Guards of Honour

This article was first published in my blog for The Times of India on July 7, 2017. Click here for the original piece.

With no shortage of talented bigs, India’s immediate basketball requirement is in the backcourt

In the very first game of the BRICS Games in Guangzhou last month, India were down by 10 to China, 38-28 at halftime. The deficit, considering the circumstances, wasn’t really a worry up: China were always going to be heavy favourites over a developing Indian basketball team and the BRICS Games were largely serving as practice for the larger challenge ahead, the FIBA Asia Cup in August. India were playing in the tournament without star big man Amritpal Singh, but had seen good early performances by their other two stars Amjyot Singh and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi.

But early in the second half, tragedy struck. Bhriguvanshi, India’s most experienced player, a former captain, and one of the best shooting guards in Asia, took a hard fall and then writhed on the floor clutching his right knee. It took the help of medical staff and teammates to carry him back to the locker rooms. His night was over.

India were outscored by 30 points in the second half and ended up losing the game 97-57 to the hosts. But the larger concern for the team – and for the Indian basketball fans following the tournament from home – was Bhriguvanshi’s health. Medical staff feared an ACL tear. He was ruled out of the rest of the tournament, and crucially, India faced the daunting possibility of heading out to Lebanon for the FIBA Asia Cup without their best wing player.

There is a common belief that basketball is a game for tall players, and scouts in India have long been in the hunt for the most talented bigs around from around the country to hone and develop them into game-changers. The swing towards looking for those athletic bigs took such a turn over the past decade that India now enjoys a glut of tall talents. The Men’s national team is loaded with a logjam of frontcourt riches, featuring Amjyot Singh, Amritpal Singh (set to return to the team for the FIBA Asia Cup), Satnam Singh (India’s first NBA draftee who will return for the championship, too), Yadwinder Singh, Rikin Pethani, Ravi Bhardwaj, and our first NBA G-League draftee, Palpreet Singh Brar. With a variety of skillsets and experience levels, these big guys will ensure that India will have the might to go up against any frontline in the continent.

The real problem for India, however, lies in the backcourt. Any regular player or fan of basketball knows that, while the big guys are the muscle on the court, the “smaller” guys (relatively) are the engine. It is the guards and the “wing” players who are usually every team’s best ball-handlers, creators on offense, shooters, and perimeter defenders. Even in teams where the big guys are the best and highest-scoring players, it is the players in the backcourt that set the pace of the game.

In recent years, especially with the way that the game has developed in the NBA and worldwide, there is now an urgent need for elite guards and wings for every successful team. Over the past few decades, guards have been faster, stronger, better shooters, and more athletic. A team with great big players will only be half as useful if it doesn’t have creative and talented options in the backcourt, too.

A great current example of this unbalance in the NBA is with the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans’ frontline features arguably the two best big men in the league: Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. But without too many backcourt options to set up plays for the big guys and stretch the floor for them to have space in the middle, the ‘Twin Towers’ experiment hasn’t worked so far.

The Pelicans will serve as a good learning experience for India’s rumoured new men’s basketball team head coach, Phil Weber. Weber has been a long-time NBA assistant and most recently finished working with – you guessed it – Davis and Cousins in New Orleans. In India, he will get a sense of déjà vu in that first practice, as Amjyot and Amritpal (and Satnam and Palpreet and Yadwinder etc. etc. etc.) will provide limitless options for dominance in the post, but the backcourt will continue to be a point of major concern, from New Orleans to New Delhi.

The good news is that Bhriguvanshi’s injury has turned out to be less serious than initially diagnosed; the player I fondly like to call the ‘Banarasi Mamba’ is now likely to return to the team in time for the FIBA Asia Cup next month. Bhriguvanshi will be asked to excel at multiple backcourt positions for India as both our best creator and best scorer at the FIBA Asia Cup. He will be a little rusty, and even if he’s at his best, India has no other players in the guard or wing positions who can match the best backcourts in Asia.

While Akilan Pari, Hafeez Muin Bek, Prasanna Sivakumar, Anil Kumar Gowda, Arjun Singh, Arshpreet Bhullar, and the aging TJ Sahi are all great players at the domestic level, they will struggle against the top guards and small forwards in the continent, such as China’s Guo Ailun, Philippines’ Jayson Castro and Terrance Romeo, Iran’s Samad Nikkah Bahrami, Lebanon’s Wael Arakji and Fadi El Khatib, and many more.

A couple of talented young perimeter players, like Baladhaneshwar Poiyamozhi and Prudhvi Reddy, are in the pipeline for India already, but still need to add muscle and match experience to be ready for the biggest stages. In the long run, however, India needs to begin focusing on developing young talent all across the board, and not just the “readymade” big players.

So, start dribbling kids: India needs a point guard. Keep working on that outside shot, on those passing skills, on your court vision, and learn to put the ball on the floor to drive and dish or to take it all the way to the hole. Basketball is as much a game for the quick and dexterous as it is for the big and strong, and India’s future excellence depends on finding elite-level talent to cover all ends of the spectrum.

Restart Game: The UBA League brings an exciting new avenue for Indian Basketball

Without a professional basketball league, basketball hasn’t received the media and mainstream visibility it deserves, and the financial growth of the sport has suffered as a result. But perhaps, there is a chance to try again, to give the sport the boost it needs from a different angle. And through the early steps of their basketball league, the Universal Basketball Alliance (UBA India) is trying to do just that.

Click here to read my full feature on SportsKeeda!

The Trail Blazer: From Hyderabad to Barcelona, Prudhvi Reddy is taking a unique route to basketball stardom

On a humid Sunday evening in Bengaluru, 17-year-old Prudhvi Reddy slipped on an 'India' basketball jersey for the first time, in what he recalled was one of the best days in his life.

24 hours later, on the same court, and in the same jersey, the 'best' day had evolved into the most frustrating one.

Earning his first ever call-up for India in the under-18 squad which played in the South Asian qualifiers for the U18 FIBA Asia Championship in Bengaluru last week, Reddy was ready to showcase to his teammates, his coaches, and his country that his offbeat path to basketball success had proven to be a wise decision. Over the past nine months, Reddy had chosen a journey rarely taken by young Indian athletes - he took his talents to the Europe Basketball Academy in Barcelona, Spain, starting as an ambitious young player hungry for game knowledge and returning to his country as a blossoming star in the making. With Reddy in the roster, India won both their games in Bengaluru against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship in Qatar next month. But Reddy's joy at getting a chance to play for his country in the first game against Bangladesh turned into frustration the very next day, when he was planted to the bench for most of the game while his teammates fought off the tricky Sri Lankan side.

"I had been trying to play for India for the past three years, ever since I was cut from the country's under-14 side," Reddy said in an interview with Hoopistani a day after the qualifiers, "So it felt really good when I got to wear the jersey and got to play for India for the first time and I did pretty well in just 10-15 minutes against Bangladesh. But I was left disappointed the next day when I didn't get a chance to play much against Sri Lanka. I felt that the whole squad should be pushed forward and encouraged equally"

"Abroad," he continued, "If you have talent, you'll be selected. I'm hoping to get past that to focus on basketball first and foremost."

When Reddy speaks of his experience 'abroad', he speaks of his time with the Europe Basketball Academy, a decision that he felt has completely changed his life and transformed him into basketball professional - even at his young age. Reddy was born in the village of Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh and his family moved to Hyderabad when he was at a young age. "I credit my parents for the support they gave me early," he said, "They came from nothing - my father worked day and night at a petrol pump and my mother became a teacher and they earned just so me and my brother could get a good education. They let me follow my dreams and sent to the academy in Europe despite the expenses."

Growing up and improving on the court, Reddy decided after the 10th grade that, instead of choosing just an academic stream like most of his peers, he was also going to choose basketball. "I wanted to try my best in the game and see how well I could do. I wanted to make the game my life. I made a video of my game at the national championship and uploaded it for the world to see."

That video caught the eye of one of the coaches from the Europe Basketball Academy, and the rest was history. "The academy and the coach have helped me a lot and have taken care of me," he said, "The coach still looks after me, and helped me with my game, my attitude, and my work ethic. I got there just as a 16-17 year old and was by far the youngest there among players in their 20s and 30s striving to improve and earn a contract with a professional basketball team in Spain or other parts of Europe. Players from all parts of the world come there to train."

A typical day in the academy for Reddy included a few hours in the weight room and at least four hours of basketball practice. Every Thursday, the academy would play games against lower league Spanish teams. The competition was intense, "A lot of the players there were chasing professional contracts" Reddy recalled, "It was a jungle, with everyone fighting for their spots. They wait for your mistakes and seek your weaknesses, so you have to be at the top of your game at all times. I think I went through a lot there, but I ended up learning a lot, too."

Reddy is thin 5-11 combo-guard, who described his mental ability before his physical strengths. "I feel that I'm mentally strong and on the court, I never stop attacking," he said, "I like to share the ball and help my teammates get better, but if they struggle scoring, I like to take over and do the scoring myself. I take pride in my defense - that's where my game starts - and I could've really helped shut down Sri Lanka players the other night!"

While most young players look up to NBA idols like LeBron and Kobe, Reddy has had a different role model recently: UConn's NCAA championship winning guard, turned rookie with the Miami Heat, Shabazz Napier. "When I think about improving my game, I think about becoming more like him," Reddy said, "I have to built my body more, get more bulk. I have to become a pure shooter and a pure point guard. I have to be more a leader who is concerned with every activity on the court. I really idolize Napier and want to play his game. Napier can control the whole game and he won the national title. He made his teammates better, and at the same time, he saved them when they required. He's also a good rebounder for his size."

The improvements are essential for Reddy now as he looks ahead. From July 12 - August 6, he will be with India's U18's at a national coaching camp at the SAI Center in Aurangabad, following which there are plans for a short exposure trip where the team can take part in friendly/practice games. The big test will come in Doha (Qatar) starting August 19th, when the team play in the U18 FIBA Asia Championship. Reddy then plans to head back to Europe, where he has an agent who will help him seek professional basketball options.

Photo courtesy: Ekalavyas

"Earlier, I went through all the tryouts in Spanish under-18 teams in the smaller leagues," he said, "But I have to get stronger to make the top league in the country. After the U18 championship, I want to go tryout for other European teams, and a lot of them have been showing interest because I'm still very young." Reddy will 18 in January 2015.

And after that? "I wanna be the first Indian player in the NBA. I want to get there by 22 or 23. I'm ambitious - why not? I grew up in a village. I never thought that I could go outside India and play basketball. I made it that far, and from here, everything is possible in life if I keep working hard. There are rarely any players from India who have played outside the country. Why can't others also follow my example?"

But back in his homeland, Reddy will be hoping that his talents - and the talents of many other young Indians - aren't squandered away by politics in the system. "We cannot keep following the same old ways of thinking in India if we have to win. There are lots of nice players in India who can make a difference, but we're losing them."

India had a clear height advantage against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which helped them secure the two victories. But in Doha, against other big teams, India will have to rethink their strategies to challenge their stronger opponents. Reddy believes that the team will have to tighten up on defense, not allow any open looks and make sure to protect their rebounds.

Upcoming stars like Mahipal Singh and Gurvinder Singh Gill played well in Bengaluru and will be the focal point of India's offense in Doha, but Reddy believes that India will need a system and play as a team to have a chance.

"Our Indian basketball style can learn from Europe," he said, "Over there, you have to play as a team, you have to have a system, and you have to stick with it."

The system will be perfected in camp over the next few weeks and then tested against Asian rivals in Qatar. The India U18s represent a group of youngsters most likely to become a focal point of India's future senior national teams. And Prudhvi Reddy is in the mix, with an ambitious attitude to be part of that future. He took a unique route to basketball success, and after all the life's lessons he learnt, his journey was rewarded with an 'India' jersey.

Now, Reddy has to take the frustration and turn it into fuel and motivation, and work harder to become the best player that he possibly can be.