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May 21, 2015

Hoopdarshan Episode 6: Satnam Singh Bhamara and the journey to become an Indian NBA prospect


What do you get when you mix Satnam Singh Bhamara - the prospect dreaming of becoming India's first NBA player - and Hoopdarshan - the first Indian basketball podcast? Fireworks, of course! The 7-foot-2, 19-year-old giant Bhamara declared for the NBA draft last month and now hopes to become the first Indian player to make it to the league. On Episode 6 of Hoopdarshan, he joins hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok for an engaging discussion on the improvements he's made on the court over the past few years, his incredible journey from being the son of a Punjabi farmer to becoming an NBA prospect, his relationship with basketball in India, and going to his High School prom.

Born in the tiny Ballo Ke village in Punjab, Bhamara was scouted at age 14 (2010) by IMG Reliance and handed a scholarship to play at the IMG Basketball Academy in Florida, USA, where he has been for the past five years. Last month, Bhamara bypassed college to declare for the 2015 NBA Draft, as he hopes to become the first Indian citizen to play in the NBA. Bhamara has represented India at the international level several times over the past few years already and has been playing for the IMG team at the High School level in America. He is currently preparing for the draft with pre-draft workouts and visits to scouts at various interested NBA teams.



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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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous29 May, 2015 17:41

    Great podcast but just one thing - why not speak in Hindi if the guest is comfortable speaking in Hindi? After all, Hoopdarshan is an Indian podcast. It'll make the whole podcast sound smoother and Satnam would feel a lot more comfortable i guess. Not to mention the fact that he would be able to converse more and pass on more information. Please please think about this for future episodes. Great job though!

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    1. KARAN MADHOK30 May, 2015 10:23

      Hey. We have definitely considered doing the podcast in Hindi before, specially with Satnam and the one we did with Vishesh Bhriguvanshi before. But the reason we chose English is that our audience spreads pan India and international, and even in India, Hindi is not the ubiquitous language; many of our listeners and people in Indian basketball are more comfortable with Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Punjabi, etc. English becomes a level ground that satisfies most listeners.
      In Satnam's case, we actually encouraged him to speak any words/phrases that he felt comfortable with, but he is very proud of his improved English speaking/comprehension and insisted on it.

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    2. KARAN MADHOK30 May, 2015 10:23

      But thanks for bringing it up, I will address it in our next episode!

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  2. Anonymous31 May, 2015 19:30

    Whens the next episode of Hoopdarshan coming?

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    1. KARAN MADHOK01 June, 2015 07:56

      We just recorded an long, fun-filled NBA Finals preview - should be published in a day or 2!

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