The NBA has launched an ambitious bid to make basketball India's most popular sport after cricket, the country's overriding passion.
The NBA will help organize a series of high-profile tournaments and training camps with the aim of achieving its goal within 10 years.
The NBA believes there is a "tremendous scope" for basketball in India where it could soon overtake hockey, the No. 2 sport.
"We have been studying the potential of basketball in India for about three years now," Mark Aronson, vice president of NBA Entertainment's Events and Attractions Group, said on a recent visit.
"There is tremendous scope and contrary to what we had thought, basketball already has a presence at the grassroot level," he said.
Basketball is played in schools all over the country but few pursue it thereafter like cricket or hockey.
"We know cricket is a religion here but the rise of another team game is definitely a possibility," Aronson said.
His visit coincided with Indian hockey hitting a new low in Doha by failing to win a medal for the first time in Asian Games history.
"There is a definite vacuum after cricket and basketball has all the trappings of an exciting game," Aronson said. "We are eyeing the No. 2 spot in terms of popularity."
"We have given ourselves 10 years to make a mark in the country. We went to some small towns and realized there were people who loved the game. That has given us a lot of hope," he said.
Indian basketball had its moments in the 1970s when the national team finished fourth in the Asian men's championships in 1975 and also qualified for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Now India does not even qualify for the Asian Games but officials are confident a push from the NBA will revive the sport.
"Any association with the NBA will help us get mileage," said Harish Sharma, secretary-general of the Basketball Federation of India.
"We are seeking their help to improve our infrastructure and coaching standards. The game has to be presented in a very big and attractive way. There is tremendous scope but a lot of effort has to be made for that," he said.
Sharma has ambitions of making India the basketball capital of Asia.
"We want to hold international events and also promote the concept of `basketball without borders' where Asian teams can come here to train and play matches in India," he said.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS