Bigger Than Basketball: The Significance of the NBA India Games

An edited version of this feature was first published for SLAMOnline on October 3, 2019. Read the original version here.


It truly hit me when I saw the promo on a national TV channel. A digitally altered Mumbai. Supersized balloon floats of Myles Turner and Harrison Barnes hovered over city’s iconic skyline. Young people gathered on the streets to watch. Kids jostled for space between the kaali-peeli—black-and-yellow—local taxis for a view. A massive Kings flag unfurled over the excited crowds, and a Pacers banner flew overhead. A cricket player stopped in his tracks to watch, in awe.

I watched in awe, too.

A day later, at a family function, my Maama—mother’s brother—asked me, for the first time, about work.

“So, the NBA is coming here in a big way, aren’t they?”

I smiled. In India, the ‘NBA’ and ‘basketball’ are buzzwords for the youth. People of my uncle’s generation would never “get it”, we thought. The game was too niche, the league was too far away from everyday Indian concerns for any of them to bother. There were a thousand other distractions in mainstream Indian culture.

But even he had heard about it. The Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers were coming to Mumbai for first ever NBA India Games in early October. A mere blimp on the NBA’s calendar, a preseason exhibition between two non-contenders But for India, a giant leap in its basketball history. The jump-ball start to a new era.

*

As an Indian child in the 90s, I knew of the NBA’s existence only in the peripheries. I’d heard of Michael and Magic. I knew that the “Chicago Bulls” meant something good. I’d seen Space Jam half dozen times.

But back then, I didn’t quite understand the value of the world’s greatest basketball league. No, back then, my Lord Almighty of Sports wasn’t Michael Jordan, but an unathletic 5’5” Indian cricket player with the voice of someone who had been skipped over by puberty: Sachin Tendulkar. Like every good Indian boy, Cricket was my Bible and Tendulkar was my God. The NBA was too far away, across oceans, across continents, a sport that spoke in a different accent from the post-colonial cricket commentators, a game that moved in a faster pace than I have ever been accustomed to.

Around Middle School, however, that began to change. Space Jam helped, of course. So did the friends who brought home NBA trading cards and copies of SLAM Magazine from abroad. My school in the Indian Himalayas was obsessed with basketball, and, in every moment of our free time, that’s all we did: stand around a rim shooting baskets, talking shit. I overheard names like Jordan and Malone, and Ewing and Shaq and Kobe. I began to see more basketball games on TV in India: broadcast live only a few times a week, and at the ungodly early morning hour, awake only with the chokidaars and the roosters.

In 1999, the new hobby became an addiction. I followed the playoffs closely, especially because of this underdog eighth seeded team in the East—the New York Knicks—that overcame all odds and beat all favourites to make it to the NBA Finals. Sure, they got whooped by the Spurs and the Twin Towers of Duncan and Robinson once they got there, but I was already in love. Houston, Sprewell, Camby, and SLAM’s first-ever cover-boy LJ had become my favourite team.

Later, out on the courts, my friends and I would re-enact these Finals, with each side assigning themselves the Spurs or the Knicks. I chose New York, of course, and worked day and night on my baseline turnaround fadeways, hoping to emulate Allan Houston’s devastating midrange shots.

Fast-forward the next two decades, and my NBA fandom went in the opposite direction of the Knicks’ credibility. From over thirteen thousand kilometres away, I watched the Spurs become an annual threat, the Lakers become a dynasty, the Suns change the pace and size of the game, LeBron change everything, Kobe make 81, Iverson step over Lue, the Heatles, the Warriors, and more Knicks embarrassments than the word-count of this entire piece. At least we had Linsanity.

For most of this time, the NBA and its biggest stars felt like as alien to me as the Monstars. They were from a different world, a different time-zone, stars in the sky so dominant and charismatic that they felt almost unreal, as if they were fictional characters living in a world I could never access. They might as well have been the Avengers. Some definitely had superpowers.

Over the years, the NBA superheroes began to feel a little more mortal. I visited the USA, attended my first game (Knicks at the Garden, of course), and later, interacted with and interviewed many stars professionally. But despite the cynicism that comes with age over most of the world’s magic, the NBA remained something pure and special. Something shudh, as we would say in Hindi. Something that, back home to us in India, was still a beautiful galaxy far, far away.

Once the NBA opened its first office in India, in Mumbai, in 2011, the pace of the game’s growth here took a mid-2000s-Suns-esque boost. NBA and WNBA players of the past and present visited multiple times a year, peaking with Kevin Durant dropping in 2017 for hyped-up visit, freshly minted with his first title and Finals MVP.

Meanwhile, the stream had flown the other way, too, and some of India infiltrated the NBA. Most prominently, Vivek Ranadive became the first Indian-born person to become a majority owner of the NBA when he bought the Sacramento Kings. Immediately, Ranadive began to share his vision of one day taking the Kings back to his birth-city—Mumbai—for an exhibition game.

For those of us watching and covering the sport from back here, this idea barely seemed feasible. India didn’t have the infrastructure or the market ready for an NBA game—even a mere preseason matchup. Ranadive’s vision, I had thought, was stuff of science-fiction.

*

And then, the stars came within reach.

Early in the 2018-19 season, the NBA officially made the surreal announcement: The first-ever NBA India Games would be held in Mumbai on October 4-5, 2019 in Mumbai between the Kings and the Pacers. One team, owned by an Indian-American. The other, interested in reaching out to the Indian market—and, of course, it doesn’t hurt the Pacers to have ‘India’ in their name.

The news was a pataakha for us Indian NBA fan, blowing our minds like fireworks. The long-foretold day was near.

The NBA had, of course, been holding preseason (and some regular season) games around the world for years, all over Europe, South and Central America, Asia, and the special Africa Games. In Asia alone, the league had become a preseason staple in the rabid China market, as well as in Japan, Philippines, and more.

The league’s landing in India had seemed both inevitable and impossible—before it became a reality.

Mumbai—formerly Bombay—is the perfect choice to host the event. It is the country’s financial capital, of course. But it is also seeped in local hoops history, featuring some of the country’s most iconic courts, tournaments, and legends of the game. It’s India’s largest city, densely traffic-jammed with the country’s diverse population, and the home of Bollywood, readymade for all the drama and action that the NBA promises to present.

*

Basketball existed before the NBA, and India was a colonised country and collection of states hundreds of years prior to that. But coincidence married these two histories together. The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was founded as the BAA in June 1946, and its first season was held from November 1946 to April 1947. In August 1947, India won its independence from British rule.

Two years later, the BAA and National Basketball League (NBL) merged to form what is known as today’s NBA. During the course of the first ‘proper’ NBA season in early 1950, India’s constitution went into effect, officially forming the Republic. This was also the year that India’s own governing body—the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) was born, and independent India’s first basketball team, captained by the late Ranbir Chopra, participated in the 1951 Asian Games.

But ever since, India’s has merely remained a reserve on world’s basketball’s roster, barely able to register a blimp in hoops history. While the NBA eventually became the most popular and powerful basketball league in the world, India had to settle for fragments and scratches of success. We finished fourth in the FIBA Asia Championship once, in the 70s. In 1980, our men’s team took part in the Moscow Olympics, only because the USA and a number of its allies pulled out of participating in Russia. A few of our players got to play in low-tier pro leagues around the world. In 2014, we defeated China on their home soil at the FIBA Asia Cup.

Yet, India remained a potential pot of gold for the NBA, with its rising youth population and the prevalence of basketball around the country, albeit as a much smaller sport compared to the awning shadow of cricket and others. The NBA continued to increase its India presence, and we had our big moment of cheer when Satnam Singh became the first Indian to be drafted—by the Dallas Mavericks—in the 2015. The 7-footer never played in the NBA itself, but we felt that it was the beginning of something big.

Soon, the NBA launched an elite NBA India Academy to hone more talented prospects, and eventually, take the next big leap after Satnam.

The announcement of the NBA India Games brought the two varying histories into confluence. A couple of days after I saw that TV commercial and spoke to my uncle, NBA-India relations took another unexpected, surreal step. At a reception event for India’s Prime Minster Narendra Modi in Houston, US President Donald Trump jokingly suggested in front of the thousands gathered that he could show up to Mumbai for the historic preseason games. A couple of questionable world leaders had used the NBA’s moment to inflate US-India relations—and suddenly, everyone from my local samosa-wallah to my other uncles and aunties understood that this ‘NBA’ thing—whatever it was—was a pretty big deal.

*

And then, there’s the matter of the Games themselves. Remember, that after all this shor-sharaba and hoopla, this is a mere preseason contest. In true sporting terms, it counts for nothing. In the absence of the injured Victor Oladipo, there will be no All Stars on the floor. In a country where casual fans only know names like LeBron, Curry, Durant, and—like everyone else—are learning to pronounce Antetokounmpo—there is little global name-recognition that the Pacers or the Kings can offer.

Nevertheless, both these teams are going to be stacked with exciting, young players, and even the easy-preseason flow will offer a brand of basketball far higher than ever witnessed in India. Fresh out of the FIBA World Cup experience, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica, Myles Turner, Harrison Barnes, Domantas Sabonis, and Isaiah Pineiro will all likely feature at the games. Barnes is already familiar, having spent a week in India earlier in the summer to promote the upcoming contests. Bogdanovic, in particular, was one of the breakout stars of the FIBA WC, and will hopefully continue his momentum in Mumbai.

Additionally, several other enticing players from both teams like De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Marvin Bagley III, Harry Giles, Malcolm Brogdon, TJ Warren, and more will potentially suit up in the two matchups. The Kings’ young core in particular is being slated for a major leap, and the games in Mumbai could be their first chance of stating their intent for the upcoming season.

Expectations will be high for these games from the in-arena crowd at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai, as well as all those around the country who will watch the games on live TV; but we’ll have to remember that most preseason games are duds, rarely producing moments of magic or note, and rarely showcasing a team’s true form or shape before the start of the regular season.

But even these ‘meaningless’ exhibitions will mean a lot to the players who participate: they’ll get to be a part of history, and stake their flag in unchartered NBA grounds. Those Indians unaware of the NBA—my uncle-types—will hear about Fox and Turner long before James and Curry. Who knows, maybe impressionable young minds—like my friends and I—will re-enact Pacers and Kings like the way we did with the Spurs and Knicks twenty years ago.

Some of the most intriguing action will take place on the sidelines and off-court. Being in the heart of the Bollywood film industry, the game is sure to be star-studded with some of the biggest Indian celebrities. Indian athletes, including national basketball players, coaches, and more will be in attendance, too. Every bigwig industrialist or sponsor present will co-opt this moment for their own. And true fans are coming from all over the country to have this unlikely dream come true.

The players and teams are going to participate in off-court charity and fan interaction events around the city. The league’s commissioner, a handful of NBA legends, and international media will gather. And Mumbai’s returning native son—Kings owner Ranadive—will get to shine in the spotlight of helping make this possible.

*

It's pretty surreal for me, personally, to see how far things have come since my childhood. NBA fandom in India had felt like a secret society, a code with which only those ‘in the know’ communicated. Living in smaller cities in India isolated me even further. Behind the hazy of the night sky, the stars were barely visible.

But the haze has cleared away now, and the entire galaxy is shining brightly above us. Although basketball remains a smaller sport in relative terms, the NBA’s popularity is already something that a younger-me could’ve never anticipated.

Of course, the league still has a long way to go to catch up with other sporting brands, like Cricket’s IPL or even foreign football/soccer leagues like the EPL or La Liga. The media in India often talks about waiting for our own ‘Yao Ming Moment’, for the day that an Indian player makes an impact in the NBA, and thus, propels the market back home. India, of course, still doesn’t have its own full-time pro basketball league and our national team still isn’t making any waves in the global game.

And yet, with the upcoming NBA India Games, we’ve taken a historic step forward. If it’s just a preseason game, if it doesn’t really matter, then it’s just about to become the most meaningful meaningless game ever.

Brook Lopez Talks Trip To India, Lakers, NBA Avengers And More

This article was first published on SLAMOnline.com on May 7, 2018. Read my original feature here.

He saw the Taj Mahal, one of the true wonders of the modern world, the majestic ivory-white marble mausoleum that has been standing for nearly 400 years. He took in an IPL Cricket game among cheering crowds in Mumbai. He found himself on national Indian television, covering the playoffs and connecting with local fans.

But Brook Lopez found his real passion when he got down to a familiar space: the basketball court.

This week, the Lakers center flew over to India for a short trip, on a mission to support youth basketball initiatives. Lopez spent the majority of his time at the NBA Academy India – located in Greater Noida near the capital New Delhi – to witness and train the best young players from around the country.

“There’s so much positive momentum around basketball in India and I’m glad to play a part in the growth of the game,” he said.

The NBA Academy India – an elite basketball training center connected to similar NBA Academies around the world – opened last May, with a goal to provide promising young players with what the League has called a “holistic, 360-degree approach to player development with focuses on education, leadership, character development and life skills.” The Academy has had a few dozen players admitted permanently over the past year and welcomed Kevin Durant last summer for a special development program.

At the Academy, Lopez attended the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA National Finals to see the boys and girls competing for the opportunity to represent India in the first Jr. NBA World Championship in August. Over the next few days, he was also present at the ACG-NBA Jump Finals to help identify the top prospects who will receive scholarships to attend the Academy. Indian basketball star Amjyot Singh – who played for the G League squad OKC Blue last season – also took part in the event along with Lopez.

Brook was not the first of the Lopez Twins to make India a part of his summer itinerary. Two years ago, his brother Robin took the same trip, where he trained young players, visited the Taj, and more. Upon returning, Robin advised his slightly elder brother to follow his footsteps to witness the rise of Indian basketball.

In the midst of his travels, SLAM caught up with Brook to discuss the passion and potential of young Indian players, training the youth in India between post and perimeter play, NBA Avengers, and considering a Bollywood role with his twin.

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SLAM: How has your time in India been so far? I know that it can be a sensory overdose at first, but what was the thing that surprised you the most?

BL: It’s been great. I’ve met a lot of very special people, people who have made my time here very enjoyable. A lot of the good that I’ve experienced has had to do with basketball. There are so many unique young players who have made it to the Academy here. What has surprised me most is the talent level and the passion that the young players have for the game. I was glad to witness it in person among the youngsters in the junior NBA boys’ and girls’ championship. I could see their passion and excitement as they cheered for each other off the bench!

I really enjoy travelling, so I was super excited to come here. It’s normal to have some expectations when you come to a new place, but this country has surpassed all the expectations I had! My trip to Taj Mahal was great. You’ve seen pictures and videos of the Taj Mahal, but to see it in person was inspiring and humbling. It’s hard to put into words. It was gorgeous and pristine, and there were so many people around to share this experience that made it really overwhelming and beautiful.

SLAM: You witnessed a lot of young Indian basketball players at the Jr. NBA Finals and ACG-NBA Jump program. What has been your takeaway from seeing the players in action here?

BL: It was really surprising to see how many talented kids there were here. The Academy gives the kids of this age a chance to grow their game, learn from their coaches, learn what they need to do, and continue to achieve their goals.

SLAM: Of course, it is often said that India’s large population is a great opportunity. But where else do you see potential for Indian basketball players to join the ranks of the top players in the NBA?

BL: I think that something big for India, besides having so many people, is the diversity of the people itself. You see all kinds of kids coming into the camp, from so many different backgrounds from vastly different regions. It’s cool to see their differences. They have different body types, different characteristics, and all with passion for the game.

SLAM: What would be your advice to young players and scouts on how to develop their skill-sets going forward as the game changes?

BL: I just tell them to work on the entirety of their game. Don’t focus on just one thing, but be the best player they can be overall. They have to be as smart as possible, develop a high basketball IQ, and not limit themselves to certain traits of “center” or “point guard.” Work on everything.

SLAM: That said, do you think post-play and under the basket offense is becoming a lost art among the young players? What did you see among the players in India?

BL: I definitely saw some flashes of [post-play]. I look at the way the game is going, and it’s becoming more “small ball.” But post-play still has a place. There were great examples of it at the camp. I saw many players at the Jr. NBA Championship that had a great instinct of the game. They just need to keep working at it.

SLAM: To shift away from basketball a little: I know you are famously a big comic-book fan – but I hope you got a chance to watch ‘Infinity War’ before you travelled?

BL: Oh yes, I did!

SLAM: Who would you say are the Avengers equivalents of NBA players in the Playoffs? I like to think of LeBron James as the Iron Man and KD as Captain America. Any other comparisons that you can think of?

BL: Well, I think of someone like Steph Curry as the Hawkeye, the sharpshooter. My brother is a huge Thor fan – I think that typifies him well! My favorite Avengers growing up were Black Panther and Hawkeye.

SLAM: Your brother has obviously been here before and experienced Indian basketball and the Taj Mahal. What did he tell you about India before you came?

BL: He told me that he just loved it. He had a great time. But he only brought back a small gift for me when he came back!

SLAM: In India, there are a lot of Bollywood films with a “double role” storyline, where the same actor plays two estranged twin brothers. Would you and Robin consider a ‘twins’ version of your own Bollywood film?

BL: Oh, we would absolutely, 100 percent, be down for that!

SLAM: Let’s talk about the Lakers a little. This upcoming offseason, it seems like everyone is rumored to join the team: LeBron, Paul George, Kawhi, etc. Do you think about these rumors?

BL: I mean there’s a lot going on. There are a lot of different options, and clearly, they all can’t happen. It’s definitely going to be an exciting offseason. But I wanna focus on what I can control. The one thing I can guarantee is that we are going to put in a lot of work in the gym.

SLAM: You’ve been a pro for almost a decade now, but this was your first time on a new team. How do you handle the off-court distractions of being on a new team, the midseason trade for Isaiah Thomas, stuff like that?

BL: Yes, there was a lot of change and transition this season. But we are a great group of guys – my teammates, the coaching staff, people in the training room, and all the way up. They made the transition as easy as possible for me. They were no qualms. It’s a great group of people and we were out there playing for the right reasons.

SLAM: The Lakers have so much young talent: Ingram, Randle, Ball, Kuzma… What do you think is the ceiling for this team?

BL: I think we have an opportunity to do great things. You look at what a team like the Warriors did by keeping their young core together and improving that way. There’s a lot to be said about their continuity. I think we want to have a solid foundation and build on it for a few years, continue to grow that way.

NBA Schedules Games To Be Broadcast in Primetime For India

This article was first published on SLAMOnline.com on March 9, 2018. Click here for the original post.

For nearly two decades as a basketball fan in India, the NBA forced me to become a morning person. Live games from the US/Canada in the evenings would be broadcast 9.5-10.5 hours ahead in time (and even further ahead for games from the West Coast), early in the mornings. So, while fans in North America watched the biggest playoff moments in primetime, me—and thousands of other dedicated Indian fans—watched them at the crack of dawn, with our morning cups of chai/coffee and, if you shared my palette, with stuff aloo parathas.

But only the smallest number of dedicated fans could brave the mornings, to watch games before school or work, to sacrifice their social lives the night before to ensure the early wake-up call.

Fortunately, in the run-up to this year’s playoffs, the NBA is looking to change some of that. With a little fix in their schedule, the NBA is hoping to bring itself closer to the Indian audiences than ever before.

On Thursday, the NBA announced the first-ever broadcasts of live NBA games in India during primetime for the Indian audience. From March 11-April 8, 2018, the NBA will schedule a weekly game for live primetime broadcast in India every Sunday at 10 p.m. India Standard Time (IST) on SONY SIX, SONY SIX HD, SONY TEN 3 and SONY TEN 3 HD.

This builds on the League’s NBA Sundays campaign, a weekly live primetime game on Sunday evenings in Europe and Africa.

Full schedule of the NBA Sundays games in India on SONY SIX, SONY SIX HD, SONY TEN 3, SONY TEN 3 HD:

– Sunday, March 11 10 p.m. Toronto Raptors @ New York Knicks

– Sunday, March 18 10 p.m. Oklahoma City Thunder @ Toronto Raptors

– Sunday, March 25 10 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers @ Brooklyn Nets

– Sunday, April 1 10 p.m. Philadelphia 76ers @ Charlotte Hornets

– Sunday, April 8 10 p.m. Dallas Mavericks @ Philadelphia 76ers

“We are excited to bring primetime games to India for the first time to help meet the growing demand fans in India have for live NBA content,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco. “The NBA Sundays campaign is part of our continued commitment to customize exciting NBA content for local audiences, and fans in India will have access to a tremendous schedule of live games during primetime featuring some of the league’s top players.”

“Providing primetime coverage of NBA games on Sony Pictures Sports Networks gives every basketball fan easy access to all the NBA action,” said Mr. Rajesh Kaul, President, Sports and Distribution Business, Sony Pictures Networks India. “Our collaborative efforts with the NBA continue to help us engage with existing fans and develop new fans. We will strive to grow the NBA’s presence in India and expand its reach in the coming years.”

The NBA’s partnership with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) began in the 2012-13 season and includes more than 500 English and Hindi games each season. This season the NBA and SPN began broadcasting a package of nearly 100 live NBA games with Hindi commentary every weekend on Sony TEN 3 and Sony TEN 3 HD.

2017 SLAM Top 50: Paul George, No. 9

In a new role on a new team, Paul George is in position to reach his lofty goals.

This article was first published in my #SLAMTop50 contribution for SLAMOnline.com on October 4, 2017. Click here to read the original piece.

Four summers ago, I interviewed a 23-year-old Paul George at an NBA carnival in China. It was the ‘NBA Nation’ in Wuhan, a fan-event in the most populous city in central China featuring basketball clinics, Pop-a-Shot games, and the Phoenix Suns Dance Team. The main event, however, was George. Then a rising star for the Indiana Pacers, PG was coming off a breakout 2012-13 season where he won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, became an All Star for the first time, and was named to the All-NBA Third Team. But just months before, his magical season had ended in heart-breaking fashion as the Pacers went down to the Heat in a memorable seven-game Eastern Conference Finals.

In going up against the best in the League, George had gotten his first whiff of success, and he sounded confident when he told me that his rise to superstardom was just getting started. “I’m nowhere close to getting what I want to achieve,” he said, reflecting on his NBA journey so far. “But I think I’m taking the right steps and going in the right direction. I can see myself being an MVP in the League. I think, if I’m not in contention for an MVP award, or leading my team to the Championship, then I think I’d be selling myself short as a player. In the near future, I wanna have the MVP award, be on the Olympic team, be a perennial All-Star, hopefully First-Team All-NBA as well.”

But sometimes, even the best laid plans of a super-athletic swingmen can go awry. A year later, George suffered a horrific compound fracture on both bones of his lower right leg during a 2014 FIBA World Cup scrimmage in Las Vegas. The setback virtually cost him an entire season of progress and raised questions if he could ever soar towards greatness again.

It put his ‘Wuhan Checklist’ on hold. MVP award? Nope. Championship? Not close. First Team All NBA? Nah.

But by 2015-16, George bounced back with a bang, playing 81 games and averaging career highs in scoring and assists. Last summer, he fulfilled his wish of playing in the Olympics and helped bring back a Gold medal from Rio. In 2016-17, he continued his rampage and boosted his scoring output to a career-high 23.7 points per game. The ‘perennial All Star’ wish had also been fulfilled. George put up an unstoppable performance in last season’s playoffs with 28 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists over nearly 43 minutes per game. Just like in the old days however, it was that old foe—LeBron James—that proved to be the thorn in PG’s side, and the Cavaliers swept the Pacers in the First Round.

Despite the loss, George’s comeback from the career-threatening leg injury was complete. Even if he doesn’t have quite the athletic hops he did in his younger days, PG has matured into a better scorer and smarter defender.

But with a drastic change of scenery, he will now find himself evolving into an exciting new role: George was traded over the offseason to Oklahoma City to join reigning MVP Russell Westbrook, not long before OKC pulled off another heist and presented Carmelo Anthony to the explosive Thunder mix, too.

He may no longer be the first option, or on many nights, even the second option on offense. But as the ideal two-way player who can be an elite perimeter defender, an offensive threat, and effect the game without the ball in his hands, George could have the Thunder soaring this season. None of that confidence I saw in Wuhan has wavered. George is still gunning for that MVP trophy. With Westbrook and ‘Melo by his side, he has said that the Thunder have the feel “of a championships team.”

Playing in a different NBA jersey for the first time in his career, this isn’t going to be the 2013 “Rising Star” PG, or the 2015 “Hobbled with Injury” PG, or even the 2016-17 “Bounce Back To Scoring Stardom” PG. The OKC version of Paul George will be something we’ve never seen before. Still only 27, we are going to see PG enter his prime years, a superstar in a new role. A man on a mission to complete his checklist.

2017 SLAM Top 50: Al Horford, No. 41

Al Horford is poised to play a pivotal role for the new-look Celtics.

This article was first published in my #SLAMTop50 contribution for SLAMOnline.com on September 11, 2017. Click here to read the original piece.

This time last year, Al Horford was the new face in an established franchise, the big-name All-Star recruit to a young squad, where the rest of the pieces had already begun to fit. His role in Boston, after years of success in Atlanta, was to provide veteran savvy and star power to help the Celtics mature into true contenders.

A year later, as the Celtics made dramatic changes this past summer, Horford has quickly become one of the only enduring major pieces of the recent past, ready to adopt—and thrive in—yet another new role.

When Boston begins the new season against the Cavaliers in mid-October, Horford is likely to be the only regular starter from last year still in this season’s starting five. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, and Amir Johnson—all of whom formed the framework of the Celtics’ starting unit last season—are gone. In come Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris, and the rookie Jayson Tatum, who join second-year swingman Jaylen Brown.

And then there’s Horford, Boston’s highest-paid player last season. Despite his credentials in Atlanta that included deep playoff runs and four All-Star appearances, Horford took a backseat while Thomas became the heartbeat and engine of the franchise. The duo—aided by a deep rotation of talented role-players—helped the Celtics to the best regular-season record in the conference.

Now, with the new arrivals to boost up the backcourt, Horford is likely to become the third option on offense for the Celtics. For a player who has been a multiple-time All-Star despite career scoring averages of “just” 14.3 points per game, the new role will suit him just fine. In Irving and Hayward, the Celtics have brought in two dynamic scorers that could become one of the League’s most dangerous offensive duos and score upwards of 50 points together per contest. With more tick, expect Brown to take a major leap this season, and rookie Tatum is already being compared to Boston’s last great swingman scorer, Paul Pierce. Under Brad Stevens’ leadership, the Celtics had a top ten offensive rating in the League last season. It might take a few months for Irving and Hayward to find their fit, but rest assured, scoring is not going to be their problem.

This is where Horford fits in. At 31, he is already the second-oldest Celtic, just behind the high-flying Gerald Green, and his experience will carry Boston while the youth come of age. Even though he has the potential to be get buckets for himself (he was the team’s third-leading scorer last season), Horford’s best basketball talents are more altruistic in nature. On the court, he is likely to be the Celtics’ most consistent performer even without taking a shot: grabbing boards, setting screens, finding the open man, and continuing to defend at a high level in the post. The best Horford teams—like the 2014-15 Hawks—operate with quick pacing, spacing, and ball-movement, with Horford serving as the big fulcrum that keeps the offense moving.

Indeed, Horford’s “fall” from 27 to 41 in the SLAM rankings is a serious demotion, and so is his role in the Celtics’ hierarchy for 2017-18. But if a player with his sense of leadership, poise, and multi-skilled talents is your squad’s third-best player, your squad is in good shape.

My Other Home

When his NBA career ended, Stephon Marbury ventured to China and impacted the country beyond his wildest dreams.

I originally wrote this article for SLAM Magazine's website on May 1, 2017. Read the original feature on SLAMOnline.com here.

On a cool October evening some five years ago, I was among the approximately ten thousand fans that flocked into the Wukesong Sports Center—now known as the LeSports Center—in Beijing for an exhibition game. I had moved from India to China just a few months before and this was my first chance to see my new “local” team, the Beijing Ducks, in preseason action. There was a special sense of electricity in the air: the visiting team was a troupe of retired and amateur American players, headlined by the almighty Allen Iverson and the ever-entertaining Jason Williams.

But even the presence of The Answer and White Chocolate himself wasn’t enough to steal the spotlight from the home team. The Ducks feature a rabid base of perhaps the Chinese Basketball Association’s most passionate fans and a few months before this game, these fans were rewarded with their first CBA title.

When the starting line-ups were announced, the biggest cheers were reserved for the new messiah of Chinese basketball. In my beginner’s Chinese, only three syllables stood out from the PA announcer: “Ma Bu Li”, the man who rose to heroic heights to deliver Beijing their elusive title, whose statue now stood by the parking lot outside the famous arena.

Stephon Marbury.

A pregame incident gave the first hint of true lore of Marbury in one of the world’s most populous cities. A few young fans were called midcourt to answer questions from the hype-man at the game, and a friend translated for me. One girl, aged around 10 or so, was asked who was her favorite Chinese player on the Ducks—each CBA team is allowed only two or three foreigners and the rest of the roster is packed with China’s finest. With little hesitation, the girl screamed out, “Ma Bu Li”.

Everyone laughed, then cheered, and there was no clarification or follow-up. Her answer immediately made complete sense. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, in another time, in another life, Stephon Marbury was once the quintessential great New York City player. At the height of his NBA career, he was a scoring superstar point guard years ahead of his time, and one of the most loved and complicated players of his generation. But now, he was here. He was in China.

And he was one of them.

I spent three more years in Beijing and during the course of this time, Marbury brought two more championships to the Ducks, made memorable playoff runs every year, and became a cultural icon in China. He was featured on Chinese national stamps, acted in a musical about his own life, became the first foreign athlete to receive a Chinese permanent residency (green card), named a ‘Model Citizen’ of Beijing, and a museum was built in his honor.

But after six years with Ducks, the 40-year-old is parting ways with the organization. Unlike some of his previous basketball breakups, the goodbye to Beijing has been congenial; Marbury was grateful for what the team and the city meant to him, and hopes to continue playing basketball elsewhere.

Beijing and Marbury forged a city-to-player relationship like no other. The playoff nights at the Wukesong in particular, were epic, where fans in those ubiquitous white and light-blue Marbury Ducks jerseys (I bought one, too!) roared for him pregame, chanted his name at every heroic moment, cried in joy alongside him when he shed tears over the championships.

“I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I think they – Beijing – are the best fans on the planet,” Marbury told me in an interview I conducted with him for SLAM at his apartment in Beijing two years ago. “The energy that they bring towards the players and the atmosphere in Wukesong is different and it’s rare. And it’s consistent throughout the whole game. They’re very knowledgeable, they understand the game, they know when someone’s shot isn’t going, and they know when someone needs to be encouraged. You can’t really put a price tag on that or compare it to anything.”

Former NBA players had taken their talents to China before, including the great lockout journey to the East that included JR Smith, Wilson Chandler, Patty Mills, and Kenyon Martin, and during my time in the country, former All Stars like Tracy McGrady and Gilbert Arenas. But none of them embraced the ‘Middle Kingdom’ like Starbury. He embraced the culture, food, language, and the people like none other, and they embraced him back. For him, China was not just a stepping stone, it was the destination. Later this year, he will even release a film called My Other Home about his journey East, from New York to Beijing.

This comfort in what he often called his ‘new home’ was evident when I met him. “Beijing is home,” he said. “I mean, America’s gonna always be home. But this is where I live at, this is home. This is where my life is at – here in China.”

“At first, it was a trying time because it was all brand new,” he said of his early years in China, when he played two losing seasons in for Shanxi and Foshan. “I was ready to do something different and be a part of something different. I wanted to evolve to a new area in my life and in basketball. It was a trying time because of the culture barrier and not being able to speak the language and not being able to communicate.”

“I understand the culture now. I love the food. I now know why people do what they do when they do it. Even though I can’t speak the language as well as I would like, I know a little bit more than when I first came here.

“It’s just growth.”

Billion to One

I talked to Satnam Singh about his inspirational new documentary on Netflix, which chronicles his stranger-than-fiction journey from India to an NBA Draft pick.

This article was first published on SLAMOnline.com on December 13, 2016. Read my original piece here.



Here are two worlds.

World No. 1 is the Ballo Ke village, district Barnala, in the heartland of the India’s north-western state of Punjab. Ballo Ke is not on the map. Its population of eight hundred people—mostly poor, disenfranchised farming families—live among paddy fields, separated from the rest of civilization by hours, which are traveled along a bumpy dirt path. Electricity came here late, and mobile phones rarely connect. Ask for a cup of chai and someone will milk a buffalo in front of you. It’s dusty all the time.

World No. 2 is the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, opened in 2012 as one of the swankiest multi-event facilities on the planet. It cost over a billion US dollars to construct. Its tenants include the Brooklyn Nets, an NBA franchise valued in the billions which plays under the electrical charge of flashing jumbotrons, on-court laser shows, and machine guns spewing T-shirts into the stands. Since 2013, it has hosted the NBA Draft in a room full of some of world’s richest CEOs, VPs, agents, and future basketball superstars.

These worlds are polar opposites of culture, economy, and lifestyle. And yet, through the course of one of the most inspiring stories in all of sports, one young man—Satnam Singh—lived through it all, marrying the dichotomy of the marginalized third-world with the highest stakes of the world’s richest basketball league, and journeying through it all while carrying the improbable hopes of a billion-strong country on his wide shoulders.

The summary, if this was a piece of fiction, sounds too improbable to be true. But truth is often stranger than fiction, and over the last decade, that story actually took place: Satnam, the son of a farmer from Ballo Ke village, used both nature (his size) and nurture (hard work) to make history when the Dallas Mavericks picked him in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Satnam’s entire life is the equivalent of Kevin Garnett screaming “Anything is Possible!” on infinite loop. Now, his journey’s been encapsulated in the feature-length documentary One in a Billion, directed by Roman Gackowski, and released worldwide on Netflix on December 6. OBB Pictures partnered with Media Weaver and RGTV to produce this project. For a year and a half of filming, Gackowski followed Satnam as he visited his tiny farming village in Punjab, India, finished his time at the IMG Basketball Academy, Florida, and got drafted into the NBA on that fateful night in New York City.

The film shows the wild extremes lives that Satnam leads, in his farm in the Ballo Ke, where he is gifted a goat upon his return and walks around paddy fields in basketball kicks, and later, in the IMG Basketball Academy, one of the world’s finest facilities for youth basketball development. We see him take jumpshots on basketball courts in Punjab and meet high-level NBA executives and coaches at draft combines in the US.

Also featured in the film are individuals who have played a role in the life of Satnam or in basketball at large over the years, including NBA India’s former Director of Operations Troy Justice, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, IMG Academy Basketball coach Dan Barto, former India national team coach and now-IMG Academy director of basketball Kenny Natt, basketball agent Travis King, Secretary General of Punjab Basketball Association Teja Singh Dhaliwal, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, VP of Kings’ basketball operations Vlade Divac, Satnam’s family, including his father Balbir, and many more. SLAM senior editor Abe Schwadron’s pre-draft interview with Satnam also makes a cameo. (And after closely following Satnam’s journey over the past seven years, I sat down for an interview that’s featured in the documentary, too.)

Satnam Singh is the true star here, though. Through old photographs, stories, footage, and the lead-up to draft day, the documentary paints the picture of a young man who stood up to the responsibility of shouldering a moment in history.

On the day of the film’s worldwide release on Netflix, I spoke to director/producer Roman Gackowski, producer Michael D. Ratner, President/CEO of OBB Pictures, and Satnam Singh himself to learn more about the story behind One in a Billion.

SLAM: What first attracted you to Satnam’s story and this project?

Gackowski: Michael and I had worked together in the past and were looking for a project to collaborate on. Michael wanted a different kind of storyline and this was the one that specially struck a chord. He brought it up to me; we both felt it was a deep human interest story, and it felt even greater once we started pursuing it. As a lifelong sports fan, it blew my mind that a country with the population of India had never produced an NBA player, especially when you look at the way the NBA has evolved over last 25-30 years with their international exposure. There was a curiosity as to why that was. The story was fascinating from the beginning and Satnam was an interesting character.

Ratner: I was working on an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary and I wanted more sports stories that are about character and are inspirational. I was talking to different agents, and Travis King, who had been following Satnam, mentioned him. I was fascinated by this potential underdog story. We knew the stakes were high, and we couldn’t predict the ending—if he would actually get drafted. There are 1.3 billion people in his country and nobody had made it before. The final moment when I wanted to do this was when I spoke to Troy Justice [formerly of NBA India] who knew Satnam personally and told me he was a special young man. Troy was absolutely right! There is a scene in the movie, before the draft, when Satnam says that he has only opened the lock to basketball in India, but the door is still closed. This story is still going on, the end of the story is not written yet.

SLAM: Satnam, how did you first react to the news that there are people interested in a documentary about you? Was it strange having a film crew follow you around as you went through some of the most important moments of your life?

Singh: The documentary crew came with me to India, I remember, and my Dad asked me, ‘Why are they doing this?’ I told my Dad that they wanna focus on where I’m from and let people know who I am. Then I told myself, ‘These people are spending a lot of money for you, if you don’t work hard and you don’t do anything, it won’t be good for you’. So, that’s why I knew I need to work hard. I needed to go open the lock. That became my goal, to not disappoint my family, the investment by IMG, by the film crew. I did everything that they needed. As I say in the film: right now, I’ve only opened the lock. I’m only in the D-League. I need to go further and open the door to the NBA.

SLAM: What were the most challenging aspects of filming this story?

Gackowski: Going to his village, for sure, it was a different environment. Thankfully, the producers had put us up with the right people for this project, so we had the support we needed. The thing that struck me most was to see the differences: Satnam was 14 when he left his home, his family, and went literally halfway around the world. When you see the world he grew up in, to see where he was then, and then to IMG Academy in Florida, it’s another world. That was a story that we tried to tell. There were difficulties working around language, but we had set ourselves up in a position to tell the story. Satnam is a really good, true human being, who was trying to do so much for not just himself but his family and his country. You kinda get invested in a guy like that. When we were going along with him, everybody on the crew felt so close to him and kept on asking about him. We were rooting for him and were so happy how it eventually turned out. I know Satnam felt so much stress and pressure before the draft. All of us felt the same way.

SLAM: Satnam, when you see your whole journey in this film, from your village to NBA, what does it make you think?

Singh: When I watched the movie, I realized how much nicer the court is now back in Punjab! It wasn’t so nice when I started playing basketball there! I came to the USA in 2010. When I came here I said ‘Damn! If only we had the same opportunity in India!’ I was lucky I got a great opportunity and had coaches to help me here. I know my body changed, I learned a new language, changed the way I talked to people. But I don’t like to change my attitude of where I’m from. My background is important to me. You should never forget where you come from. Even if I have a million, billion dollars: money and the new people you meet matter less. The most important thing in my life is to understand where my family is, to understand how much I had when I first came here, and why I came here. I came here to play ball, make a name for myself, make history for India. That’s why I have only one focus.

SLAM: What do you hope that viewers take from One in a Billion?

Ratner: I hope that the viewer walks away feeling optimistic and engaged, and understand that they have watched a story that is still being written. This is a feel-good film. The climactic scene honestly tugged at my heart. When you watch it, you see the math the agents are doing for him to be drafted and you feel the pressure, too. Yes, the movie wouldn’t have been a failure if he hadn’t been drafted, but to be picked, it made it matter so much more. There’s something unbelievable there, the feat of him being drafted, shaking the deputy commissioner’s hand. This was a true Cinderella Story, a risk for this young man who worked hard, flew across the world away from his country, and made history. The commissioner [Adam Silver] said that Satnam could really open the door for NBA in India. Now the goal is for him to be on the NBA court. To play in his first NBA game.

SLAM: What did you learn about Satnam by getting to know him and interviewing the people close to him?

Gackowski: I come away with the understanding that he is an incredibly brave, dedicated, and pure individual. It was a big deal for him to come to the USA because there were people from his village, his family, his coaches, who had a lot of expectations. They didn’t quite understand what the journey would be for him. Satnam was still young when he first went out. There were a lot of expectations but he said to himself, ‘No matter what, I’ll take this on my shoulders. I’ll do this’.

He came to the USA and didn’t know the language. He was trapped and he fought through it. He took the risk. There’s some powerful moments in the films as he spent years learning the language, feeling lost, trapped, while he was working hard to be able to understand be productive on court and in the classroom. There was a scene when a coach talked to him and he understood, and it was a breakthrough moment! You could feel that it someone in his life had just turned the lights on!

He tells you to take a risk, to be brave. He did everything he could possibly could to get to this level. Troy Justice said in the documentary that Satnam is the kind of player who would run through the wall for you, and he literally will. If he hadn’t accomplished this, it wouldn’t have been for a lack of trying. That’s what we see in the film: he’ll do it and do it the right way. And he doesn’t just do it for himself. It’s for everyone involved, for his parents and coaches in India and the USA.

SLAM: Satnam, the movie is over, but your basketball career goes on. You’ve already made history. If there was a sequel to the story, and you could write it, what would you like to see.

Singh: Having them [the documentary crew] around motivated me more, it gave me more help to have a strong mind and work hard. Maybe I’ll have one more documentary again. The same movie or a different kind—about what I can achieve in my next step!

The Zen Masters

Despite social and political turmoil, the Tibetan refugee community in India remains bonded together by the game of basketball.

by Karan Madhok. Photos by Angad Sodhi

This feature was originally published in the March 2016 edition of SLAM Magazine (SLAM No. 195). You can also find it on SLAMOnline.com

After a morning of meditation and philosophical exercises, Thakpa Kunga and his classmates—all Buddhist monks-in-training—decided to temporarily skip spinning prayer wheels and start spinning basketballs.

They snuck out of their monastery in McLeod Ganj—a mountain town in India, more than 6,500 feet above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains—and rolled down to their neighborhood court, wearing traditional monk robes: a decorated golden or yellow chogu (undershirt) with a red shawl covering their bodies. The niftier monks among them found sneakers, while the rest descended in flip-flops. To save time, Kunga and his friends played unchanged in their robes. A few hours later, they snuck back into the monastery for more lessons in spirituality.

Nearly a decade later, I meet Kunga on another court. He’s continued on his path to full monkhood, and the 27-year-old is now enrolled in Tibetan Higher Studies at the Sarah College in Dharamshala, which is a larger mountain town a short walk down from McLeod Ganj.

But Kunga hasn’t abandoned his love of hoops. Every year, he played for Sarah in the Martyr’s Memorial Basketball Tournament, a championship for the community of Tibetan refugees in Dharamshala and beyond who escaped Tibet’s Chinese rule. “Basketball is like meditation on court. Sometimes, I play just to clear tension. When you play basketball, there are no problems.”

For years, I held the mountain hamlets of Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj in great regard, partly because of my addiction to the Himalayas, and partly because of the organic love for basketball among the area’s refugees. So when I found out about the Martyr’s Memorial Tournament, I traveled back up the mountains. I met a myriad of people, including monks who had devoted their lives to achieving nirvana, refugees with stories of pain and danger, and young men and women with ambitions like every other young Indian in the country’s growing economy.

And I found that the game of basketball—in its own small way—bonded them all together.

Tibet—Xizang in Chinese—is China’s second-largest province. It sits on the world’s highest plateau and has long served as a buffer between the planet’s two largest and occasionally hostile populations: China and India. In 1950, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “liberated” Tibet and soon, China’s government won complete sovereignty over the region.

But many Tibetans have opposed China’s claim and have been fighting for Tibet’s freedom from Big Brother in Beijing for decades. There was much violence and bloodshed in the late ’50s, and in contemporary times, the largest uprising for Tibet’s cause was in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when hundreds were shot by the Chinese and thousands arrested. In recent years, over 140 Tibetan monks have performed self-immolations in opposition to Chinese rule.

Back in 1959, Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, fled to exile in India, where he eventually settled in McLeod Ganj. Scores of refugees followed him.

Estimates have about 150,000 Tibetans living in exile around the world, with over 94,000 in India. As the birthplace of Buddhism (the Buddha received enlightenment and gave his sermons in North India) and current home of the Dalai Lama, India was an easy choice for refugees hoping for a new life. About 2,500 Tibetan refugees make the journey out of China annually. They cross glaciers, trek through mountain passes and walk in the blanket of night to avoid detection. In Dharamshala, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), a government for those in exile, has been set up.

Two schools of thought have developed among Tibetans for the political status of their homeland: the Dalai Lama-supported Middle Way that asks for autonomy for the Tibetan people as a part of China, and the Tibetan Independence Movement that demands complete freedom.

Despite protests and support of many world leaders, neither approach has worked. As far as China sees it, Tibet, unsettled and rich in resources, will always be a part of its country.

Directly below where the CTA is located in Dharamshala is the newly renovated Gangyi Court, which is playing host to the Martyr’s Tournament. On the day of the finals, the hillside is abuzz. Young hoopheads wearing NBA t-shirts mingle with monks in robes and enthusiastically cheering girls in traditional chupas. Tibetan flags and Buddhist prayer flags fly around the court.

Among the fans is Tsetan Tenzin, age 30: by day an assistant at a Tibetan herbal medicine clinic, by night a long-range threat for Example Team, which was ousted earlier in the tournament. Tenzin was born in Tibet but his parents hired a guide to help him escape to India when he was 7. He hasn’t seen them since.

Tenzin’s love grew when he was in school at a refugee orphanage in Mussoorie, in North India. He carried it with him when he moved to Dharamshala. “We play basketball so much in Dharamshala because, surrounded by mountains, there is no room for bigger games,” he says. “Tibetans love the NBA. My favorite player is Stephen Curry; I love to shoot from outside.”

The refugees’ love for the game is also an ode to their “motherland,” where basketball is one of the most popular sports, too. “In Tibet, people play a lot of basketball, too, especially in school,” Tenzin adds. “So it’s normal for refugees to come [to India] and continue playing.”

***

China, with more than 1.3 billion people, has the largest hoops fan base on Earth. The sport was always popular, but after Yao Ming was drafted No. 1 in 2002, it took center stage. China has a fast-growing league (CBA) and is one of Asia’s most powerful national teams. Their second-tier league, the National Basketball League (NBL), expanded to Tibet this year, where the region’s capital city of Lhasa will host rivals in what China Daily called “the world’s highest basketball court” at 3,658 meters above sea level.

China pushed swift development in infrastructure and economy in Tibet, but what they call development and modernization, Tibetans call environmental deterioration and cultural genocide. International human rights groups have exposed stories of violations and the unwelcome indoctrination of Chinese communist thought and philosophy among the Tibetan population, replacing centuries of lifestyle, language, spirituality and culture.

To raise awareness, the Dalai Lama has traveled the world speaking to leaders and humanitarian organizations. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Hours before the tourney’s finals, I met Wangden Krab, president of the Regional TYC office in McLeod Ganj, who organizes the event. “The purpose is to remember the Tibetan martyrs who have sacrificed for their country,” Krab says. “Most Tibetan youth are now born in India or come here very young. In this tournament, we want to remind them of their martyrs. We want to bring youngsters together and unite them.”

The TYC is the largest Tibetan non-governmental organization of Tibetan exiles, mostly young Tibetans with hopes of Tibetan independence. They have around 80 chapters and over 20,000 members around the world.

“We are still fighting for complete independence,” Krab says. “We report to world governments, the UN and other human rights organizations about the critical situation in Tibet, including losing freedom of speech and fighting for human rights. Many refugees are not ready to settle in India; they always dream of Tibet.”

Krab has dissent in his blood. His grandfather fought in the war against China in the late ’50s before being imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese. His father was arrested for protesting Chinese deforestation in Tibet’s Dzorge area. Krab himself escaped to India in ’99, at age 16.

But today, his main agenda is basketball. “In Tibetan schools here, all types of players—tall, short, good, bad—stop and try their hand at basketball and are eager to learn,” he says. “It is a more ‘freestyle’ sport, with less structure and has rules that people can understand. There are no limits to basketball. Everyone can come to the ground and play.”

***

McLeod Ganj is a vibrant community where Tibetan refugees, NGO workers, tourists, monks and locals live in relative harmony. Tibetan culture is still preserved strongly here. Most refugees can speak and read the Tibetan language, know folk songs, speak of Tibetan “freedom fighters” and dream of Lhasa as their Promised Land.

Around town, there is also talk of the tournament—among the youth, monks, working men and women. The girls’ final is won by Men-Tse-Khang (Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute), dressed in Miami Heat colors. The boys’ teams—both wearing practice jerseys that have slogans like “Free Tibet” or faces of the Dalai Lama—step out for their final. Before the game tips off, both teams greet each other with traditional Tibetan presents of white scarves.

The last two teams are “Dhasa,” comprised mainly of second-generation Tibetans born to refugee parents in India, and “Nomads,” who feature 20-somethings who escaped from China more recently. The action on court immediately speeds up. Each fall takes a little longer to recover from. Tough layups between crowds of defenders are the go-to approach. There are no dunks, but athletic lay-ups with the and-1 call prevail.

Eventually the Nomads break open the contest with a barrage of long-range shots. They win by 3 and the crowd rushes the court.Players are lifted on shoulders and drenched with water under a flurry of happy prayer flags.

Despite the differences between the Tibetans and the Chinese majority in politics, philosophy and the fight for freedom, basketball could close the gap. Nearly every refugee I spoke with had played basketball at some point. The Han Chinese love basketball, too; the sport is a common thread between two cultures that have such a wide cultural gap and often view each other in suspicion and distrust.

Days after I left Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj, I reflected on a sense of incompleteness among the refugees. They are exiled from China but not fully assimilated into mainstreem Indian society. Stuck in this purgatory, all they have is their community, their culture and their spirituality to accompany them. And basketball.