Major boost for Indian basketball as country likely to host preseason game in Mumbai

The NBA academy chose particularly selected players and provided them with elite level training so that they could become capable of playing at higher levels such as the Jr NBA World championship. NBA’s initiative has been yielding desired results as 20 odd boys and girls from New Delhi and Bengaluru have represented India in the just-concluded Jr NBA World Championships. 

NBA commissioner, Adam Silver has been of the opninon that it could be a major boost for basketball in India if the country might host a pre-season NBA game in Mumbai next year. By the tremendous response at the NBA academy, and the brilliant performance showcased by Indian players at the Jr NBA World championship, he felt that India are capable enough to yield young talents and a pre-season game would lift spirits of basketball enthusiasts over here. 

The NBA chief said that the organization has been determined to break the barriers in India by collaborating with the Reliance Foundation.

“It’s hard to define. I would say it’s a fantastic first tour. We had 10000 participants from 70 countries which went through the process to be a part here. Just seeing the enthusiasm you can feel what it means to them. They have been here for a week, participated in community projects. They were taught life skills, how to deal with stress. I think this is just the beginning of what will turn out to be a great program. We see this as an opportunity at a global level to putting in infrastructure. For young players just the dream of coming to the United States, that too at Disney is incredible. We believe we really can do something special with this program.”