Video: Sim and Tanveer Bhullar making High School kids look like High School kids

As you get older, you know that feeling you get sometimes that kids are growing up too quick these days? That some of these kids can do things at a young age that we couldn't have dreamed of in our time (although, in my case, "our time" was only about seven years ago). Especially when you see some of the young high school basketball players who are far more athletic, quick, and explosive, and play a game that makes them look much older than their age?

Well, here is a quick fix to all of that. I just watched two videos from City League Hoops, chronicaling the American National Prep Tip Off in Pittsburgh this past weekend. The videos featured Indian-origin Canadian brothers, who I have since decided to collectively call the Giant Bhullars. The two brothers are massive: Sim (17) is 7 foot 4 inches tall, and Tanveer (15) is 7 feet 2. I credit the hatta-katta physique to some home-made Punjabi white butter in their ancestral veins. Both the brothers currently attend the Kiski School in Pennsylvania, and have both been getting a lot of attention from Division 1 colleges in the US.

Anyways - back to the videos. The two brothers, especially Sim, is making the competition look like little children out there. I almost feel bad for them. Damn Sim... Don't hurt the kids. He's making all the other kids who grew up too soon look like kids again. Speaking of kids who grew up too soon, let me repeat that Sim is 7 foot 4. And 17.

Here are some highlights of Sim Bhullar.



Tanveer got limited minutes at this camp, but he too showed his good offensive touch around the basket. Here are his highlights:



Exciting stuff, indeed. They could be the first Indian-origin players in the NBA. Of course, we have our own giant Punjabi out here in India, born and bred at the Ballo Ke village in Bhamara, grown to a 7 feet at age 14, and currently learning to hone his talents on scholarship at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. I'm speaking, of course, of Satnam Singh Bhamara, who, too, has started to garner some hype in the hoop circles in America.

Watch out world - Giant Punjabis are coming to dunk on your kids.

Basketball helps young players realise their dreams

Last week, eight young India basketball players, blessed with good fortune and backed up with hard work, finally made their way to begin their education as student athletes at the IMG Basketball Academy in Bradenton, Florida (USA). The eight were chosen as part of a scholarship programme devised by IMG-Reliance to provide budding Indian athletes with an opportunity of a lifetime to reach their potential in sport.

Hundreds of talented young sub-juniors took part in a Sub-Junior national championship last year, and 50 of the best ones were nominated by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to show up for IMG-Reliance's try-outs in New Delhi in August. Out of these, four boys and four girls were rewarded by being picked up as the representatives of basketball from India at the IMG Academy. This is no small achievement, because the Academy in Bradenton is considered to be the best multi-sport training facility in the world. The basketball academy itself has featured the likes of Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Joakim Noah, Kevin Martin, Jrue Holiday, Earl Clark, Kyryl Natyazhko (freshman at the University of Arizona), Dwight Powell (committed to Stanford), and others in the past.

They are from different parts of the country, and have very different backgrounds, but all eight of these youngsters have one thing in common: hard work. Most of them have revealed that even at a young age, it was their addiction to keep working on basketball that elevated them to the level they have reached today. Only between the ages of 13-14, these youngsters spend hours upon hours perfecting the game of basketball every day.

Ashiv Jain, who is from Bhopal, began playing basketball four years ago, when he was only 10. "I first started playing the game when I was in school. As I was blessed with good height, I was able to master it early, but I still need to practice for several hours every day."

The 'biggest' attraction amongst the chosen few, literally, is Satnam Singh Bhamara, the 14-year-old seven footer, son of a farmer from the small Ballo Ke village in Punjab. Satnam was recruited to start playing the game at age nine to Ludhiana, and he hasn't looked back. He is now one of the best junior players in the country and his height has already brought the international media home raving about him.

"I still have many aspects to improve in my game," says Satnam, "But right now, I believe that my post/pivot skills are the strongest aspect of my game."

Incredibly, the selection of eight features four youngsters from the state of Chhattisgarh two boys and two girls all of whom who have been trained at the academy in Billai. Dinesh Kumar Mishra, who is from the south-Chhattisgarh town of Jagdalpur said, "It feels good to get an opportunity like this in something I love to do, which is, playing basketball. I am yearning to get there and do really well!"

Kavita Akula, who is from Billai, was put on to the game of basketball through her aunt, who also used to play. Now, on the brink of this incredible opportunity, Kavita has plans to do more than just play. "I want to go there and improve my English," she says, "And of course, I want to see America!"

Pooja Ambashta , from Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, is the tallest girl in the group. "I liked basketball straight away!" she claims, "I used to watch my seniors playing in Ambikapur and joined in. When I started to improve and get good results, I was recruited to train at the hostel in Billai. That has helped improve my game a lot more."

Chhattisgarh's fourth representative doesn't originally hail from the state Sanjeev Kumar was born in Patna, Bihar, but due to lack of facilities and opportunities around him, he went out to seek another avenue to develop his game. The answer for him came in Billai, where he has been for the last two years. Although short, Sanjeev is a quick and talented player, who says that he will be looking to improve his dribbling and jumping ability with the help of the basketball coaches in IMG.

Then there is Barkha Sonkar, the daughter of a humble mechanic from Varanasi, a town that has produced many Indian basketball talents in the past. Barkha will be taking a different route towards stardom than the rest. "I really like basketball," said the determined young point guard. "I saw my seniors play this game and I wanted to follow them."

Finally, the last representative in this group is New Delhi sensation Saumya Babbar. Saumya has been showcasing her skills in recent weeks at the IMG-Reliance School Basketball League in Delhi, but the Sachdeva Public School will have to make do without her now, as she heads across the ocean and towards the USA. "I have great ambitions," she stated, "I want to help basketball in India and take the Women's team to the highest level. I also want to play for the WNBA one day."

The youngsters already have a healthy habit of practice to start with. Whereas Barkha said that she practiced over six hours daily, the players from Chhattisgarh have been going through a rigorous training of eight hours every day. Satnam hasn't taken his size for granted either, saying that he has had days where he has spent up to 10 hours on the basketball court.

Their training will have a lot more discipline and organisation at IMG, as the expert coaches will be helping the kids through the right kinds of workouts, gym exercises, a variety of new drills, physiotherapy, as well as taking dietary precautions.

We are still four or five years away from fulfilling our dream of watching a professional basketball league unfold in India. But with the hard work put in by the youngsters in America as well as the training that their peers are going to continue back home, it seems that when the league is finally launched, there will be no shortage of explosive talents to propel Indian basketball into the bright future.

Superman Invades India

Dwight Howard asks: Who's the Big Three?

This feature was first published on August 18th, 2010 on SLAM Online

“He is the only Superman to play on the basketball court,” came the introduction, and soon enough the cheering public at the mall in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, saw Dwight Howard stroll up to the stage with a signature beaming smile. I immediately sensed a potential “Shaq vs.” episode at the “only Superman” statement. The Big Leprechaun was always the only basketball Superman I believed in, but in Dwight, the NBA-starved Indian fans got a chance to meet the next biggest thing. It’s not every day that a devastating two-time Defensive Player of the Year flies down our desi skies.

The relationship between India and the NBA really started to gain momentum four years ago, when the current Basketball Federation of India (BFI) Secretary-general Harish Sharma went into an agreement with the NBA to promote basketball in India. It was around that summer of 2006 that a certain Minnesota Timberwolf, Kevin Garnett, made a low-key visit to the Indian shores. Apart from a few adidas store openings and school appearances, the Big Ticket’s visit went mostly under the radar. After all, this wasn’t China, it was India, where the average person still believed that Michael Jordan invented basketball.

Fast forward four years — KG became a Celtic, became an NBA champion. And NBA kept coming to India. Baron Davis was here, and so was Kyle Korver and Ronny Turiaf for a Basketball Without Borders program. Some legends came too: Dominique Wilkins, AC Green and others.

But it took the Summer of 2010 for the NBA to once again to make its massive presence felt on the Indian shores, and that presence came in the form name of Dwight Howard.

Suddenly, ‘Superman’ became sort of the flavor of the month amongst the basketball circles in India, and for a country full of many, many flavors and masalas, he came in as a hell of a big deal. Dwight was in India from August 10-14, sandwiching his visit here between a couple of visits to East Asian countries like China and Taiwan. Although the popularity of the NBA popularity in India still has a long way to go to match those other countries, it has been growing rapidly in recent years.

When asked what India can do to help the growth of basketball, Dwight had very simple advice: “Just pick up a ball and play. Basketball is such a fun sport — the more people play it, the more they will realize how great it is. Basketball is a very lively sport — it is my sanctuary — I love to put a smile on people’s faces through the game. I encourage people in India to pick it up too because it has the power of bringing people together.”

Over the past few days, Howard has brought his message of the joys of basketball to India, visiting Bangalore and New Delhi in his tour. India is a country that sorely lacks modern sport infrastructure and facilities, but Howard said that this shouldn’t deter young players from working on improving their athletic ability.

“I started playing this game when I was just 3 years old,” he said, “Growing up, I didn’t have the best conditions and facilities around me. And I wasn’t always this tall — I worked at this game every single day to get to this level.”

He added: “Inevitably, the game is more about heart and mental strength.”

Indian players have gotten the reputation of simply not being athletically built enough to survive the toughness of all-world level basketball. This may be true on certain levels, but I feel that we just haven’t developed the right potential into right talent.

In recent years, India’s own talent churning factory has been the state of Chhattisgarh, which has been developing strong, athletic youngsters from tribal villages (sort of like ‘The Air Up There,’ but imagine Kevin Bacon with an Indian accent) into phenomenal basketball players. Similarly, villages in Punjab are filled with giants like the 7-footer Satnam Singh, who, still a few months shy of his 15th birthday, has already been labeled as the country’s “Chosen one.” Raised on buffalo milk and an excess of homemade white butter, these players have been blessed with the right mold, but have no access to the right infrastructure and training to raise their level. India’s most regular hoop culture resides amongst players in the bigger cities like Mumbai and Chennai, yet without the right kind of conditioning and training, they too fade away into obscurity.

Dwight had some sound advice for Indian players hoping to improve their conditioning: The most important thing for Indian players hoping to make the NBA is to keep training all the time. “Train in the offseason, train when you don’t have any games, just keep working every single day to improve. That is the best way to stay in shape.”

Upon his arrival in India at Bangalore on August 10, Dwight soon headed to the Sri Kanteerava Stadium where he turned coach, working with several members of the Indian Senior Men’s team. Players such as Sambhaji Kadam, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Prakash Mishra, Jayaram, Harpal Veghala, Hirendra Singh and Somvir Chahal got an opportunity to get some tips from Howard.

The Indian team, also known as the ‘Young Cagers,’ are currently preparing for the Asian Games, set to be held in China in November. Dwight worked with the team on several drills, screen-and-rolls, and post-up plays. But Howard’s focus remained of defense, as he stressed on the important of defensive positioning to the players.

In Delhi, Dwight visited a mall to tip-off the ‘NBA Jam,’ which is NBA’s “traveling interactive fan event”. A horde of fans followed Howard to the mall to catch a glimpse of their favorite star as he came out, and he didn’t disappoint. The mall was covered with fans in Orlando Magic jerseys and ‘Superman’ t-shirts.

Finally, to rousing cheers of ‘Superman,’ Howard made his way out to greet the eager crowd. “It was my dream to visit India, and I’m very happy that it has been accomplished,” he said.

After some initial words, the floor was opened for the media to question him, and this was where two of my favorite events of the day occurred.

First, a confused Indian journalist, definitely not well-versed with the basketball world, asked Dwight (in Hindi) about his experience of grassroots VOLLEYBALL in India. A few awkward moments of silence later, Dwight was bailed out when Akash Jain (NBA Director, International Development - India) answered the journalist that, yes, the NBA is interested in digging out more sources of grassroots BASKETBALL in the country.

And soon enough, the inevitable happened when a bunch of not-so-well-mannered teenage fans from the back raised their voices for some questions.

“Dwight, how will you defeat the Big Three?”

Without a second’s hesitation, Dwight responded: “Who’s the Big Three?”

I few of us laughed out loud. After some bumbling amongst the kids in the back, another one grabbed the mic and asked: “How are you planning to stop Big Baby?”

Ouch!

Dwight (in a mock heavy voice): “I have no problems stopping him.”

Dwight went on to refuse the kids’ challenge for a one-on-one match-up (again, in a mock voice: “I don’t think you’re ready!”). Later, along with the Troy Justice, the NBA’s Director of Basketball Operations in India, he took the court where he taught shooting and defensive drills to a crowd of eager youngsters. Chants of “We want dunks!” quickly began to rise, and Dwight finally obliged them by slamming one down the basket.

I got a chance to interact with Dwight earlier that morning, where he spoke about his time in India, his work with the national team players, and looking forward to the ‘10-11 NBA season. He stressed how the players here should follow his own training schedule, which went all year round, with or without a game, with or without a season.

He also confessed that his own personal improvement this offseason was going to be more of a mental issue than a physical one. “In one way, I’m always improving, because I’m always growing older,” he said. “With age comes maturity and mental strength which will help me a lot on court. Every team in the NBA has improved this season, and we have to get better too to keep performing well.”

He will have to — and Magic fans will be hoping that his world travels this offseason help in developing the “mental strength” that Dwight talks about. The NBA shrewdly chose a personality like Dwight to come and provide the League as well as the game of basketball some exposure in a large market such as India. His short trip may not have distracted the imaginations of a cricket-crazy country (only the FIFA World Cup managed to do that!), but the interested players and fans got more than they wished for: an experience with a genuine NBA star, and more importantly, good advice on how to improve their own conditioning and take their game to the highest level.

Meanwhile, we in India will be hoping that the efforts of our basketball federation and the NBA can elevate the game to “Number Two” status in the country. It’s considered nonsensical to even discuss overthrowing cricket, so every other sport fights for this glorified silver medal.

As I write this, it also happens to be India’s Independence Day. So Jai Hind, and let’s pray for that Number Two spot.

Satnam Singh: Larger than Life

The first thing I notice is his shoes. Size 22, made of some obscure shoe brand that I haven't heard of. That is the first thing I ask him, too, and he confirms to me that they are custom made. "Straight from Amreeka!" he says. He confirms that he has another, better pair coming his way. Sure enough, the next time I meet him, he is sporting a pair of black Nikes. Size 22.

I shake his hand and watch my fingers disappear behind his monstrously large grasp. When we disengage, I'm relieved to have my hand back unharmed. It seems that Satnam, still only 14, has learnt to exert minimal pressure during introductory handshakes, because a casual clasp by him could mean certain broken bones for us mere average-sized mortals.

Meet the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the Past: a village boy, a son of a farmer and carpenter from the middle of nowhere in Punjab. His home address has no house number, just a family name and the name of their village,'Ballo Ke'. "District Barnala," he adds, and then he says a few other things in Punjabi so thick that I had to occasionally call on a translator (and I call myself a Punjabi - tssh!). I'm not ashamed though, because even a pucca Punjabi would be confused with his thick accent; his words come out muffled, half-eaten on their way out of his giant mouth.

Until the age of 10, Satnam was just an average youngster who attended a village school and brought refreshments to his father who was hard at work at the farm.

Well, not completely average: Mr. Bhamara Senior stood an imposing 7 foot 2 inches; his 10-year-old son, who seemed to be following in his father's giant footsteps, was already 5 foot 9 and a big, broad, beast of a pre-adolescent. Satnam had never even heard of this game called 'basketball'; not until one of this father's friends saw him and recommended that he take the boy to Ludhiana and teach him the game.

Satnam only needed a few years of work before his coaches realised that there was more to his skill than his size. He was soon a natural, and like every young player, still fondly remembers his first dunk (age 13). He grew a ridiculous 15 inches in four years, and after blazing his way through all the sub-junior competitions, he forced his way into the Youth (U16) team.

Meet the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the Present: still four months shy of his 15th birthday, Satnam now stands 7 feet tall. He's already made a name for himself in the Indian basketball circles across the country. After blazing his way through the Punjab inter-school and junior leagues, Satnam began to collect his international credentials. He represented Indian in the FIBA Asia U16 Championships at Malaysia in November 2009. Back home, he took Punjab to the gold medal of the National Youth Championships at Trichy (Tamil Nadu) in June.

There was no more doubt it - the son of a farmer, who would've had a hard time pronouncing 'basketball' four years ago, had become the country's best young player. Satnam's success led him to be recommended by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to be part of a three-player contingent of Indian youngsters sent to Singapore for the NBA's Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia camp, which featured 44 junior boys from 19 different countries in Asia and Oceania.

And then came the biggest step yet - barely returned from his BWB experience, Satnam was again nominated amongst 50 of the country's best sub-junior players to take part in a tryout for the IMG Basketball Academies in Florida, USA. Sponsored by IMG-Reliance, expert coaches from IMG descended down to Delhi to watch the Indian youngsters slog it out for two tough days in late July. Only eight of the 50 were to be chosen. Satnam was taller, stronger, bigger than the rest.

When the final list was released, not one was surprised to see Satnam's name amongst the eight. Dan Barto, who is a basketball coach and athletic trainer from IMG, admitted that the youngster was an "intriguing" prospect. By the end of the August, Satnam will be taking his talents to Bradenton, Florida, where he has been fully sponsored to stay as a student-athlete at the IMG Academy, perhaps the best multi-sport training facility in the world. The Basketball Academy at IMG has featured the likes of Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Joakim Noah, Kevin Martin, Jrue Holiday, Earl Clark, Kyryl Natyazhko (freshman at the University of Arizona), Dwight Powell (committed to Stanford), and others.

His world about to turn upside down, Satnam seemed surprisingly bindaas about things. He had a childish exuberance about him, and then I remembered that's because he is still only a child!

I ask Satnam if he follows the NBA.

"Yes," he answers.

"Which is your favourite team?"

Satnam looks a little embarrassed. "I don't know, whichever team Kobe Bryant plays for."

"Oh - Lakers," I laugh, "But shouldn't you like a player closer to your size. A centre. Kobe Bryant must look small to you."

I shudder as I say that. If Kobe friggin 6 foot 6 Bryant is small compared to him, I'm closer to being a Leprechaun.

"What about Shaq?" I ask.

"Oh, ya, Shaq!" his eyes light up - Shaq seems to have that effect on people - "I like Shaq! And that other guy who is coming here - what's his name?"

"Dwight Howard," I tell him.

"Yes, Dwight Howard. I want to meet him."

I remind Satnam that he's bigger than Dwight, too. He may not garner the same kind of attention that 'Superman' did during his visit to India, but Satnam has his own little celebrity legend. He gushes and tells me how strangers ask him for autographs and ask to touch him. He tells stories of how he has to struggle and fit on a bus seat from Delhi to Ludhiana, and how people on the bus line up to photographs snapped next to him.

But despite his growing popularity, the young man-child has managed to remain humble. Credit his farm upbringing, the advice of his many coaches, and the fact that a committed basketball player rarely has time to concern himself with other things. In Satnam, India has been blessed with a hell of a committed player.

"I'm very fond of this game," Satnam says, "It was given me so much, and I want to continue improving."

Before he took claim to the giant centre position on the floor, Satnam was initially trained to play as a forward. His early training shows - he is an efficient shooter from the three-point range and says that his strongest feature is probably his ability to drive the ball in. With size came the evolution of polishing his post-up game and making him devastating on the defensive end of the floor as a rebounder and a shot-blocker. Few brave souls would dare run full speed into this giant brick wall guarding the basket.

"I still have to improve my dribbling though," he concedes.

More than any one specific thing, I believe what Satnam needs is experience playing games at the highest possible level for his age, and this is where his stint with the IMG Academy will be nothing short of life-changing.

So what will we see in the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the future? If all goes as scripted, he has the potential of becoming one of the finest Indian players of this generation, if not one of our brightest prospects ever. Alas, few scripts in real life have this kind of filmy ending - in Satnam's case, each Indian fan will be hoping for the holy grail of basketball for him.

"NBA... That is my dream," Satnam admits, "I want to play in the NBA."

He has ambitious dreams, but the NBA is the toughest of all basketball nuts to crack - time will tell if he will ever become good enough to ever play there. Fortunately for Satnam, all the signs are pointing the right way. His greatest assessment came out of a man who knows a thing or two about basketball talents. Troy Justice, the NBA's Director of Basketball Operations in India, worked with Troy and the rest of the Youth team at Ludhiana a few weeks ago. "If I could, I would work with this kid every day," Troy said, "He can be the chosen one for basketball in India."

Those size 22 feet have come a long way from the village to the basketball court to one of the world's greatest academies. Now, Satnam Singh Bhamara has the opportunity to do something a giant of his size rarely has the opportunity to do - look up, even above himself, and dream!

IMG Academy selects basketball players for scholarship

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After spending two days holding camps with 50 of the most talented sub-junior players in the country, coaches from the IMG Basketball Academy have announced the names of eight youngsters who have qualifed to join the academy in Bradenton in Florida, USA as full time scholars.

The players selected are (in no particular order):

Girls:

Pooja Ambistha (Chhattisgarh)
A. Kavita (Chhattisgarh)
Soumya Babbar (Delhi)
Barkha Sonkar (Uttar Pradesh)

Boys:

Sanjeev Kumar (Chhattisgarh)
Satnam Singh (Punjab)
Dinesh Mishra (Chhattisgarh)
Ashiv Jain (Madhya Pradesh)

All the selected eight are currently at camp in Bhopal.

BFI anticipates that the children will leave India on August 28th, in time for the start of the academic semester at the IMG Academy on September 1st. The children will be accompanied on the trip by Ravishankar Pathanjali as chaperone. As a former tennis player himself, who went to college in the US, Pathanjali is well suited to this role. He will be supported by the full network of world class coaching and pastoral staff at the Academies.

All travel, accommodation and tuition costs will be borne by IMG Reliance. BFI will now start the process of informing the parents and organising travel and other required information.

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Moulding the stars of tomorrow

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IMG-Academy coaches train with talented youngsters


Seated amongst the anxious and excited parents of 50 sub-junior basketball players a few days ago, Andy Borman, the director of Basketball from the IMG-Academies in Florida (USA), warned, "We are going to really make them work. Make them work hard."

Two days later, after hours of practice, litres of sweat, and miles upon miles run by squeaky sneakers across the Sanskriti School basketball court, the young athletes knew exactly what Borman meant. They were pushed harder than ever by Borman and his colleague, professional trainer and coach Dan Barto, their conditioning tested, and their skills examined.

And now, all that is left is for the IMG Academy coaches to choose eight youngsters amongst the 50, who will get the enviable opportunity to get a full scholarship to go and complete their education at the IMG-Academies campus in Bradenton, Florida, and to graduate from school as student-athletes.

"This is a great and memorable step in the history of Indian basketball," said Harish Sharma, the secretary-general of the BFI, "With the IMG-Reliance now set to work with the BFI for the next 30 years, we will project these first set of youngsters as the faces of the future professional basketball league, which we are hoping will be launched in India within four years."

These are exciting times indeed for basketball in the country. And exciting times for the sub-junior players, most of them still hovering around the age of 14. But once on the court, the jitters ended, the nervousness faded away, and the players had their game-face on, ready to compete for the final eight.

The youngsters, hailing from 14 different states in the country, were shortlisted as per their performance from the from the Sub Junior National Championship held in January at Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. They included of 25 boys and 25 girls. After registration on Thursday, the girls were first to get a taste of the hoop action on Friday (23rd) morning at the Sanskriti School in New Delhi. After warm-up, the girls started the session with basic athletic evaluation work with Borman, Barto, and Indian coaches. They moved on to do drills on their technical and fundamental basketball skills, before being divided into five teams to play quick-fire four minute games against each other.

One of the best performers in the games was 14-year-old guard from Chhattisgarh, Saranjeet Kaur. "The teaching style of the IMG coaches is great, it's very different," said Saranjeet, "This is the first time that any of us are taking part in a programme like this - I hope to keep trying hard so I can be selected!"

Saranjeet did indeed play her role as a successful floor general in the games, being vocal both on the offensive and defensive ends of the. She hounded the ball defensively, and was involved with everything good her team did on attack - her prettiest move came when she slid off a screen and scored a little tear-drop from the top of the key.

The boys followed the same schedule with the coaches after lunch, and at the end of an eventful first day, both the trainers and the students of the game were hungry for more.

Things got a lot more technical on Saturday - the girls preceded the boys in a similar schedule, but this time, the warm-ups, stretching, and skill evaluations were more advanced. Before the boys took centre-stage, the IMG coaches also welcomed 30 Indian coaches who came to observe the drills and ask questions. One of the first points that Barto stressed that the sessions will pay priority to the importance of the kids' physical training and conditioning.

"These aren't exactly new drills, but the IMG coaches are using new ways to implement them," felt NS Rathod, who has been a basketball coach for over 30 years and currently coaches at a private school in New Delhi, "They have correlated warm-up and drills together for ball handling exercises to be more efficient. In basketball, conditioning is absolutely necessary to cope with the speed and stamina needed for the game."

Several of the boys continued to stand out, including Satnam Singh, the seven foot giant from Punjab, who commanded all of the attention on and off the court. Satnam is a few years older than most of the other kids in the programme, but his explosive talent made his attendance essential for this opportunity. He earlier was one amongst three Indian youngsters to have attended the NBA's Basketball Without Borders - Asia programme at Singapore earlier this month.

The IMG Academies are the finest multi-sport training facility in the world, with alumni including NBA players such as Renaldo Balkman and Michael Beasley. Other stars who have trained at the academy include Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Loul Deng, Al Harrington, Brendan Haywood, Kevin Martin, and Tayshaun Prince, and Joakim Noah.

Their motto is 'Rise to the next level' - and Barto believes that he can help the chosen youngsters from India to do so. "The kids here need to get a true understanding of their lower body conditioning," Barto said, "If they are able to get the connection of speed, movement, and conditioning right, they can really elevate their game to 'the next level'."

He commented that there are still many things that the kids could improve on, including their precision on outside shooting. But Barto did find positives in the youngsters' aggression and ability to make an attacking finish around the basket.

"I have worked very hard to get here, and would love to be selected and join the Academy," said Yogesh Kanderia (13) from Jaipur, "The style of coaching was good and we have really enjoyed training here."

Once Borman, Barto, and others make their decision, eight of the youngsters will be invited to join the Academy, starting their school year from the end of August. But there are positives for the others, too, because a major part of the IMG-Reliance (IMGR) union with the BFI includes setting up several basketball academies for youngsters in India. In addition, IMG Basketball Academy will continue to recruit young players from India in a similar programme every year.

Basketball is India is poised to explode exponentially, and the scholarship selection for the first batch of young stars is an important early step in shaping the talent that will form our future leagues.

Read this article on the official website of Basketball Federation of India

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