Hoopdarshan Episode 26: NBA All Star Preview with NBA Canada's Payal Doshi

The 2016 NBA All Star Weekend is upon us, and for the first time, basketball's biggest exhibition event will take place outside the United States - in Toronto, Canada. To bring Hoopdarshan listeners closer to the event, we invited Payal Doshi, the Social Media Manager of NBA Canada, to give us a brief buzz of how Toronto has prepared for All Star. Of course, hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok give their unadulterated predictions and expectations for the All Star Weekend, too. We wrap up this episode by speaking to Payal about her experiences with Indian Basketball and reveal a big Bollywood-NBA surprise for ASW.

Toronto's own Payal Doshi is the Social Media Manager at NBA Canada. With vast experience as a writer, in TV and digital production, and social media outreach, she has worked with ANOKHI Media, The Score, OMNI Television, and more in the past. She was also the face of the famous 'Inside the Purple Room' series. You can follow her on Twitter at: @PayalDoshiTV.

The new episode of Hoopdarshan also touches on recent sobering news in Indian basketball, like the South Asian Games fiasco, and a variety of other topics in the wide breath between India and the NBA All Star Weekend, including Vince Carter tattoos, Sting, Drake, Butter Chicken, and taking Amir Johnson to the Taj Mahal.



Hoopdarshan aims to be the true voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

Make sure to follow Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud or search for 'Hoopdarshan' on the iTunes Store! Auto-sync Hoopdarshan to your preferred podcast app NOW!

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• - On Twitter: @Hoopdarshan 
• - Facebook.com/Hoopdarshan 

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.

The Purple Room, live from Ludhiana

Over the last month, fierce Toronto Raptors fan, the author of the Raptors Game Time blog, and the face behind the Inside the Purple Room videos Payal Doshi was in India to see sights and catch flights. In the midst of it all, the Indian-origin Canadian also got a chance to witness some of the games at the Mahindra-NBA Challenge in Ludhiana.

A voice-data operator for a Canadian sports channel, Payal has literally brought home her love for the Raptors, and then broadcasted it all over the world. Her "Inside the Purple Room" videos, featuring colourful analysis of Raptors-related stories, have been hitting YouTube from her own room at home, customised to the colours of her favourite team.

Now, Payal hopes to join the growing numbers of young people hoping to give back to basketball in India in her own way. In the future, Payal and her associates are also hoping to launch a basketball website for Indian players, in Canada, and worldwide.

"My first experience with basketball in India was a few years ago," said Payal, "I got the chance to visit a camp held by Baron Davis in Mumbai. As I see now, most Indian youth are still in the beginning stages of understanding the game - what they need is a lot of practice, teaching, good coaches, and need to absorb all information and tips that are passed on their way."

She added: "I am a big fan of what the NBA is trying to do for the game of basketball globally. And with the Mahindra-NBA Challenge, Indian kids are being given a great chance to enhance their involvement in the sport. Basketball is fun, exciting, and inexpensive - find a backboard and you're set!"

Additional to her blog and videos, Payal is also working on her own web-show, entitled Always Looking Up In A Short Girl's World, where she is hoping to focus on the more unknown and underrated basketball talents, and on their journeys in the game.

The city of Toronto itself has many of inner-city basketball leagues, many of the leagues created for the large number of Indian-origin basketball players. Payal has had the chance to follow the careers of the Giant Bhullar Brothers, the seven-footed teenage children of Punjabi parents from near-Toronto, who are set to light the basketball world on fire.

"Both the brothers are currently in High School in the US," Payal said, "Right now, they're popular, but not yet famous. If they keep doing what they are doing, then the sky will the limit for them. They can be a dominant force in basketball."

Payal interacted with several young players at the NBA Challenge in Ludhiana, and was happy to note how excited they were to just play basketball. She will soon be doing a feature on her experiences watching the games and talking with the players, coaches, and organisers at the event.

For now, watch an episode of "Inside the Purple Room", as Payal discusses the (somewhat unfortunate) off-season suffered by the Raptors.