Amritpal Singh’s latest achievement adds to the long list of successes of the Ludhiana Basketball Academy
This article was first published in my column for Ekalavyas.com on September 10, 2017. Click here to read the original piece.
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| Photo collage courtesy: Ekalavyas.com |
In the early 2000s, a diminutive basketball coach from Tamil
Nadu worked his way up north the country, thousands of kilometres away, and
found career nirvana in Punjab. It was here that the legendary coach Dr Sankaran
Subramanian began to lead the Ludhiana Basketball Academy (LBA), recruiting
talented but raw young athletes from big cities and tiny villages in Punjab. By
the time he passed away in 2013, Subramanian had had an imprint in the rise of
some of India’s most successful young basketball players.
And the feathers in the cap of the LBA’s alumni, just like
the swishes in the basket of a sharp-shooter, continue to add up even a decade
and a half since Subramanian’s first foray into Punjabi basketball.
This week, Punjabi seven-footer Amritpal Singh, one of the
linchpins of India’s national basketball team, made history by becoming the
first Indian-born player to join the roster of an Australian National
Basketball League (NBL) squad. After years of success in Indian basketball and
playing professionally in Japan, Amritpal got the biggest boost of his career
when he was
signed
by the Sydney Kings, with whom he is guaranteed to play the 2017-18 NBL
season.
It’s hard to imagine what the state of Indian basketball
would be without the influence of its LBA alumni. The Academy has produced important
international stars, NBA and NBA G-League draftees, professional players at
home and abroad, and cult heroes. Here is a list of some of the biggest names
to hone their craft at the famed indoor Guru Nanak Court of the Ludhiana
Academy.
Amritpal Singh
Why not start with the man of the moment himself? Amritpal was
born in the village of Fattuwal in Punjab, the son of a farmer, and used most
of his athletic gifts ploughing the field or playing Kabaddi. At 19, he was
finally introduced recruited to the LBA to be trained under Subramanian. Once
he took to the game, Amritpal improved rapidly, graduated to the Indian
national team, and has been a centrepiece of the national squad for the past
six years, a stretch that has included India's historic wins over China at the
FIBA Asia Challenge and the most recent appearance at the FIBA Asia Cup.
The 26-year-old has played professionally in Japan in the BJ
Summer League and for the Tokyo Excellence in the Japanese D-League in the
past. After impressing the Sydney Kings in the NBL Draft Combine and with their
invitational squad at the Atlas Cup in China, Amritpal was signed to the team
to become the first Indian to be in the top-level NBL roster in Australia.
Satnam Singh
No doubt the most-popular name in Indian basketball
internationally, Satnam’s well-documented “One in a Billion” story saw him rise
from the unknown farming village of Ballo Ke in Punjab to become the first
Indian to be drafted into the NBA. Satnam discovered basketball at age 10 and
became a star for Punjab at the junior level soon after joining the LBA as an
adolescent. The Academy gave him his early lessons in the game, and at 14, the
teenage giant was recruited to play for the IMG Basketball Academy in Florida,
USA.
After five years at IMG, Satnam, a 7-foot-2 center, declared
for the NBA Draft in 2015 and was picked 52nd by the Dallas
Mavericks. Since then, he has played bit minutes for the Mavericks’ G-League
squad Texas Legends and for the Mavericks’ Summer League teams. The 21-year-old
returned to the Indian national team for the first time since 2013 for the FIBA
Asia Cup in Lebanon this year.
Yadwinder Singh
“Yadu”, the son of a farmer from the small Punjabi village
called Rasulpur Khurd, started his athletic career as a serious Discus thrower
in school, before joining the LBA at age 16 as one of its first batch of
recruits. Within a few years, he improved dramatically and found a place for
himself in the Indian national side in the early 2000. The 6-foot-6 forward
became an important role player for India with his famous bursts of energy and
effort on court.
Yadwinder now plays for ONGC in Uttarakhand and for the
Haryana Gold squad in the UBA league. He was one of the four Indian players to
take part in the NBL Draft Combine earlier this year. Although a back injury
kept him out of India’s most recent international outing, he is the team’s most
consistent veteran presence.
Jagdeep Singh Bains
Jagdeep was the other athletic forward to form the first
batch of recruits with Yadwinder. Originally born in Sri Ganganagar in
Rajasthan, “Jaggu” was first a part of the Rajasthani junior state team before
Subramanian recruited him to the LBA in 2002. An unstoppable scorer, Jagdeep
played in many international tournaments for India and domestically for Punjab
Police, before suffering a career-threatening injury in 2012. Fortunately, he
made a glorious comeback to the game with the UBA League’s Mumbai Challengers
in 2016.
Amjyot Singh
Chandigarh born Amjyot Singh’s first athletic obsession was
cricket, but a High-School injury kept him out of the game for three months.
During this time, his interest in basketball grew, and when he returned to
fitness, he tried out for the school team. By 2008, Amjyot’s exceptional gifts
in the game were clear: he was soon promoted to the national U16 team and
recruited to the LBA. Now, he is India’s best offensive player and has been the
team’s leading scorer in most of the international competitions over the last few
years.
The 6-foot-8 25-year-old forward was besides Amritpal in
their experiences in the Japanese Summer League, D-League, and at the NBL camps
in Australia. Furthermore, Amjyot developed into one of the top-ranked Asian
3x3 basketball players in the world with his success for the Japanese Team
Hamamatsu. Last year, Amjyot declared for the NBA’s G-League draft and will
hope for another opportunity at the stage in the near future. At the domestic
stage, he has represented IOB (Chennai) and the UBA’s Delhi Capitals.
Talwinderjit Singh
“TJ” Sahi
Known affectionately to fans as “Air India”, TJ Sahi is one
of the most athletic players that Indian basketball has ever produced. The
31-year-old point guard from Ludhiana comes from a family of athletes: his father
is a Decathlon national record holder and his mother played hockey. Sahi,
however, chose basketball, and in his journey of learning the game home and
abroad, his paths crossed with the LBA, too.
Sahi has been in an out of the Indian national line-up for a
dozen years, and is as popular for his dominant international scoring spurts as
he is for his YouTube-breaking dunks. Currently, he plays for the Bengaluru
Beast squad in the UBA League and was India’s lead guard (because of injury to
Vishesh Bhriguvanshi) in last month’s FIBA Asia Cup.
Palpreet Singh Brar
Palpreet, a menacing, 6-foot-9 power forward from the
village Doda in Punjab’s Sri Mukhtar Sahib district, studied under Subramanian
in the LBA and secured his place behind Amjyot and Amritpal as yet another
Punjabi post presence. 2016 was a big year for Palpreet, as he won the ACG-NBA
Jump challenge to receive the opportunity to prepare and fly to the United
States for the NBA G-League tryouts. He impressed several teams in the process,
and became the first Indian to be drafted into the G-League when the Long
Island Nets picked him 80th overall last October.
Palpreet was eventually cut from the team before training
camp, but he is continuing his international basketball hustle, finding success
in the international FIBA 3x3 state with Team Hamamatsu of Japan.
Kiranjit Kaur
Originally from Ludhiana, Kiranjit Kaur, is one of the most
successful women players to have honed her skills at the LBA. Kiranjit, 29,
played for India at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and various FIBA Asia
Championships before switching sports to become an international netball player
for the country.
Harjeet Kaur
Another success story from the LBA’s women’s coaching
programme has been Patiala’s Harjeet Kaur. The 6-foot-2, 29-year-old forward
represented India in various international competitions including the FIBA Asia
Championship for Women in 2009 and currently works with the Punjab Police.
Loveneet Singh Atwal
Despite usually being one of the smallest players on court,
5’11” guard Loveneet Singh used his speed and energy to become a regular
feature for India’s junior teams and make his senior debut, too. The 21-year-old from Ludhiana was one of the
finalists of the ACG-NBA Jump last year
and
credited the LBA for helping him develop his game despite not being gifted
with size like some of the other top players out of Punjab.
Prince Pal Singh
For a hint of the future talent coming out of the LBA
basketball nursery, look no further than Prince Pal Singh. The 6-foot-8
teenager, the son of an electrician from Gurdaspur in Punjab, was discovered by
the LBA at age 14. A year later, he excelled at an open trial event in
Chhattisgarh to secure a $75,000 USD scholarship to the Spire Institute in
Ohio, USA.
