Hoopdarshan Episode 105: Marc Pulles on NBA Academy India's brightest prospects

Over the past few years, the NBA Academy India has helped a number of bright Indian prospects take the next leap into placements abroad, include G-League's Princepal Singh, Amaan Sandhu, Riyanshu Negi, and more. Director of NBA India's Basketball Operations Marc Pulles joins Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok on Hoopdarshan to discuss his grassroots work in India, Princepal's improvements, and coaching Luka Doncic. 

Marc Pulles Llopis has been a basketball coach for over twenty years, including working with the youth basketball teams of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Andorra, in his homeland, Spain. He has served in NBA Operations in India for nearly five years, leading the growth of the NBA's Academy in Greater Noida, grassroots initiatives like the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA programme, and more. 

Also in Episode 105, Kaushik and Karan discuss good news in Indian basketball, the 3BL league, and preview the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Hoopdarshan is the truest 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 

Hoopdarshan Episode 90: India's rising basketball star Amaan Sandhu on quarantine life and beyond

After spending the last few years 'in the lab', improving his game at the NBA Academy India, 17-year-old 7-footer Amaan Sandhu made his senior national India debut in the winter. In Episode 90 of Hoopdarshan, Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok welcome Sandhu to talk about his rapid improvements, inheriting the hoops-gene from his high-flying father, his plans during the nationwide lockdown, and the world's greatest nickname: Big Baby Punjab.

Originally from Mohali, Sandhu is one of the brightest rising stars in Indian basketball. The 17-year-old product of the NBA Academy India has earned the opportunity to play in NBA Global Camps, NBA Academy Games, Basketball Without Borders Global and Asia events, and most-recently, made his debut in India's senior team in the 2019 South Asian Games and 2020 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.



Hoopdarshan is the truest 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 

Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp in Tokyo begins today with four Indian players

64 best young basketball prospects - boys and girls - from around Asia and Oceania will attend the 2019 Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp, set to be held in Tokyo, Japan, from August 14-17. Organised together by FIBA and the NBA, the camp will feature several current/former NBA/WNBA players and coaches.

Four Indian players have been invited to this edition of the camp: Siya Deodhar (Nagpur), Amaan Sandhu (Mohali), Harsimran Kaur (Jalandhar) and Arvinder Singh (Barnala). This is the second invited for Deodhar and Sandhu for the BWB Asia Camp, after last year's event that was held in home grounds in Greater Noida's NBA Academy India.

NBA/WNBA players/coaches leading this camp will include: Sam Cassell, Kevon Looney (Golden State Warriors), Robin Lopez (Milwaukee Bucks) Yuta Tabuse (formerly of the Phoenix Suns; Japan), Ashley Battle, Allison Feaster, Yolanda Moore, Pat Delany (Orlando Magic), Bryan Gates (Minnesota Timberwolves), Antonio Lang (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Wes Unseld Jr. (Denver Nuggets). Patrick Hunt (President of the World Association of Basketball Coaches; Australia) will be the camp director and Jeff Tanaka (Chicago Bulls) will serve as the camp’s athletic trainer.

Last year's India's Sanjana Ramesh won the girls' MVP honours at the 2018 BWB Asia Camp in India.

NBA Global Academy wins 3rd NBA Academy Games in Atlanta; Team India finishes 1-5

For the past few years, the NBA has significantly shifted its focus on the future on basketball, on finding and developing elite-level youth talent from across the world with their network of international academies. Every year, these academies come together for a battle royale, pitting the best against the best. This year, the 3rd NBA Academy Games were held in Atlanta, for the first time in USA soil, and the result was a repeat of last year: the top team of the tournament was once again the NBA Global Academy - based in Canberra (Australia) - who took the title with a final win against World Select Blue on Sunday.

The 2019 NBA Academy Games were held at the Emory Sports Medical Complex in Atlanta, featuring eight Academy teams from around the world: World Select Red, NBA Global Academy, TSF, NBA Academy China, NBA Academy Africa, NBA Academy India, NBA Academy Latin America, and World Select Blue. The tournament held from July 9-14, with the final and third-place games held on Sunday, the 14th of July.

NBA Global Academy cruised to a victory in the final against World Select Blue, 97-73. NBA Global Academy took the first quarter 28-16. Despite World Select Blue taking the third quarter 25-19, NBA Global Academy easily won all other quarters to secure the win. Uruguay's Santiago Vannet was the leader for the Global Academy with 20 points and 5 assists in the win, while Australian Blake Jones added 18. NBA Global Academy also featured India's standout prospect Princepal Singh on their roster. For World Select Blue, Samuel Mennenga was the top scorer with a game-high 27 in the loss.

Featuring the likes of Amaan Sandhu, Harshwardhan Tomar, and Pranav Prince, the NBA Academy India finished the tournament with a 1-5 record, at 7th place out of the 8 participating teams. Former India's national team head coach and the current technical director of the Academy in Greater Noida, Scott Flemming was the head coach of this team. They lost their first five games to World Select Blue, NBA Academy Latin America, NBA Academy Africa, NBA Global Academy, and, in the knockout stage, a second time to NBA Academy Africa. But they picked up an important consolation victory over NBA Academy China in their last game.

NBA Academy India results from 3rd NBA Academy Games

• World Select Blue 87-43 NBA Academy India
• NBA Academy Latin America 84-49 NBA Academy India
• NBA Academy Africa 66-27 NBA Academy India
• NBA Global Academy 94-38 NBA Academy India
• NBA Academy Africa 59-35 NBA Academy India
• NBA Academy India 65-61 NBA Academy China

The top performer for Team India at this tournament was Amaan Sandhu - 'Big Baby Punjab' - who finished the tournament averaging 10.67 points and 7.7 rebounds per contest.

Indian prospects Princepal Singh, Amaan Sandhu, and Aashay Verma attended NBA Global Camp in Italy

Just days after rounding up the Basketball Without Borders Asia camp in Greater Noida, some of India's top youth basketball prospects headed international with an eye towards bigger things: the upcoming NBA Draft. Dozens of players from around the world were listed to attend the NBA Global Camp 2018 in Treviso, Italy, a pre-Draft showcase for top Draft-eligible prospects from outside the USA. Future Indian stars Princepal Singh, Amaan Sandhu (both from NBA Academy India) and Aashay Verma (NBA Global Academy - Australia) were among the prospects at the Camp at the La Ghirada Sports Center in Treviso from June 2-5.

The camp included team interview sessions, five-on-five games, shooting drills, and strength and agility testing in front of representatives from all 30 NBA teams, all under the direction of NBA personnel. The Indian players were invited as part of a series of scrimmages among prospects from NBA Academies, the league’s network of elite basketball training centres around the world.

The three Indian players representing India presented a tantalising combination of youth and size: Princepal Singh (17, 6'10"), Aashay Verma (19, 7'1"), Amaan Sandhu (15, 6'9"). Princepal and Sandhu are from Punjab while Verma originally hails from Hyderabad. Princepal is probably the most experienced of the trio, already having starred for India and Punjab at the junior and youth stages and taken part in several international camps already. Verma has been improving dramatically in Australia over the past few years and was invited to a Basketball Without Borders global camp in the past. Sandhu is the baby of the group but has the size to hopefully develop into a dominating player in the future.

A handful of other Asian players also took part in the scrimmages in Italy.