On the ball

NBA comes dribbling into India to hold coaching clinics across the country.

Unlike other countries where the sporting pie is fairly distributed among various disciplines, India is a rare exception. Here, cricket grabs a major chunk of the pie, whereas other sports vie really hard for their share. For a long time basketball has lived under cricket’s shadows in the country but the sport has now found a new lease of life with the National Basketball Association (NBA). India is now on NBA’s focus.

This premier sport body launched Junior NBA/WNBA Hoop school, a programme designed to promote basketball participation in the country. Among the many things that the NBA is planning to do is to get both past and present NBA greats to conduct coaching clinics in the country.

Four-time NBA championship winner and former Boston Celtics great Robert Parish was in the country to hold one such clinic. “I found the enthusiasm among the kids here extremely encouraging,” says Parish about his early impressions of the basketball talent. But then, again, does he think that basketball can actually catch on in the country? “The game is somewhat popular and there are a lot of kids, I am told, who play the game, so why not encourage them?”

Parish, who will be conducting coaching clinics in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, says that the passion for the game is evident. Says Parish,“So far, there haven’t been too many opportunities for them to take up the game professionally.”

The fact that the physical attributes of most Indians fall short of that of an average basketball player also doesn’t help the game. But Parish rubbishes this argument: “You don’t need height alone to succeed in basketball. If you have the passion, then you can make it.” Mental toughness is another aspect where one needs to work on in the game of basketball. “It is an intimidating sport and tests your endurance on physical as well as mental levels,” he says.

Parish, speaking from experience, says that only a handful of basketball players in the NBA are born talented. “It’s essential to give the right coaching to them,” he says. Citing his own example, he says that it was all due to the right coaching that he received which made him the player he was.

Akash Jain, director, international development, for NBA, is confident of the game catching on in India. “If you look around, almost all schools have basketball courts in the country; what we would be looking at is to provide the right kind of support.”

This is not the first initiative that the NBA has taken to spread its wings in the country. Earlier this year it had launched Basketball Without Borders, its global development and community outreach programme in the country. Says Jain, “We had received tremendous response back then and are hopeful that it will continue.”

The association is looking at corporate support in a big way and has already landed some deals. The latest coaching clinic programme is being supported by TCS along with names such as Spalding and ESPN. Says Jain, “Corporate support is necessary and I am sure we will find many of them coming forward to support the game.” It’s a two-way street for Jain, as far as corporate support is concerned. He continues by saying, “Sports provides a perfect platform to the corporate world and in return we get to ride on their support for the development of the game.”

Apart from popularising the game, Jain knows that NBA has a lifestyle element to it which will attract more sponsors. Though he knows that it’s not an easy target, the NBA is setting its sights on becoming the number two sport in the country after cricket.

Coming back to its latest initiative, the Hoop programme, Parish says that they are looking at both boys and girls under the programme. The five-week long initiative will comprise of coaching clinics, educational seminars with Tata Consultancy Services, and weekly youth basketball clinics for each participating school.

The focus will be on unearthing new talent. Quiz him about why he thinks the game hasn’t been able to take off in the country and he says there could be a number of reasons. But he feels that probably not providing the right kind of coaching and training at a young age could be one of them.

Though there is a niche viewership for NBA in the country, Jain feels that as the sport becomes popular, that will also continue to grow.

It’s open to debate whether such initiatives will actually help in popularising the game in the country. But it’s a positive sign for the game that the NBA has set a long-term plan for the country.