Satnam Singh documentary series "#TheGrind" to be launched by Ball Don't Stop today

Photo via: Ball Don't Stop

For the last ten years, few basketball players on the planet can claim to have matched the life-changing transformation of 7-1 Indian phenon Satnam Singh. Basketball carried Satnam from a tiny farming village in Punjab to become a top junior star for his state, to America as a recruit on scholarship at the IMG Basketball Academy, and eventually, to become the first Indian to be drafted into the NBA. It's been a miraculous journey, a realisation of a daily grind and the work that Satnam put into the game.

But the grind is not yet over. Over the past year, Satnam wrapped his first season with the NBA D-League squad Texas Legends and continues to work hard to reach the next level and play in an NBA game.

To follow Satnam's story, the producers from basketball media outlet and lifestyle brand Ball Don't Stop are launching a new edition of their "#TheGrind" series on their website balldontstop.com on Monday, August 22. Over the weekend Ball Don't Stop and Satnam both shared a preview of the series on their respective Instagram accounts:

The Satnam Singh #Grind series launches on Monday 🔥💪🏾 This is episode one of a career long series that we will be bringing to you 🏀 In his first episode, @HelloSatnam puts in work @VancityStrength 👌🏾🇮🇳 #SatnamSingh #TheGrind #Punjabi #Singh #Vancouver #India

A video posted by www.balldontstop.com (@balldontstop) on Aug 20, 2016 at 9:39pm PDT

Ball Don't Stop is run by their founder and director Ekam Nagra, the Canadian citizen who decided to highlight his Indian roots with this project.

"The Satnam series is a part of our "#TheGrind" series in which we train pro players from around the world who have a unique and cool story," Nagra told me. "Satnam's series was planned by us for a few months but finally came to life when he attended our Battle At The Border event in Vancouver on August 6th, which featured Jamal Crawford and Nav Bhatia. Satnam got a standing ovation at the game from everyone in the arena, a lot of Indians were there and was honoured with an award from Ball Don't Stop and the Canadian Government. It was a great moment."

"The next day we shot our launcher episode. We put him through a strength and conditioning workout at our facility Vancity Strength. This launch episode is just to catch peoples attention; we will be following Satnam throughout his journey to and in the NBA. This will be a huge project for us and as the episodes go on he will be opening up more. This will be shown to over 200,000 fans throughout Ball Don't Stop. It will be on our YouTube channel and debut on Balldontstop.com."

The series Satnam's journey should give basketball fans worldwide an interesting insight into the sacrifices, challenges, and potential glory of following a hoop dream. Hopefully, the journey - in real life as well as in the Ball Don't Stop series - can one day feature Satnam getting his big breakthrough and playing in the NBA!

Toronto Raptors have a Sikh 'Super Fan'

Hell bent to change the stereotypes of Indian abroad, successful Sikh automobile entrepreneur Nav Bhatia has used an interesting method of getting his fellow Indian some exposure: his favourite NBA team, the Toronto Raptors.

From SiliconIndia.com

"I am the only Super Fan anointed by the NBA. Each season, I spend $300,000 to buy 3,000 seats out of the total 20,000 for games held in Toronto and distribute them free to Indian kids to watch these games from front rows. The images of our kids in turbans and Indian dress beamed into millions of homes make white people aware of our identity," he says.

This was an awesome article! Bhatia is one of the biggest Hyundai car dealers in Canada. The Indian-origin businessman is also a huge Raptors fan and can be seen at many Toronto Raptors basketball games. Apart from having famous friends in the NBA and in the business world, Bhatia even has a fan club on Facebook. The SiliconIndia article quoted above goes on to mention a lot more about the man, who was once mistaken to be a cab driver because of his Indian identity, and has used that humiliating experience as a motivation to change the identity of his fellow Indians.

The 58-year-old Sikh is also the most famous Indian face on the North America NBA circuit with his official anointing as the 'Super Fan' of the city-based NBA team called Toronto Raptors for creating a record of watching over 500 games.

"Most NBA players and referees know me personally because of my turban. That's how I used the NBA to promote awareness about our identity.

The top auto man is also credited with bringing Bollywood to Canada, with the screening the film "Hum Saath Saath Hain" here in 1999.
"It became the first Bollywood film to run at six mainstream theatres in the Toronto area. Till then no Cineplex would touch an Indian film, but I changed that," says Bhatia who has brought dozens of Indian films here since then.
Over the years, he has also staged live shows of the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, A.R. Rahman and other stars at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
"Through Bollywood films and live shows, I have succeeded in telling Canadians that we Indians have a robust culture of entrainment and solid identity. My Indian identity is very important to me."

Awesome. NBA Basketball, Bollywood, Successful Sikhs... Talk about a great start to my day...

The Raptors happen to have another Indian super-fan: she may not be as high-profile as Bhatia, but Payal Doshi, the face behind the Inside the Purple Room videos, has been celebrating and suffering (mostly suffering) with her home team for many years, too. Read about her visit to Ludhiana Mahindra NBA Challenge here.