Here are some facts:
- The NBA is expanding in India in a big way, with grassroots basketball training programmes, the elite-level Academy, visits from top players, and for the first time this year, an NBA preseason game in India.
- One of the NBA's avenues for reaching out to a larger, younger audience - an audience that aren't necessarily core-NBA fans to begin with - is employing social -media celebrities for events and ad campaigns. Hence, Rannvijay Singha and Bhuvan Bam at the All Star Weekend, or Rannvijay Singha and the rapper Divine on the 'This is why we play' ad campaign, or Rannvijay Singha in... Well, you get the point.
- The NBA has a partnership with merchandise seller Jabong for the NBA Store India.
- Now, Jabong and NBA India have a game show. It's called Jabong Hoop Wars.
The first two episodes of Jabong Hoop Wars are available to stream online. The show is hosted by Benasha Soonawalla. It features three contestants who take part in several rounds of loosely-NBA-related games. At some point, a special guest shows up to spice things up a bit, presumably.
Here, for example, is Episode 2:
Round 1 was a trivia round, where contestants were asked easy questions to begin with, such as what team plays home at the Madison Square Garden, and which player won an Oscar for the short "Dear Basketball" (The clues for the latter were: John Legend, Kobe Bryant, Morgan Freeman).
Priyank Sharma, who we are told is an actor/dancer, was the special guest. Round 2 was a basketball challenge of shooting free throws while running on a treadmill.
Round 3 was some form of dumb-charades on a trampoline.
This is the show. End of facts.
NBA has launched a business in India called basketball. It's a thing.
ReplyDeleteRound One was a publicity stunt. Satnam Singh was passed off as the next yao ming
Round two india pretended they beat china
Round three is hysteria over a preseason NBA game
Hoopistani who we are told is the true voice of of indian basketball is the special guest.
End of facts
That's some serious bitterness my brother... Unfortunately I can't say anything back to someone signing off as "Anonymous".
DeleteP.S. If you don't want believe Hoopistani is the "true voice", you're welcome not to - find your own voice. Again, not being Anonymous would help