Alvida Bosh: A Bosh-tastic trip comes to an end in India

Can you believe that it only lasted four days? Less than a month after winning his second consecutive championship with the Miami Heat, eight-time NBA All Star Chris Bosh came to India for the first time on July 16, spending four very productive days in Mumbai. Dozens of NBA players, WNBA players, or former stars of the game have already visited India in the past, a list that included All Stars like Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol in 2010, but Bosh's trip this year was by far the most engaging for NBA fans in India.

NBA India has existed for over half a dozen years already, already feature an India-centric website (with weekly features by yours truly), a hugely popular Facebook page, a brand new office in Mumbai, dedicated staff that travel around the nation preaching the gospel of hoops, and a plethora of different annual events around India including grassroots leagues and fan interaction festivals to promote both basketball and the NBA. But they made their biggest splash - promotion-wise - with the Bosh visit, and have perhaps been able to truly expand their fan-base beyond the niche hardcore hoop-heads to the larger mainstream populace of India.

Bosh, known back in his homeland for being one of the league's great big men, the third star in the NBA's most successful team, and a world champion photo-bomber, brought his energy to Mumbai for four jam-packed days. Here is a selected recap of his Bost-tastic trip, as he left India last night:

- Before Bosh showed up, NBA India and their broadcast partners Sony SIX ran the ingenius '#NamasteBosh' campaign on Facebook/Twitter and on the TV channel, to get fans hyped up and create a competition where the fans with the best greetings to Bosh would get to meet him in Mumbai.

- Then, Sony SIX created one of the greatest things ever with the #NamasteBosh Hinglish rap song. "Namaste Bosh... Namaste India..." has been stuck in my head for days.

- Bosh finally showed up in Mumbai with his wife and got to work/tour on July 16th. He toured several sites across Mumbai, including the Dhobi Ghat at Cuffe Parade and the famous Gateway of India.

- Oh, and he brought along a replica of the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy with him, too.

- Bosh tried some Indian food and had his fortune told by a palm reader.

- He also headed out to Mumbai's famous Times of India office building where he served as a guest editor in TOI's Sports Page for the next day (remember that two years ago the NBA announced a digital partnership with the TOI group) and answered questions in a fascinating, detailed interview about the NBA Finals, on LeBron James, on Heat fans, and on basketball in India.

- He launched NBA-India's Instagram page.

- Day 2 was a chance for the Indian media to interact with Bosh in lengthy one-on-one interviews, where he spoke about how Indian Basketball is growing every year, how basketball can make space for itself in India despite cricket being number one, and about introducing the element of fun when promoting hoops to the Indian audience.

- Bosh also announced the new season of the NBA Jam - a basketball and music festival - in four Indian cities, which will be held through September.

- And by the end of the day, he ended up socializing with some fringe Bollywood types, including Dino Morea. And this was all just Day 2.

- On Day 3, Bosh quit all the touring and talking about basketball and got down to basketball itself. This was the day that he first held an Elite Development Basketball Basketball Clinic with up-and-coming young players of the country.

- This clinic was held with NBA Cares event at the Magic Bus camp, an NGO dedicated to mentoring less-fortunate children, who have been involved with NBA Cares for the past few years in Mumbai. Bosh shared some of his basic knowledge and basketball drills with the kids of Magic Bus, too.

- At the Don Bosco School in Mathunga, fans from the city were given a chance to drop in and have a chance to meet Bosh.

- On this day, Bosh also made an appearance at Radio One Mumbai for a chat with RJ Rishi K. The interview aired the next morning on Radio One.

- July 19th was his last day in the country. NBA India had asked their fans on Facebook to send questions for the big man. On this day, my NBA-India co-blogger Akshay Manwani sat down with Bosh for an interview where he also passed on many of the fans' questions.

- Later, made a visit to the Wilson College in Mumbai to tip off their annual festival (Polaris), where he interacted with students and gave away some of those awesome '#NamasteBosh' T-shirts.

- And so, his trip came to an end on Day 4. Of course, fans across the country would've wanted Bosh to visit other cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and more, too. While Bosh couldn't see any of India outside of Mumbai, those in India's largest city got a heavy dose of the NBA star, as he was basically everywhere, and talked about basically everything.

India gave a pretty memorable greeting to Bosh, so this particular 'Namaste' would be remembered forever by both sides. Now, it's time for us to say 'Alvida' to the big man, but since Kishore Kumar taught us never to use that word, maybe we should say 'Phir Milenge' Bosh. Come visit India again. And bring along a couple of your famous friends next time, too.

Spaniard Francisco Garcia is the new coach of India’s Women’s Basketball Team

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has announced that experienced Spanish coach Francisco Garcia will be named as the head coach of India’s Senior Women’s Basketball squad. Garcia (41), has 20 years of coaching experience in the past in Spain, Denmark, and Finland, will become the fourth international head coach for the Indian Women and take over from Pete Gaudet.

The Times of India reported that Garcia spent the last season with Spanish Women’s national team players as a private development coach, including stars like Amaya Valdermoro, who has won three WNBA championships.

Via Times of India:

Having started his coaching career way back in 1994 in Asturias, Francisco was involved in various women's professional programs in Spain, Denmark and Finland, where he won a gold and silver medal.
Since returning to Spain in 2005, he has been coaching in various Spanish Federation Youth National Development Camps.

The development has left Indian hoopsters feeling excited. Top star Geethu Anna Jose said, "The BFI has done its part. We had a small chat with Francisco and he seems very interested in Indian basketball… He feels India has very good talent and is really happy to work with us. I'm waiting for the camp."

Garcia will have to be up to his task from the get go: he only has a few months of preparation before India's Women get a chance to play for the Asia's biggest basketball event - the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship for Women - from October 27 - November 3 in Bangkok (Thailand). After finishing sixth in the 2011 Championship, the Indian team finds itself in Level I of the tournament, along with Asian superpowers China, Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Lebanon.

Pete Gaudet, who was formerly coach at Duke University, left India after 15 months with the team.

How India invaded the NBA All Star Weekend

No, there are no Indian players in the NBA, much less than players with the elite talent to make it amongst the world’s best that played the NBA All Star Game on February 17^th. But the Indian presence at the world’s largest annual NBA gala got bigger than ever at Houston 2013.

As SLAM Magazine veteran Lang Whitaker noted in his GQcolumn a few days ago, the “All-Star is about basketball, but it's really the biggest industry convention for people who cover the NBA.” Let me add to that point that the weekend (or half a week) is the biggest industry convention for anyone and everyone even loosely connected to the league. Having covered the craziness, excitement, and the superstar overload first hand at the All StarWeekend in Los Angeles two years ago, I can attest that – even though the official events at the Weekend may not be of anything more than exhibition value – it is still the ultimate basketball festival, the centre of the NBA universe.

And with NBA’s interest growing in India (and other Asian/international markets), it was inevitable that India’s interest would grow reciprocally for the NBA…

This year, the NBA held for the first time the ‘Sprite Uncontainable Game’: 22 amateur ‘undiscovered talents’ between the ages of 14-30 were chosen from nine countries around the world to win an all-access trip to the All Star Weekend and play in the ‘Uncontainable Game’. Two young Indian players – Bopanna Pardhana Nanaiah (22) and Akilan Pari (23) – won NBA India’s national3x3 tournament last year and were the lucky two chosen for this event. Thousands of players from Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Mumbai took part in the NBA 3x events last year, with the Finals held in Mumbai in October.

Players from Canada, China, Estonia, Lithuania, Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the United States added flavour to the final international rosters.

Nanaiah (from Kodagu in Karnataka) and Pari (from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu) were divided into ‘Team Intense’ and ‘Team Sudden’ respectively. They were lucky enough to be in the presence of some great NBA players: Team Intense was ‘coached’ by Kobe Bryant, Andrea Bargnani, and Al Horford; while LeBron James, Omri Casspi, and Serge Ibaka were the coaches of Team Sudden.

There were many more familiar faces at Houston last week. NBA India’s Senior Director of Basketball Operations Troy Justice and his young padawan for NBA coaching in India Eban Hyams also soaked in the non-stop action at the weekend. Justice even conducted an NBA Fit clinic with legendary point guard (and my childhood favourite) Gary Payton!

For the past few years, the NBA has invited top representatives of basketball federations from around the world to the All Star Weekend, and India was represented until recent years by former Basketball Federation of India (BFI) CEO Harish Sharma. Sharma passed away last year, but the presence of the federation at NBA’s biggest ‘industry convention’ continues.

And of course, those following the NBA from back home in India would’ve noticed a continuing increase of mainstream media coverage live from the league into Indian daily newspapers, our TV channels, and our webpages. NBA fans in India had their most in-depth look at All Star events ever this year, as both Sony SIX and CNN IBN were on-site, gathering footage and conducting interviews of the weekend’s events.

The Times Group (behind the Times of India newspaper and Times Now) has a digital partnership with the NBA, and have been sending correspondents to cover the league on-site for years. This year, Saibal Bose was there feeding back daily stories from the events. On Saturday, Bose reported that the NBA Commissioner David Stern considers India  a ‘potential basketball giant’, and about how he would like to emulate the success of the IPL to help grow NBA in India. On Sunday, Bose spoke to superstar Kobe Bryant about potentially coming to India, to which Kobe replied: “I am working on my cricket skills.”

I couldn't be in Houston this year, but NBA.com/India handed the baton to fellow hoops-geek Jonathan Rego to cover the Weekend through his Fan Blog daily. Rego’s blog is an entertaining read, following his journey as he met the game’s biggest stars, reported on little-but-important things that the television audiences may have missed, and put into words the indescribable experience of being immersed in the fantastic world of the NBA for the first time!

Beware NBA: the floodgates have opened. And the Indians are coming!

(Now can we get a player good enough to actually play in the league? Please pretty please?) 

Swami Sri Dunkacharyas: A brief glimpse at NBA players practicing Yoga

Somehow, Yoga, this ancient Indian technique of breathing and body exercises that perhaps began as early as the mid 3rd millennium BC, and basketball, this sport of running and jumping with a rubber ball that began in North America in 1891, seem to be made for each other.

Here is a brief look at how basketball has embraced Yoga!

Click here to read the rest of the feature!

NBA announces digital partnership with Times Group

In a move that the Financial Times called a 'slam dunk' for basketball in India, the NBA took another major step in making sure that it increases its visibility in India, and ultimately, promote the game here, by announcing a 'digital partnership' with Times Internet Limited (TIL), a subsidiary of the Times Group that brings you The Times of India. This move comes just in time for the 2011 NBA Finals, as the Dallas Mavericks get ready to face the Miami Heat.

This partnership will ensure that the NBA will now have a dedicated section on the Times of India website: www.timesofindia.com.

The NBA becomes the second sports league after the Indian Premier League (IPL) to partner with the Times Group in India, highlighting the growing popularity of basketball and the NBA in India.

The new dedicated NBA section on the Times of India website will reach more than 12 million users per month. The NBA section will provide fans with comprehensive daily updates on the latest NBA news and scores, and will feature original columns from Times Group journalists. Daily video highlights, photo galleries and articles from NBA analysts will be offered, as well as in-depth features on the league and its players. Furthermore, journalists from the Times Group will travel to the 2011 NBA Finals to provide on-site and behind-the-scenes coverage for fans in India.

“We are proud to be associated with one of the most recognized sporting leagues in the World,” said Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited.” The NBA is the premier men's professional basketball league in North America. With the growing popularity of basketball globally, and more recently in India, we plan to leverage our audience to help popularize the sport further and drive newer audiences to the game.”

“The Times Group has unrivaled reach in India and they are an ideal partner to help showcase our game and engage more NBA fans throughout the country,” said Heidi Ueberroth, President, NBA International. “We are in the midst of one of our most exciting playoffs in recent memory and the innovative, in-depth sports coverage provided by the Times Group allows us to bring fans in India closer to the game.”

I check out the NBA section of the TOI website and it looks pretty good: Nothing too fancy, just simple, clear information, especially targeted towards the new, growing fanbase of the league in India. It has several news articles and features of current events - i.e., the Finals - sourced from NBA.com, and it also features generic information such as profiles of other NBA teams, and some facts about the history of the NBA, such as previous champions and a list of the NBA's greatest players, with credentials and all!

(I'm kinda offended that my personal all-time favourite player Gary Payton isn't on it. Come on Times of India, show The Glove some love).

Good move by the NBA though - it will help promote the league to a bigger, more mainstream audience.

The greatest sportsperson ever

I picked up today's copy of the the Times of India newspaper this morning, panned my eyes down to mid-way on the front page, and saw the words: "Is Sachin Tendulkar the greatest sportsperson ever?" The article was aiming to set off a debate and a poll to decide the best athletes amongst each sports best, the greatest of the greatest. The inclusion of God himself, aka, Sachin, was itself of certain debate, since many cricket purists believe he's second best to cricketing legend Don Bradman, but in my eyes, that debate had been put to rest decades ago. Sachin and Bradman are to cricket what Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain are to basketball: Bradman and Chamberlain hold the craziest records (Bradman's 99.94 test average, Chamberlain's unearthly averages of 50.4 ppg and 25.7 rpg in the '61-62 season). But both these greats played in a different era of the sport, and experts in both fields will agree that in terms of true talent, Sachin and Jordan are still the Greatest of All Times (G.O.A.T.) in their respective sports.

A few minutes after putting the newspaper down, I happened to pick up my gold edition copy of SLAM magazine's awesome Jordan Issue, a heady volume of all things MJ, from interviews, rare photographs, greatest dunks, his years at North Carolina, his championship stories from Chicago, his influence on the international game, and many, many Air Jordan shoes!

The Jordan reminders got me thinking deeper about this issue: this is an argument that I (and I'm sure, many of you), have had several times before, so kudos to TOI for making it sort of official. One player has been chosen from each major sport that is relevant to Indians (Sorry Baseball, Babe Ruth), and Tennis gets two sportsmen, male and female. Jordan is obviously basketball's representative, but I was a little disappointed that the article barely mentioned His Airness.

Once again, this is the list from TOI:

Cricket: Sachin Tendulkar
Basketball: Michael Jordan
F1: Michael Schumacher
Cycling: Lance Armstrong
Track & Field: Carl Lewis
Tennis Men: Roger Federer
Tennis Women: Martina Navrativola
Hockey: Dhyan Chand
Boxing: Mohammed Ali
Football: Pele
Gymnastics: Nadia Comaneci
Golf: Tiger Woods

Already, this list is controversial, to say the least. Is Roger Federer even the greatest tennis player of his era, now that Nadal has his number? Maradona (and some Zidane fans) may have a thing or two to say about Pele's selection. And forgive me, gymnastic fans, but I have no idea who the hell Nadia Comaneci is. I'm sure she was talented.

Anyways, despite my basketball addiction now, like every other Indian child, I grew up a Sachin Tendulkar fanatic. I liked him much more than I liked cricket, and I know that I will probably lose half my interest in the sport once God retires. After his 50th test century in South Africa a few days ago, his legend gets greater and greater. It was true poetic justice that Sachin was the first man to get to 200 in an ODI. And he owns more cricket records to his name than records that exist in other sports.

But despite everything, I don't think he's the greatest of this list. For Indians, yes, no doubt, but definitely not worldwide. This is why Michael Jordan is special. MJ has not only done the same record-wise for the NBA that Tendulkar did for cricket, but he has won the biggest prize over and over again with a more lethal precision and perfection than anyone else in any sport. In a competitive league of stars, Jordan shone brightest, winning 6 of 8 championships in the 90s, only losing the two years in the middle to pre-mature retirement.

But like Sachin, his influence on his sport, and the world of sports in general, actually extends BEYOND the sport. Jordan is bigger than basketball. You will still meet people around the world who haven't heard of basketball but know the name Michael Jordan. Jordan's coach Phil Jackson once famously said that he could be nowhere in the world, hiking up a mountain in Bhutan, and see a monk in a Chicago Bulls hat. This was much BEFORE NBA became famous internationally. Jordan made sneakers famous too - he made it possible for stars to have signature shoes, and shoes to be sold on brand name of the stars alone.

Sachin, too, has had that kind of effect on Indians. In a country separated by language, region, caste, economic status, religion and oh-so-many other things, Sachin is the one unifying factor, the strongest one to represent all India since Gandhi, and I don't believe that's an exaggeration at all. He is the only one in India beyond criticism, because for 21 years he has done more for the image of a successful Indian than any other.

Other athletes like Pele, Mohammed Ali and Tiger Woods have had similar 'beyond-sport' influences on the world. Ali, especially is a favourite to be revered as the best of the best in this list.

But call it my basketball bias. Call it the fact that I just respect sportsmen who dominate team-oriented sports more than others. And cricket, I'm sorry to say, is an individual's game masked behind a team concept.

This is why my vote for the G.O.A.T. will stay with Michael Jordan. Hail to His Airness!