected to win of course."

If someone like Motwane - whose movies and scripts I have personally admired a lot - the project will surely have a better chance at some critical success. Apart from the Head Coach himself, the central character of this tale may well be the literal centerpiece of the team, Poonam Chaturvedi. At 6-foot-8, 19-year-old Chaturvedi is now Chattisgarh's best player, an unstoppable star who shined bright in the nationals and scored 48 points in the final en route to her MVP campaign. What makes her story more intriguing though is that she was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year, and despite the painful recovery, has managed to lead her team to back-to-back national championships. Other stars in the team like Sharanjeet Kaur, Seema Singh, Akansha Singh, Anju Lakra, Bharti Netam, M. Pushpa, Sangeetha Kaur, and more have played a crucial role in the last decade of Chhattisgarh's success and performed successfully for India at the international stage.

The only trouble, of course, would be find tall actresses to fill these shoes, especially the ones belonging to the 6-foot-8 Chaturvedi!

They might be a distraction or an escape, but sports and films do indeed bring us the inspiration to make the most of our lives. And if it's done right, a Bollywood film on the dominating girls of Chhattisgarh could make for an engaging and encouraging story. And of course, any mainstream attention to basketball is bound to inspire young players to take up this blog's favourite sport!

Homecoming: Inderbir Gill brings his basketball knowledge back to India

While India is yet to produce a world-class basketball talent, there have been several Indian-origin players who have had some measure of success in foreign leagues or with colleges. And in many cases, a number of these players have expressed the desire to look to the country of their origin and contribute to the game. Of course, India has more complex rulings about the naturalization of foreign players, and so many of the playing dreams have been incomplete.

Inderbir Gill, who was born in Punjab and immigrated to the USA at age 11 and went on to become a basketball star Northern University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), had those dreams, too. In 2011, Gill was named the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) Player of the Year. A few months later, he spoke to me about his intentions to returns to his parents' homeland.

"I am a proud Indian and to represent India and to wear India’s basketball jersey would be the greatest honour for me," Gill said, "Basketball is on the rise in India and it would be great to be a part of it."

That vision didn't materialize, but Gill has found another way of contributing to the growth of Indian hoops over the past few months.

Gill is currently holding an internship position with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), working with India's national coaches on the field and travelling across the country - from Chhattisgarh to Delhi to Gujarat - to track and train young talent. He has been in India since November and his internship - part of the Masters degree in Athletics Leadership that he is currently pursuing with the University of Washington - will stretch out till April.

Gill has worked primarily with India's two foreign national team coaches, Scott Flemming (Men) and Francisco Garcia (Women). He travelled with Garcia, Strength and Conditioning Coach Zak Penwell, and Assistant and former player Divya Singh to hold a basketball camp in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) starting late November 2013, where he helped train over 50 players from the ages of 6-20. He worked with India's national-level under-14 boys and girls at a camp in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, along with Coach Scott Flemming. And he was also at the Federation Cup in Ahmedabad a couple of weeks ago, watching over India's top talent.

"My schedule has been pleasantly hectic with travels to several camps in the time that I have been here," Gill said, "The best part of my trip has been meeting all the players, the coaches, and the support staff. There is a lot of talent here that just needs the right support and teaching to flourish. It feels great to be contributing towards the future of this game and towards skills development and future of these young talented players."

Gill has been in the unique position to learn from two great coaching minds while teaching to other coaches and young players at the same time. "I have learned a lot from both of the coaches [Flemming and Garcia] in my short time so far. I have not yet had the time to fully reflect on all of the experiences, but that will hopefully happen by the end of the internship! They have differing styles, of course: Coach Flemming's style is American, while Coach Garcia's style is European. The styles reflect somewhat different philosophies but both coaches have been very successful. Despite the differences, they both emphasize the importance of basketball fundamentals and paying attention to detail during the plays."

Gill was born in 1987 in the city of Hoshiarpur in North Punjab. He still has family near Jalandhar. In 1998, when he was just 11 years old, Gill's family left India and immigrated to the United States. They settled in the city of Spokane in Washington State in 2000. It was here that he was first introduced to basketball and the hoops journey took off: Gill used his quickness and natural instincts to master the game and was soon selected for his high school basketball team. From there on, the 6-foot point guard got better every year, leading eventually to his starring years at UNBC.

In UNBC, he was a perfect fit, leading the team to their best-ever finish at the National Tournament in his first season (4th), and being named in the BCCAA first team all star. A year later came the glory - UNBC went 17-1 over the course of the season, finishing at the top of the conference table. Gill was named the CCAA Male Athlete of the Year across all sports, but saved his best for the CCAA National Tournament. Behind 32 points and 6 assists by Gill, UNBC won the CCAA National Championship, and Gill was named the tournament's MVP. A year later, the CCAA recognised him as Player of the Year.

Gill only returned to India twice after immigrating, but this internship has rekindled that long-lost relationship with the country of his birth.

"It's been a lot of fun for me," he says, "I have enjoyed working with the kids: they really want to learn and put in a lot of hours in improving their game."

But India - as we all know - still has a long way to go.

"The camp in Chhattisgarh was a great platform for the players to show their skills and learn. I feel that the players really worked hard but lacked resources, such as proper training facility (the court was too slippery and dangerous to play on), shoes, and basketballs. They spent a great deal of the day (about 6-8 hours) practicing, which I felt is too long for practices and not appropriately utilized. We encouraged them to pay attention to details and to the basketball fundamentals."

"The most shocking and surprising thing for me has been how slow things progress in India," he added, "It is frustrating to see how laziness is delaying the progress of basketball."

"If I could change a few things about basketball in India, I would create an academy where all the national players can practice and be coached all year around. It is evident that our players don't get enough training from experienced or highly qualified coaches which is impeding their success and the growth of basketball in this country."

Gill has his own coaching ambitions of course, and perhaps, even after his internship ends, he will continue to have an eye on progress in India.

"I hope to learn as much as I can about the game of basketball, about the operations of sports, about leadership, and about coaching this amazing game. I have a deep passion for basketball and for working with young players and contributing to their skills development," Gill said. "Being born and raised in India, I do feel a need to give back to this wonderful country and contribute to its development. Sports not only brings people from diverse backgrounds together but also provides a platform for individuals to improve as humans beings and learn the skills of hard work, motivation, working towards a unified goal, and team work--to name a few. Additionally, with our nation's youth being misguided by drugs and lack of activity, sports is a great way to keep the mind, the body, and the society a healthier place."

Gill's story and current involvement with the game is encouraging on various levels. It is great that young basketball players see someone who spent over a decade of his life growing up and India, discovered the game late, and was able to capitalize on the opportunities he received abroad to have a stellar college career. Gill is proof that other Indians can excel in basketball too if they put in the hard work and if India can provide them similar opportunities to the ones he received.

His internship with the BFI will also be an example to others who want to give back to the game in India. Basketball in India is still in its relative infancy, and it can use all the help it can get.

Gill has been truthful about the problems that plague the system, but he was also clear that "the basketball makes up for everything." More importantly, he sees real potential in the future.

"Yes, there is a lot of potential in the young players," he said, "I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the under 14 camp participants and their determination to improve. But, it is important that they keep working hard, and are focused on being properly trained."