Hoopdarshan Episode 3 - Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and the lifestyle of Indian basketball stars

On Episode 3 of Hoopdarshan - the first-ever Indian basketball podcast - hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok catch up with Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, one of the most talented and experienced players of India's national team and a dominant force for India at the domestic stage. Bhriguvanshi reveals the worldview of being a top basketball player in India, discussing why he chose basketball as a profession, his greatest national and international experiences, and his love for good ol' dal-chawal.

Bhriguvanshi (26), from Varanasi, is one of the most accomplished players in Indian basketball today. He has been a key component for India's national Sr. Men's team for nine years,holding the role of captain for the majority of his time. He has played in three FIBA Asia Championships, two Asian Games, and was one of India's top players in the squad that defeated China at the FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan last year. Bhriguvanshi has also won gold and silver awards at several FIBA Asia 3x3 events for India. Domestically, he has won five of the last seven Senior National Championships with Railways and with ONGC, his current employers.



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!

Hoopdarshan can be found on...

• - iTunes: Hoopdarshan
  
• - Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud
  
• - On Twitter: @Hoopdarshan
  
• - Facebook.com/Hoopdarshan
  

Sim Bhullar - NBA's first Indian-origin player - will visit India next month

Several years ago, the Bhullars of Canada took another trip home to their land of origin, Punjab. Like they usually did for every trip back to India, the Bhullars took along their children, too. Two of those teenage children - Sim and Tanveer Bhullar - had now grown into mammoth seven-footers, both with a promising future in basketball ahead for them. Even though few knew of the Bhullar family in India back then, Sim and Tanveer still managed to receive their fair share of attention when they visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Being a pair of seven-footers would do that.

"I was last back in India about five years ago and it was pretty crazy, it was different, and I really enjoyed it!" Sim told me in an interview last year, "I remember going to Golden Temple, which was huge and really crowded. I remember that we were swarmed by a huge crowd of people who took photos – and they didn’t even know who we were!

A half dozen years have passed since then. Sim Bhullar is set to return to India, and for the first time, will be recognized for being more than just a really big guy.

10 days ago, Bhullar, who had spent most of the last few months playing for the NBDL's Reno Bighorns, entered an NBA game for the Sacramento Kings, and thus became the first-ever player of Indian-descent in the NBA. It wasn't an earth-shattering performance, and his NBA contract lasted just 10 days, three game appearances, two points, and a rebound. But in his small way, the big man was able to break the barriers for the people of Indian community around the world, and also give birth to Mahatma Grande.

Bhullar's contract with the Kings has now expired and the team - owned by Indian-born tech mogul Vivek Ranadive - finished far from qualifying for the 2015 NBA playoffs. It is now being reported that Bhullar will be spending a part of his extended vacation back in his parent's birth-land: India.

Via Duane Fonseca for The Pune Mirror:

Sim Bhullar, the first and only Indian-origin player ever to debut in the National Basketball Association (NBA), will visit India early next month. Bhullar is expected to travel to the country with his sister and is due to touch down on May 2 or a day later.

The 22-year-old has a packed schedule during his week-long India sojourn. And apart from spending time at promotional events in Mumbai, his itinerary includes visits mainly to Delhi and Amritsar to see the Golden Temple.
In Mumbai, Bhullar will do promotional work for the Reliance Foundation, who have a multi-year tie-up with the NBA to promote the sport at the grassroots. He is expected to conduct a clinic for school kids in the city and is also expected to put in an appearance at an Indian Premier League (IPL) game either here or in Delhi. The dates of events he will attend are yet to be finalised.

The NBA has long been interested in capitalizing on Bhullar's racial heritage as the first desi to play basketball at a high level, and even though he's a true-blood Canadian in every sense (he represented Canada's U18 national team at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in 2010), the league as well as the Sacramento Kings have emphasized on his Indian roots a lot more. Like it or not, that is just part of the business, and in the long run, it may help to inspire a large potential audience in India to show more interest in Bhullar, the Kings, and the NBA.

From the report above, it seems that Bhullar will take part in both public and private events. The Reliance Foundation have a deal both with the NBA in India and with IMG in sponsorship of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), and it won't be surprising if they promote him as the first Indian face in the world's best basketball league. Despite being a 7-foot-5 giant, Bhullar was a sort of an underdog in his journey up to the professional level. Not all of us are blessed with his size, but hopefully during his trip, Bhullar is able to connect with young Indians and inspire them to turn their dreams into reality, too. I also hope that this trip is just the beginning of Bhullar's connection with both the NBA and with India: if he is able to continue improving and secure a longer NBA career, there may be many more promotional visits to come in the future.

It seems like Bhullar will be returning to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, too. You can be damn sure that he will be crowded by curious onlookers again; but this time, I'm hoping that a handful in that crowd show up in 'Bhullar 32' Kings jerseys!

Upset Watch 2015: My NBA playoffs first-round preview

We have entered the zone of straight-up best-of-seven knockout series. And beyond the single game edge that every ‘home’ team will have in each series, nothing from the past will matter anymore. Like every year, I present a preview in terms of percentage probabilities; as in, the probability of an underdog (away team) to upset the favourite in every series (home team) in the First Round. It’s an inexact science, occasionally wrong, but I promise you, thoroughly entertaining. Here – in ascending order of least probably upset to most – is my preview of all the series in the First Round.

Click here for full feature on SportsKeeda.

More wins, less hype: The consistent dominance of LaMarcus Aldridge

He may not get the hype that is showered on many of his peers, but LaMarcus Aldridge has long been one of the most dominant bigs in the league and his consistency has helped keep the ship steady for the contending Trail Blazers this season. Ultimately, like other players with greater ambitions, Aldridge will eventually be judged and remembered for what he does in the post-season: if he can lead his team to greater, consistent playoff success, casual fans are going to get to know him a whole lot better, too.

Click here to read full feature.

The Birth of Mahatma Grande

After years of climbing up the ranks, from High School to College to the D-League, 7-5 Canadian giant Sim Bhullar finally saw his NBA dream becoming a reality: he was signed to a 10-day contract by the Sacramento Kings last week and made his first appearance in 16.1 seconds of action against the Timberwolves last night. It was a nice moment that a only a handful of basketball players ever get to experience: the feeling of putting on an NBA jersey, stepping on an NBA court, and finding his name permanently enshrined in the box scores of NBA history.

But of course, you know the story by now, and you know why Bhullar's 16.1 seconds were more significant than most others. With one small step on court, Bhullar took a giant leap for desis worldwide, becoming the first player of Indian-origin to ever play in the NBA. Unlike the usual hungama and tamasha that we Indians like to associate with most of our accomplishments, Bhullar's appearance was largely subdued. His entire debut was only a shade longer than the maximum length of an Instagram video. He touched the ball just once (inbounding it to a teammate), and finished with a box-score of ducks 0-0-0-0-0. A day later, Bhullar scored his first two points in one and half minutes of action in the Kings loss to Utah. And with these humble beginnings, another NBA barrier was broken and a giant was born.

Bhullar's status has soared in recent days, too, with strong performances in the D-League to provide him his foundation and the Kings' contract taking his popularity through the roof. Basketball-loving Indians from India, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and in every nation on every continent on the globe who have long dreamt of the day that one of their own – a desi – would achieve the highest benchmark of the hoop dream and play in the NBA, and in Bhullar, they finally saw that dream achieve reality.

Of course, there is a shade of cynicism amid the optimism, too. The Kings are owned by the NBA's only Indian-born owner, Vivek Ranadive, and thus it has no surprise that the franchise chased him after the draft, assigned him to their affiliate D-League team, and signed him for the NBA (after their own playoff hopes were finished) just in time for the annual Sikh Community Appreciate Night. There have also been voices, such as the excellent Amar on SLC Dunk, who say that the NBA has overstated Bhullar's Indian connection to reach out to the billion-strong population in India instead of focusing on his Canadian basketball roots. It will be up to him to prove that he can be a useful NBA contributor and more than just a publicity stunt - and I believe that he has the skill-set and potential to continue proving his doubters wrong.

Nothing can take away Bhullar's achievements, as he gave his blood, sweat, and tears to the game and made the most of his combination of talent and size to realize his individual hoop dream. The son of Punjabi immigrants to Canada has now played and scored in the NBA. Many more players of Indian-descent - and hopefully of Indian citizenship - will do it after him, but he will always be the first. That first moment on court lasted just 16 seconds, but that's 16 seconds more than you, me, or any other player with some Indian in his blood-stream has ever played.

So let's celebrate the big man's milestone and feast on some butter chicken (like I ever needed an excuse to do that!). Let's get down with the Sikh-Ness! Let's celebrate the birth of Mahatma Grande, the greatest nickname that the giant Canadian-Indian could have possibly asked for (word to @scottostler). Sim Bhullar has finally broken the desi-NBA barrier; hopefully he can inspire many more to follow in his footsteps and bring a lot more masala to our favourite basketball association.

Jonathan Rego becomes India's first FIBA agent

Basketball is becoming more and more an international sport, not just in terms of the spread of the game to different countries, but also in the manner of how there are no borders anymore for basketball professionals on the globe. As opportunities grow, players from across the world are crossing international boundaries to ship their talents to leagues in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Oceania, and of course, Asia, too. But global basketball transactions are a complicated process, and FIBA - the world's governing body of basketball - have employed the use of player's agents to handle the business of the game between players, teams, leagues, and nations.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan Rego became the first Indian to be certified as a FIBA agent, after passing the necessary qualifications at the FIBA House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.

Originally from Mangalore and raised in Abu Dhabi, Rego (32) now works in Mumbai as the senior manager of operations of the ISL's Mumbai City FC. He is also working on a few sports exchange programmes with international universities, where he says he is starting with a basketball programme to test the waters before moving on to other sports. Additionally, he is looking to put together a team with the hopes of managing a franchise in the future Indian professional basketball league.

Rego previously worked for CAA KWAN and GLOBOSPORT. During this time, he managed and executed nearly every NBA India event 2008-2013, working at both grassroots and mainstream events across the country. Rego also covered the NBA All Star Weekend for NBA India in Houston in 2013.

"I hope to give Indian basketball players the opportunity to make a living playing professionally," Rego said after receiving his FIBA agent credential, "Thus, encouraging parents to allow and encourage their kids to pursue basketball seriously, leading to the proliferation of basketball in India, and eventually making it a global basketball superpower."

India doesn't have its own professional league yet, but we definitely have a number of talented players who deserve to play at the professional level. Playing abroad may be the only option for many at this point, and it will only be with the help of FIBA agents like Rego that our best players can wade through the complicated process of finding teams and conducting transactions to make that option into a reality. Hopefully, as basketball talent grows to make India a stronger hoop-playing nation, the business side of the game continues to evolve and mature as well to provide a backbone that helps the players succeed at the highest levels.

Duke win 2015 NCAA National Championship, edging Wisconsin in the Final

With just minutes left in the biggest college basketball game in the year, we were no closer to a decision than we had been at tip-off. Duke and Wisconsin were tied at 56-56, back to square 1, and both teams had the final three and a half minutes of the game to decide the winner. Eventually, the result came down to which team held their nerves under pressure the most, and this turned out to be the Blue Devils, playing under a coach who had experienced this moment a handful of times before already. Led by a clutch performance by point guard Tyus Jones and the leadership of Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke won their fifth national title - all under Coach K - with a memorable 68-63 triumph over Wisconsin at Indianapolis on Monday, April 6.

Click here to read full feature.