How the Lockout punctured NBA's brighest moment in India

There is no good time to have a lockout, but the timing of this particular shut-down of the NBA couldn't have been worse. The league was at its height of popularity and it featured an exciting group of popular veterans (Kobe, Garnett), incredible in-their-prime stars (LeBron, Wade, Nowitzki, Dwight Howard), talented youngsters breaking into the elite (Rose, Durant) and tantalising prospects for the future (Blake Griffin, John Wall). In addition, the NBA seemed to be becoming open and unpredictable again: Mavs, Heat, Bulls, Thunder, Lakers, Celtics, Knicks, etc all boasted formidable, exciting teams.

But for the NBA fan in India, the lockout couldn't have come at a worse time: the NBA was at the height of its popularity in India last season. For me, the feeling has been of taking a big bite of my favourite dish (Butter Chicken) to build an appetite, and then being robbed of eating it anymore, and instead staying hungry. Now multiply that feeling by a 100 and replace Butter Chicken with Test Cricket. That's the Lockout.

Rewind back to a year ago and you'll know what I'm talking about. The 2010-11 season couldn't have been better for NBA fans in India. Things started off on the highest note possible in the off-season itself, as India was visited by two of the best big players in the planet: Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. If that wasn't enough, Gasol even brought the Larry O'Brien trophy with him to India. The NBA Trophy in INDIA!!! Even recalling that moment gives me the chills.

But hype for the upcoming season had already been built before Howard's and Gasol's visits, since a certain LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach, ie. join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. The Heat became the most-talked-about team, for better or worse, even before playing a single game, and all eyes followed them through every move in the season. This influence wasn't lost in India, obviously, as more fans than ever joined in the excitement and anticipation of what the Heat will bring in the new season. A couple of other off-season moves - Amare to Knicks; Boozer to Bulls - added to the intrigue.

And then the season started, and to the delight of Indian fans, it was soon announced that the NBA will be showing four live games a week on Indian TV - on Sony PIX and Ten Sports - after signing deals with both the channels. And then, this number went up to five, and near the end of the season, it was up to six. Six live games in India every week! I was getting no sleep, waking up at wee hours of the morning every single day, and it was okay! By playoffs time, we were watching nearly every game live. It was certainly the golden age.

Of course, the NBA continued to increase its programming and web presence specifically for the Indian audience, showing a clear interest in catering to the growing legions of fans here. There were several NBA-themed shows on TV, and the NBA's India website featured regular blogs from fans in India - including a bi-weekly blog by me - in addition to promoting players/teams via social networking in India.

Wait, I'm not done: things got even better when the NBA announced that they would be releasing authentic NBA jerseys for fans across India! There were only a few available because of the first-time launch - Kobe, LeBron, Dwight, and Garnett - but it was a start.

By the end of the season, Chris Paul had chatted with Indian fans online and Brandon Jennings had also come to India. Things were real good.

We had already been spoiled as fans: So to see exciting individual and team performances live in our Indian living rooms in the playoffs was an incredible cherry on the top. Compared to the LeBron/Kobe bandwaggoners, their may have been fewer Mavericks, Thunder, or Bulls fans in the country, but rest assured, these teams and their superstar players gained several popularity points by the time the season ended.

It was all good... Until... Well, until look-at-where-we-stand-now...

And now, here we are: It's mid-November, a period that should be about two weeks into the 2011-12 NBA season, but instead of seeing Wade and LeBron and Kobe and Carmelo Anthony, we see David Stern, Adam Silver, and Billy Hunter. I've stopped thinking of Derek Fisher as the clutch Lakers starting point guard and started thinking of him as a lawyer in a suit.

The optimists say that the deal is near. That if the players agree to the NBA's latest offer, the league should start by December 15th. The pessimists say that the players are unhappy with the offer and could decertify from the union instead, sending progress way back again. Either way, the damage has been done, and there's no NBA on TV, no scores to follow on the internet, no real sporting news to discuss with fellow fans.

After a season of its highest point in connecting, engaging, and interesting Indian fans, the NBA is seemingly on an Anna Hazare inspired maun vrath - a vow of silence. I'm sure a lot of new fans were made last season, and a lot of casual fans became serious fans, and a lot of serious fans (like me) went downright neurotic (in a good way!). The thing about casual fans, though, is that they need constant reminders to be kept hooked before getting reeled in to join the hardcore fans. With a long locked out summer, with no rumours, no big free agent signing, no trades, no preaseson, no dunks, no game-winners, nothing, it becomes difficult to keep the casual fan hooked on.

Recently, in a poll done by PollPosition.com, 76 percent of American fans showed signs of switching off from the league, saying that they don't miss the NBA. 12% had no opinion about it, and only 12% said that they were missing the league.

But it isn't just the American market where the NBA may be losing fan support: The NBA has a massive international following, bigger than all the other major American sporting leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS). It is this following that actually helps the NBA remain as rich as it is, and it might actually be the most important factor when determining it above the other leagues mentioned above. Since the lockout, international fans are also a devastated bunch, and it'll be depressing to see more casual fans from across the world lose interest in the product when it does return.

Of course, the serious fans are hurt too: It's impossible to look past the sham when your favourite league and your favourite players begin a very public and bitter dispute against each other. We feel disillusioned that our favourite game, our favourite league, could be stopped by men in Meeting Rooms.

Will everything go back to normal once (and if) the season does begin? Will we easily get distracted by the six live games on TV every week to remember how barren and crappy this lockout was? Will Kevin Durant or Paul Pierce visit India and be received with the same enthusiasm as the fans as Dwight and Pau were last year? Will jersey sales increase?

Perhaps, yes, because at the end of the day, the NBA provides an incredibly exciting and addictive product, which, if you are reading this blog, you are most likely in love with. You and I will both be happy when and if the NBA returns no matter what, and with the current crop of talent and excitement around the league, you and I will most likely forgive the months we spent in the NBA Dark Ages during the lockout. It will be like forgiving and accepting a loved one back again after they have done you wrong, because no matter what you did, you still love them.

But it's not all that simple, is it? Because forgiving something doesn't mean that the bitter taste of betrayal has been washed out of your mouth. We'll be happy to have your beloved NBA back, yes, we'll forgive what we missed out as fans, but we aren't going to forget this summer.

The NBA was on the cusp of a breakthrough internationally this year, especially in India, and its phenomenonal progress was brought to a screeching halt by the cursed lockout. Let's hope that it can soon get back on track, and get back to blowing our minds again.

Indian referee Michael Vino officiated final of 2011 FIBA Women’s ABC

While the rest of the basketball programme in India continues aspirations to grow and achieve higher standards, there is one field in which we already rub shoulders with Asian giants like China, Japan, and Korea: Boasting of 17 officials with a FIBA license, India already has some of the best basketball referees in the continent. And these refs have been well rewarded for their efforts by getting a chance to be the men in the middle at some of the most important basketball games in recent years.

Add Tamil Nadu’s Ceciline Michael Vino Vincent Francis Victor to the list – or Michael Vino for short – an official boasting a list of credentials longer than his name! Vino was recently honoured when he was picked as one of the three referees chosen to officiate the final of the 2011 FIBA Women’s Asia Championship in Omura, Japan, between China and Korea, on August 28th this year.

“The final was the most important game that I have ever officiated,” Vino says, “The winner would not win the gold medal, but also secure their berth at the 2012 London Olympics basketball tournament. The fact that it was an exciting finish to this crucial game made my job all the more important.”

It was an exciting finish, indeed: while China were the favourites coming into the tournament, they had already suffered one loss to Korea in the group stage earlier. In the final, it was once again Korea who enjoyed the lead for the majority of the game, including at the beginning of the fourth quarter. But China made a comeback to take the lead, and then the lead flipped-flopped until the end of the game, as China survived to win 65-62 and book their place into the Olympics.

Hailing from Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, Vino, one of the three referees at this classic final, has come a long way in his journey as a referee. But the journey in basketball began when Vino was a player, and at one time, played in the All India University Championship. He got his referring license in TN in 1993, and soon, received the All-India license with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in 1996. In 2004, he achieved the highest status of a ref as he was named a FIBA referee.

Before the 2011 championship in Japan, Vino had achieved international exposure in several tournaments as a referee, including at the New-Zealand Tour for India (2005), the Crown Prince Tournament in Thailand (2007), and at the 2009 FIBA Women’s ABC in Chennai, his home state.

At the 2011 FIBA ABC, Vino had already officiated four games in the tournament before the final, including the Semi-Final match-up between Korea and Chinese Taipei. “Usually, the referees who officiate the semi-final do not get picked for the finals,” Vino said, “But after the Korea-Taipei game, I was told that I had been selected for the final, too, along with two other referees, from Russia and Malaysia. I had not expected this at all!”

Despite the high stakes and the close finish, Vino said that the experience at the final was not stressful at all. “There was little pressure on us referees in that game,” he said, “Even though it was a close finish, the game was smooth and the players and coaches did not argue with our decisions.”

Michael Vino became the third Indian ref to be a part of an important final in the last few years. A year ago, Atanu Banerjee became the first Indian to officiate the final of a World Championship: the FIBA U17 Championship for Women in France. Later in the same year, India’s Rameshkumar Durairaju was chosen to officiate the final of the Asian Games basketball tournament in Guanzhou (China).

“Indian referees are doing well now and FIBA are giving us more and more chances” says Vino, “We’ve been able to earn respect because we have been consistent, neutral, and fair in our decisions, from the first minute of the game till the last.”

“We must continue to promote professional officiating in India – there are a lot of good referees now and we can have many more.”

Being the man in the middle at a Senior Asian final may have been a major milestone for Michael Vino, but now, he has ambitions for greater heights.

“I want to officiate in the Olympics, and then at the World Championship,” he says, “Those events are the highest platform for a ref!”

Still Magical

Retrace your memory back to the time when you first heard about the NBA. Not the time that you became a fan, the time that you first experienced anything NBA-related. It may have been a game you caught on TV flipping channels years ago; it may have been Ahmad Rashad and Summer Sanders bringing you the 'Inside Stuff'; an news item in the paper (and for really young fans, the internet); a jersey worn by an older cousin; or a cocky mention on the basketball court ("I'm gonna break your ankles like Iverson did to Tyrone Lue").

For those of us who grew up in India, especially in the 80s or the 90s, one had to be really alternative to know much details about any other sport apart from cricket, which had the advantage of mainstream overdose that constantly poked at us. (No, WWF does NOT count as a sport, sorry!). Sure, there were some other names I heard about before hitting the age of 10 here and there: Mike Tyson, Michael Johnson, Pete Sampras, Diego Maradona... But there was little that my young mind understood about them. My attention was too transfixed with the Sachin Tendulkars and the Sanjay Manjrekars (and The Undertakers) of the world.

And years before I became the NBA-addict that I am today, I only knew two names which had any sort of relevance to me when the word 'basketball' was mentioned. The first one, of course, was Michael Jordan. Not only the greatest player of all time, MJ was also the first one to make the NBA and the game of basketball truly international. Those who didn't know what a basketball was had heard of Jordan. Between the multiple rings, scoring titles, MVPs, highlight plays, Nike ads, and Space Jam, MJ was almost bigger than the game itself.

The other name was also an MJ - but that's not what we ever called him - we called him by just 1 effervescent nickname, a nickname so popular that many casual fans don't even remember his real name. A nickname that suits him so perfectly that, even if you didn't know he was called by that name, you would remark with that one word whenever you watched him play, gliding and dominating and controlling the basketball court like a wizard. This other name, was Magic.

In the following years, a lot more names came into my consciousness as a growing NBA fan. I heard about a Shaq, heard about a Scottie Pippen and a Dennis Rodman. Heard the names Karl Malone, John Stockton, Gary Payton, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Allen Iverson. And then the floodgates opened.

But before anyone else, there were Michael and Magic. Even in today's NBA, the biggest names like Kobe, LeBron, Wade, Dwight, and Durant never achieved fame the way Michael and Magic did.

Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, in my eyes the second greatest basketball player of all time, and the best point guard - by a long shot. You all know about the accolades already. Between an incredible period of 1979-1991 with the Lakers, Magic won five NBA championships, three MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, was an All Star 11 times, reached the NBA Finals eight times, and was named in the All-NBA first team 9 times, for every year from 1983-91. He averaged an incredible 19.7 ppg, 11.4 rpg, and 7.3 apg in this period.

But with Magic, it would be insulting to his legacy if we allowed numbers to tell the full story. On the court, Magic was the orchestrator of the most eye-catching offense in NBA history. A 6 foot 9 point guard with the ability to play every single position on the court (which he did) and to score, rebound, and create with equal ease, he embodied the phrase 'Showtime'. No disrespect to his greatest challenger (Larry Bird) or his successor (Michael Jordan), but Magic simply owned the 80s.

But I was far too young to be aware of these accomplishments during the glory years. Nevertheless, as I grew up, and even as Magic begun the slow decline after the apex of his glittering career, his influence on the court, and thus his worldwide fame, remained.

20 years ago, Magic gained fame - or notoriety - for a very different, tragic reason.

It was November 1991, and the 91-92 NBA season was ready to gear off. Magic was coming off yet another Finals appearance where his Lakers lost to the Michael Jordan and the Bulls (officially beginning MJ's reign of awesomeness). He had been incredible as usual in the 90-91 season, averaging 19.4 ppg and 12.5 apg as he led his squad to the Finals. He had been named in the All-NBA first team and an All Star once more. Business as usual.

But on November 7th, Magic Johnson called perhaps the saddest press conference in the history of NBA basketball: He had contracted the HIV virus and, after just 12 years in the league, he was going to retire from the Lakers and from the NBA. A wizard had suddenly been exposed, the magic tricks seemed to be over, the smile that the whole world was charmed by seemed to be tainted. Magic Johnson wasn't just the most popular NBA player anymore, he was the most popular person in the world with HIV.

I remember hearing about this, very vaguely , a few years later, when I was perhaps eight or nine years old. At that point, I didn't care enough about basketball legacy to realise how big a loss it would be for an NBA sans Magic. To me, he was a famous person who was about to die; that didn't make me happy.

But of course, he didn't die. Magic lived on, year after year after year. Our morbid expectations soon ended, too: We weren't waiting for him to die anymore, he lived on, and is still alive, still kicking, 20 years later. HIV may have paused his basketball-playing career, but thankfully, it didn't halt his life.

And the reason I say that his contraction of the HIV virus only 'paused' his basketball career is because he came back to play. His brief comeback into the mainstream as a basketball star after the announcement was perhaps as amazing as his great career before it.

I read a fantastic article by Jack McCallum for Sports Illustrated today that detailed those days after Magic's announcement, and then, reminded me of some of his achievements. Magic retired in November 1991, but even a great player with HIV is still a great player: despite not playing against the world's best basketball players on a regular basis that season, Magic returned to play in the NBA All Star Game in Orlando three months later. He was, well, still an All Star, still a Superstar. Starting for the Western Conference team, Magic played 29 minutes, scored 25 points, dished out 9 assists and grabbed 5 rebounds. Like he had done so many times before, he led his team to a comfortable victory (153-113) and walked away with the All Star MVP award. It was the first and only time that a retired player was an All Star, and the first, only, and perhaps the last time that a retired player was an All Star MVP.

And you know what happened less than six months later? Magic Johnson was back playing basketball at the biggest stage in the world, as the floor general leading the world's greatest ever assembly of superstars - the Dream Team, Team USA - which descended upon Barcelona, Spain, at the 1992 Olympics. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and more were on the same side, eating apart every opponent on the world stage. And their point guard was a retired Magic Johnson, back to show the world that he still had it.

Three years later, Magic attempted a comeback to the NBA. He played 32 games, starting 9 of them, for the Lakers in the 1995-96 season. Now over 36 years old, he was a step slower, sure, but there was still a little bit of wizardry left. Trying to play as a point-power-forward (he's 6 foot 9, remember!) Magic averaged 14.6, 6.9, and 5.7 in just under 30 minutes per game. He also notched his 138th, and last, tripled double of his career in this season, going out as second only to Oscar Robertson in triple doubles, and with the most of anyone in the modern, post-expansion era.

A year ago, I borrowed five DVDs from a Laker-obsessed special friend of mine. Each of these DVDs celebrated a different era of the Lakers several championship runs, starting from George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, right through the Jerry West/Baylor/Chamberlain era in LA, to the Kareem/Magic years, and up till Shaq/Kobe. Nothing amazed me more than the Magic part: Never before had I seen something quiet so... mesmerising... on a basketball court. (Watch these 6:07 worth of highlights if you don't believe me.) I had always considered him to be the second greatest ever - behind Michael - and watching some of his games, extended highlights, and reactions to his brilliance at the time made me fall in love with his game all over again.

I wish I was old enough to enjoy his brilliance in his prime as it was played out: I wish all basketball fans had been lucky enough to watch him play; so that we could watch the greatest magician pull his most amazing trick - mesmerising an opponent with breathtaking ability, and then crushing him with his killer instinct.

In May 1996, The Lakers got swept by the Rockets in the first round, and with that, Magic Johnson had played his last professional basketball game. It came nearly five years after his shocking HIV announcement. He was still alive, still thriving. It's been 20 years now since that announcement, and 15 years since that last game, and one of the most exciting players to run on a basketball court is still amongst us. If his career was magical, than his life has been even more so.

Q&A: NBA-India’s Akash Jain – “Indian youth has the hunger to learn & enjoy basketball”

The third season of the Mahindra NBA Challenge (MNC) – the largest, multi-city, community-based basketball league in India – tips on in Mumbai on Saturday. Mumbai will be the first of five stops for the MNC, as the league will also be held in Bangalore, Delhi, Ludhiana, and for the first time, in Kochi in 2011-12.

On the opening day of the new season in Mumbai it has become clear that this large project is growing and will continue to grow bigger. Over a 120 teams have registered to play in Mumbai, and after the tour to all the five cities around the country, the MNC will host its first ever Mahindra NBA Challenge National Championship, a competition between the champions from each city to find the all-India champions.

On the day of the launch of the new season, Akash Jain, the Director of Business Development & Partnerships of NBA-India, discusses the growth, response, and the future of the NBA in India.

Hoopistani: It’s hard to believe that the Mahindra NBA Challenge is already in its third year in India now! How has the journey been so far? What lessons have been learnt?

Jain: Yes, it’s amazing to see how fast time has passed and we’re launching our third year already! The response to the MNC has been fantastic. We have learnt a lot and added several elements in this period to improve the programme and to deliver a great experience for the participating players.

From the first year to the second, we grew from hosting the programme in three to five cities. The number of participating teams increased by a hundred percent from the first year to the second. This year, we are adding the National Finals, which we feel will take the programme to the next level. We got good feedback from the local communities wherever we held our leagues for the need of a national competition like this. It will create a new national-level platform for players and teams to showcase their talents.

Hoopistani: Speaking of the local communities, how has the grassroots response been so far to the NBA and its efforts to promote the game of basketball in India?

Jain: The response has been tremendous: when we started our partnership with Mahindra, we had a vision to create a platform for engaging the local communities, and also a long-term vision to increase basketball at the grassroots level in India.

There is a hunger for basketball in the youth across India: they want a platform to learn and enjoy the game. The NBA has united with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), Mahindra, and with State basketball federations in the country to create a programme that fulfills these needs. Troy Justice (Director of Basketball Operations – NBA India) and our other staff have travelled around the country to get the message of basketball across. We’ve held 200 clinics in the country over the past year. In Season 2, we got a tremendous response, as 550 teams from across India participated. This season, we are projecting over 600 teams. The response has made us very excited about the future of the league here.

Hoopistani: The league was held in Thiruvanathapuram last season, and will be moving to Kochi instead this year. Why the shift?

Jain: We had a great season in Thiruvanathpuram, but in consultation with the Kerala State Basketball Association (KSBA) and with the BFI, we decided to make the shift to Kochi. This was done in order to have a more central location and thus make it easier for more teams to participate from across Kerala. We feel that this decision will make it a better experience for everyone.

Hoopistani: What new elements can we look forward to in the new season of the MNC?

Jain: The overall structure of the programme will remain similar to the past years from a week-to-week basis. One of the bonus additions to the programme will be that adidas – one of our sponsors – will provide special commemorative jerseys to all the teams in each league that enters the ‘post-season’ or Quarter-Finals stage of the tournament.

The past season we around 1300 games and, as I mentioned earlier, over 100 clinics around the country. We’ll continue to increase the basketball experience for the players around the country. This year, of course, will have the first ever National Finals.

Hoopistani: When and where will the MNC National Finals be held? Can you share some more details about it?

Jain: We are still working with Mahindra and with the BFI to finalise the location and the exact details for this event. Our plan is to hold the National Finals sometime in September 2012. We’ll be taking all the Men and Women winning teams in the Senior and under-18 competitions from all five leagues around the city and take them to the yet-to-be-determined location for the finals. The teams will compete in a 2-3 day tournament to decide the national champions. It will be great for the winning teams to compete against teams from other cities and showcase their skills at the national level.

In addition, Troy Justice and other NBA staff will provide expert training at the finals to help the participating players and coaches improve their abilities.

Hoopistani: After this year, what our the future plans? What is in the horizon for the NBA and the MNC in India?

Jain: Our plan with the MNC will be to get the programme to 10 cities over the next three to four years. We have added new elements to the league yearly, and we will continue doing so to improve it every year.

The NBA has a long-term commitment here in India. We will continue to take all of our grassroots programmes – the Mahindra NBA Challenge, the Jr. NBA Jr. WNBA Skill Challenge, NBA Jam, and all the coaching clinics held around the country – and we want to grow all of them in scope and scale. We will continue working with the BFI in developing basketball coaches across India. And we will continue to increase NBA programming and presence in order to increase our fan-base in India.

3rd Season of Mahindra NBA Challenge to tip off

MUMBAI: The third season of the Mahindra NBA Challenge – the largest, multi-city, community-based basketball league in India – will tip off Nov. 5 in Mumbai, the National Basketball Association (NBA), Mahindra, and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has jointly announced.

For the first time, the program will feature the Mahindra NBA Challenge National Finals. Winning teams from the senior 19+ and junior 16-18 divisions for both men and women in each city league will compete against each other to determine the National Finals winner. The program will visit five cities, including Kochi for the first time. Leagues also will be held in Bangalore, Delhi, Ludhiana, and Mumbai.

The programme has rapidly expanded since its introduction in 2009 with the number of teams participating doubling in season two. The program has helped to identify and develop top basketball talent, with the Indian national team extending training camp invites to 20 male and female players that participated in the Mahindra NBA Challenge.

The five-city league will feature four age divisions for both men and women: Sub-Junior for ages 12-13, Youth for ages 14-16, Junior for ages 16-18 and Adults ages 19 and over.

“Now in its third season, the Mahindra NBA Challenge has become a premiere platform to help identify and develop basketball talent at the grassroots level in India,” said Senior Director of Development for NBA India Akash Jain. “With the support of Mahindra, BFI, and all our partners, we are pleased to enhance the program with new elements, including the first-ever national finals, which will help further drive interest in our game.”

The Mahindra NBA Challenge not only involves competitive games, but also provides opportunities for skill development with more than 200 total player and coaching clinics conducted to date. Additionally, six different NBA All-Stars and NBA/WNBA Legends have traveled to India over the past two seasons to run clinics for participants.

“Over the past two years the Mahindra NBA Challenge has played an integral part in the growth of basketball in India,” said CEO of BFI Harish Sharma. “Along with the NBA and Mahindra, we are excited to offer Indian players more opportunities to perfect their skills and elevate their game.”

India's Senior Coach Kenny Natt to hold National Coaching Camp for U18 Boys

In order to prepare India’s U18 Boys’ basketball team for participation in forthcoming international championships and exposure games, the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) will be conducting a coaching camp under the helm of India’s Senior Men’s coach Kenny Natt from November 2nd – 30th, 2011, at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.

A tentative list of 25 players from around the country have committed to take part in this camp. Coach Kenny Natt will be joined by other assistant coaches and Strength & Conditioning Coach Zak Penwell will be training the young up-and-coming stars.

Players to attend U18 National Basketball Camp in New Delhi

A. Ashokkumar (Andhra Pradesh)

P. Yogesh (Andhra Pradesh)

Ajay Pratap Singh (Chhattisgarh)

Janki Ram Nath (Chahttisgarh)

Vinay Kumar Janbandhu (Chhattisgarh)

Nikhil Kumar (Delhi)

Karan Joshua (Karnataka)

Akhil Mathew Sunny (Kerala)

Amit Kanarjee (Madhya Pradesh)

Siddharth Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh)

Ankit Singh Parihar (Madhya Pradesh)

Kirti Goswami (Madhya Pradesh)

Jitendra Patidar (Madhya Pradesh)

Nitin Arun Chopade (Maharasthra)

Fardeen Fazal Khan (Maharashtra)

Melvin Rego (Maharasthra)

Manpreet Singh (Punjab)

Baljeet Singh (Punjab)

Loveneet Singh (Punjab)

Suresh Kumar Bijamiyua (Rajasthan)

Sivabalan Gunasekaran (Tamil Nadu)

Mukunth. K (Tamil Nadu)

Aravind A. (Tamil Nadu)

Kumaran U. (Tamil Nadu)

Abhishek Kumar Singh (Uttar Pradesh)

India’s U16 Boys coach JP Singh: “We felt we could beat any team except for China”

10th place in 2009, 10th place in 2011: if the final result is to be believed, there was no improvement in the basketball team that represented India at the 2nd U16 FIBA Asia Championship which recently concluded in Nha Trang City, Vietnam. India finished the tournament having won three games, lost five, and finishing, just like the tournament two years ago, at 10th place.

But look closer and you’ll see that, perhaps for the first time in recent memory, India returned from a top Asian-level tournament glowing with confidence of being able to look any opponent in the eye, and also earning the respect of all the teams they went against. Usually the whipping boys of Asia, India U16’s elite defensive ability and improving talent level ensured that they couldn’t be ignored by the opposition anymore.

“We began to feel very confident with ourselves as a team, in our defense, and in our talent during this championship,” said Jai Prakash ‘JP’ Singh, the head coach of this side and the mastermind behind India’s improvement, “Our boys approached every game feeling that they could get something out of it.”

Singh, who works at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, exhumed his confidence as India were pooled with China, Malaysia, and Chinese Taipei, all teams previously ranked higher. India started the championship with a huge loss to the tournament’s eventual champions, China. “The China game was almost like a practice game for us, because they were miles ahead in talent,” said Singh, “They are the strongest and most-feared team in Asia, and you can see that they won every single game by a large margin, up until the final against Korea which they won by 40 points!”

But even in this big loss was a silver lining: India may not have been able to get many points on the board (27), but they also managed to hold China to their lowest point total in the entire tournament (64).

Things got better for India from then onwards, as they crushed Malaysia in the second game by 53 points, and, in perhaps their best performance of the tournament, defeated a traditionally much-stronger Chinese Taipei side by 21 points.

“This is a team that prides itself on defense,” said Singh, after India held Malaysia and Taipei to 40 and 52 points respectively. “We started everything on the defensive end. Against Taipei, a much-more experienced team than ours, I thought that some of our players may get nervous and start making mistakes. Instead, it was the Taipei players who began to struggle to score on us as our defense grew stronger."

It was in the Second Round that the heartbreak began for India, with consecutive close losses against usual Asian powerhouses, Lebanon, Korea, and Iraq. “We gave a fight in all three games and just couldn’t finish them right,” said Singh.

But even though India lost and were knocked out from a chance of reaching the tournament’s Quarter-Finals, Singh felt that his players gained a new sense of confidence. “We knew that the opposition were now looking at us with new-found respect; they knew that we would give them a battle. We felt that, if we worked that it, we could beat any of the other teams – Korea, Japan, Taipei – except for China.”

Singh lamented that India’s chances for the Quarter-Finals were also hampered by the tournament match-ups. In the Second Round, teams qualified from Group A were to play teams qualified from Group B. But most of the easier opponents, Singh felt, were in Groups C and D. “We would’ve had a better chance of qualifying had we played some of the other teams who qualified for the next round, such as Indonesia, Qatar, or Vietnam.”

After shrugging off hosts Vietnam in a classification game, India lost the 9th spot to a buzzer-beater by Chinese Taipei’s Lu-Kuan Shiuan in a rematch against the side we had defeated handedly only days ago. Still, it wasn’t enough to dampen the spirit and the optimism of the players. “We may not have improved our position, but we were able to come back feeling much better about our performance, particularly our defense,” Singh added.

That defense was manned in the middle by Satnam Singh Bhamara, India’s behemoth young Center, a 15-year-old seven-footer who had already gained experience by representing India in the senior side at the 26th FIBA Asia Championship. Bhamara was a beast on both sides of the floor, having the highest scoring average of any player in the tournament, despite only clocking 24 minutes per game. Defensively, Bhamara’s size and post defense kept other attacking players at bay.

Troy Justice, the Director of Basketball Operations for NBA India, went to Vietnam to watch the team in action and was impressed by their improvement. On Bhamara, he said, “Satnam was one of the top three players at this championship. We saw his ability to change the game at both ends of the floor. He controlled the boards effectively and for difficult for the other teams to stop.”

Justice also credits India’s improvement to its defense, mostly because India had the size and athletic ability which was matched only by two other teams at the tournament: China and Lebanon. “Defensively, India stood out as one of the best. We matched up against teams like China with our size, with players like Satnam, Rakesh Sangwan, and Ajay Pratap Singh all big for their respective positions.”

Having spent considerable time in India working with young players at the grassroots level, Justice noted a considerable improvement in talent for this youth side. “This was a very talented team, we knew that, and I think all the other teams in the tournament knew it, too. Satnam and Ajay were two key players for India and both performed well; Rakesh was India’s most improved player.”

The group of players has now returned to India, and spread back to their different directions, but Coach JP Singh remains cautious about their future.

“This is a special group,” he says, “And they could improve on their performance in two years when they play in the U18 FIBA Asia Championship. But to do that, the important thing is to make sure that they continue to be disciplined as they improve as basketball players. The next two years are tricky for kids of this age group, but if they are provided the correct discipline and a similar type of training leading up to the U18 championship, we could see them work wonders again.”

"The Basketball Federation of India and the Sports Authority of India had a big hand in giving this team the opportunity," Singh added, "If we keep up the same type of training and discipline in the future, these type of performances can be repeated and improved."

It seems that perhaps this team’s biggest achievement could be a long term impact: they have been able to put up a first step forward to change the mindset of India as easy opponents in Asian championships. Additionally, their performance will also serve as encouragement to other young players who feel that they can now dream of stepping out into any Asian arena with their heads up high.