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The 2019 NBA Finals tipped off earlier today, with the Raptors scoring a big Game 1 victory over the Warriors. But for NBA fans in India, thousands of kilometres away from Toronto, the league has left a special gift that will delight fans of either team. For the first time ever, the NBA Finals are set to be live-streamed in India on the NBA's accounts on Facebook , Twitter , and YouTube in English commentary. This new option will hopefully help the league many more fans who don't have access to the NBA's regular live broadcasts in India on cable. Of course, the cable broadcasts will continue too, with live games in both English and Hindi commentary on Sony ESPN/Ten Network. Throughout the regular season, SONY featured more than 300 live NBA games across their channels. "We are always looking to provide our passionate fans in India with more ways to experience the excitement of our games," said Diane Gotua, NBA Vice President of Global Business Operations. "...

The Sacramento Kings' roots with the international Indian community continue to get deeper. Roy Rana, the Canadian who is probably the highest-profile Indian-origin basketball coach in the world, has just been hired as one of the assistant coaches by the Kings. Rana will populate a bench of coaches led by Sacramento's newly-hired head coach, Luke Walton, who coached the Los Angeles Lakers last season. Rana, 50, has coached the Ryerson University men's basketball team (Toronto) since 2009, guiding the Rams to six appearances at the U SPORTS national championship tournament. He also serves as the head coach of Canada's U18 and U19 national men teams. In 2017, he helped Canada to a gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Cup. Rana was born in Wolverhampton in England, to parents from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, before moving to Canada when he was just a year old. The Kings have made more connections with the global Indian population than any other NBA team. Their owner, Vivek Rana...

With the NBA reaching its last stage of the season, we invited sports anchor  Manas Singh on Hoopdarshan . In a free-flowing interview, Singh joined co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok for a discussion on the Warriors' potential three-peat, the effect (or non-effect) of Kevin Durant's in the Finals, Kawhi Leonard's redemption tour, and Stephen Curry's legacy. Singh told us why he is potentially 90 minutes away from an inappropriate tattoo. Singh, who hosts the Sony SIX NBA show 'Saturday Morning Live' among more anchoring duties, also discussed two of his favourite teams in different sports: the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and the EPL's Liverpool FC. As usual, Kaushik and Karan round up the latest Indian basketball news, from Vaishnavi Yadav to the Youth Nationals. Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball , and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA...

The 4th edition of the FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup featured a record 40 teams (18 in the women's and 22 in the men's category) playing fast-paced, competitive basketball in the heart of Changsha, China. And when the dust settled it was the dominating newcomers from the Oceania region - Australia - that celebrated the spoils. With dominant displays throughout the knockout stage on Sunday, Australia's Men and Women both emerged as 2019 FIBA Asia 3x3 champions. Held from May 22-26, the quickfire tournament featured most of the top Asian countries. Australia's Men, who also won the tournament's previous iteration in 2017, took the gold on Sunday with a 21-9 victory over Mongolia in a rematch of the last final. Tim Coenraad scored 8 points in the final including the game-winner for the Australians. Australia's Women beat Kazakhstan 20-9 to win gold in their division on Sunday. Hosts China's Men finished third after defeating Kazakhstan in the bronze medal game, 14-11. ...

Jayasankar Menon has been crucial to the development of Indian basketball both on and off the court. As a player, he set new records for individual performances with the national team in the 1980s-90s. After retirement, he has been involved with the welfare and growth of the game as the IBPA founder and a coach. Today, he is named into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Originally from Wadakanchery in Kerala's Thrissur district, Menon got his start in Kerala, but eventually came to be associated closely with basketball in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. In Chennai, he played for Southern Railways from 1987 and played a major role in the dominant Indian Railways side from the late 80s to the 90s that were always the favourites in the national championships. In 15 Nationals with Railways and TN, he won five golds, a silver, and a bronze. On the international circuit, the power forward rose to become of the country's top players. He was the first Indian to be ...

The story of Vaishnavi Yadav has already been well-cemented in Uttar Pradesh basketball circles. Just 13, the quick, high-scoring guard from Allahabad began to show her dominance for the state's youth teams in early domestic tournaments, and then soon graduated to starring for the U18 teams, too. She was just 14 when she made her first appearance for India's youth side at the FIBA U16 Asia Championship. Two years later, she returned to the team, now with her skills more polished, and ended up being an unstoppable force leading India to a Division B victory with a division-high average of 20.4 ppg and a team-high 6.2 apg. But she reached young legendary status at the next youth nationals, in May 2018, where she tallied a record 71 points - the most by a woman at the national level in India - in a losing cause against Kerala. Her efforts were able to lift UP basketball to a respectable status, and she also began to turn heads at the NBA Academy India women's programme where...

India's biggest national under-16 basketball tournament - the 36th Youth (U16) National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls - came to a conclusion in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) on Tuesday, with Haryana (Boys) and Kerala (Girls) sitting atop the rankings. It was a major improvement for both these sides, as neither of them finished in the top three in last year's edition of the tournament. Organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in association with the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA), the Youth Nationals were held at the PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore from May 14-21, 2019. 26 teams each in the boys' and girls' divisions took part from all over the country. Kerala were well-represented in the final stage, featuring a team in each of the two championship games on the day. In the boys' final, Kerala were halted in their tracks by Haryana and their star player Sahil Taya, who continued his impressive play as it had been through th...

From new domestic leagues, successful grassroots programmes, and individual athletes making a name for themselves internationally, 3x3 Basketball has caught on like wildfire in India over the past few years. But when it came to participating in the continent's biggest 3x3 bonanza last year, Team India was marked 'absent'. Now, they get to rectify their absence and make a comeback to the tournament in style. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has announced four-member squads for India's senior men and women's squads, ready to take part in the 2019 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup in Changsha, China, from May 22-26, 2019. The teams will be captained by Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Raspreet Sidhu, and led by the Serbian coaching duo of Veselin Matic and Zoran Visic. Both Indian teams are currently in the Qualifying Draws and will have to win their first few games to qualify for the proper group stage. India's Women won the first-ever instance of this tournament back in China ...

Photo courtesy: punjabbasketball.org Continuing to honour some of the early basketball legends, today's addition to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame is Gurdial Singh . Gurdial Singh played for Team India in the 1960s, becoming a part of the first teams to take part in the FIBA Asia Championship. He was also a part of the successful Services side from the 50s - along with stars like Sarbjit Singh - that won a number of National Championships. In 1968, Gurdial Singh was honoured with the Arjuna Award in Basketball. After he passed away, a memorial basketball tournament in his honour has been held regularly at the school where Singh used to train, in Gurdaspur (Punjab). Click here for more of the Indian Basketball Hall of Fame.

The very first guest on Hoopdarshan , Scott Flemming , returns to India's premier basketball podcast in a new role. Flemming was arguably the most successful head coach of India's Men's basketball side, and now works as the Technical Director of the NBA Academy India in Greater Noida. In an in-depth interview with co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok , Flemming talked about the changing opportunities for India's top prospects, what India can do to turn around their recent slump, and the full inside story of the 'Turban-Ban' controversy from the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup. Aside from a conversation that triggered the past, present, and future of Indian basketball, Kaushik and Karan also touched on the ongoing Youth Nationals in Coimbatore and give their predictions for the NBA Conference Finals. Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball , and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we lo...

Sometimes, beauty lies in unpredictability. The type of unpredictability that presents new routes in one's journey, that takes one down unexpected new avenues, that turns the strive for a destination into a different, exciting journey. For Satnam Singh, the dream destination has always been to play in the NBA. After his ' one in a billion ' long-shot to go from a small Punjabi village to an IMG Academy scholarship in the USA, and then become the first Indian to be drafted into the NBA back in 2015, he reached unimaginable highs in his life. But the draft wasn't the end of his journey: instead of playing in the NBA, Satnam spent two seasons with the G-League's Texas Legends, then returned to India to play for the national team at the UBA League, and when a new route presented itself, he took the road into an unpredictable new direction: the St. John's Edge of Canada's NBL . And that first season in St. John's went on - to Satnam's pleasant surprise -...

As many as 700 players young Indian basketball players, fresh faces set to be the future of Indian hoops, have gathered in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) this week for the 36th Youth (U16) National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls . The tournament tipped off in Tuesday and is scheduled to be held from May 14-21 at the PSG College of Technology indoor stadium in Coimbatore. It is being organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in association with the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA). In October last year, hosts Rajasthan (Boys) and Punjab (Girls) won the respective golds at the 2018 Youth National Basketball Championship in Udaipur. Rajasthan's Boys will again be among the favourites this year, along with strong units from Maharashtra and hosts Tamil Nadu. For the girls, watch out for all of last year's top three finishers - Punjab, Karnataka, and Maharashtra - to put on a good show. This year's participating teams are: Girls Level 1 - Group A: Pun...

For the second consecutive year, two squads of talented junior players will represent India at the 2019 Jr. NBA World Championship, set to be held once again at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida from August 6-11, 2019. The 20-member contingent of Indian boys and girls will participate in this massive tournament against the top 13-14 year-old players from across the world. The Jr. NBA Global Championship will feature boys and girls divisions, separated into USA and international brackets that begin with round-robin play and continue with single-elimination competition. The winners of the USA and international brackets will play in the global championship games on Aug. 11. The 20 Indian players were chosen following a two-day selection camp at the NBA Academy India in Delhi NCR in late April, observed by Sacramento Kings player Harrison Barnes. The camp featured 40 participants in the 13-14 age group from the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA Ski...

There were 22 years of Arjuna Awards given to 12 Indian basketball players, from the early 60s to the early 90s, before the very first woman shattered the glass ceiling (or the fibre-glass backboard) to be named in this exclusive list. That woman was Punjab's Suman Sharma , a star for India in the late 70s and 80s, and today's entrant into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Born in Amritsar, Sharma's international and domestic highlights included six national championship golds and a silver medal, appearances in three FIBA Asia Championships in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai, captaining the team for the 1982 Tokyo FIBA ABC, and playing a major role for the team the same year at the Asian Games back home in Delhi. Sharma won the Arjuna Award in 1983. In 2015, he joined the Indian Basketball Players Association (IBPA) as a vice-chairperson. Click here for more of the Indian Basketball Hall of Fame .

One of the most experienced players of Team India, Raspreet Sidhu joins the new episode of the Indian basketball podcast Hoopdarshan . A natural storyteller, Sidhu spoke with co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok about her father's role in her sports journey, basketball in Delhi, being on court for iconic moments in Indian hoops history, and the struggle for opportunities for India's women players. In addition, Kaushik and Karan also discussed Harrison Barnes' visit to India, the main storylines from the second round of the NBA Playoffs, and whether or not a lay-up by Deepika Padukone can spark an Indian basketball revolution (not). Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball , and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. Wi...

The man who was once called 'The Magician of Basketball in India' and 'The Scoring Machine of Asia', Khushi Ram is remembered as one of the country's best-ever players, and one of the top talents in Asia in his prime years. A former captain of India's national Men's team, Kumar was handed with the Arjuna Award in 1967. Today, he becomes the newest addition to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Ram was born in Jhamri village in Jhajjar district in Haryana in 1936. He made his debut as a youth player at the National Basketball Championship in 1952 representing the Armed Forces team. From a young age, he was known for his shooting ability - which helped him become an unstoppable scorer for the course of his career - and for his high IQ and sense of the game. The Armed Force team won India's National Basketball title 10 consecutive years, with Ram leading the helm several times as the tournament's best player. In 1969, he moved to Kota (Ra...

This season's ACG-NBA Jump programme brought together 49 of the brightest young prospects from around the country to a final showcase: a three-day camp at the NBA Academy India to determine the handful among them who could have their brightest dreams come true. And on Friday, May 3rd, in the presence of an NBA champion, six names were called out to join the existing class of talents at the Academy in Greater Noida. Now in it's fourth year, the 2019 ACG-NBA Jump National Finals marked the culmination of a talent search that comprised of scouting across various district, state and national championships. An open submission through TV, Print and social media were offered allowing players to submit video entries showcasing their basketball skills, athletic ability and attitude. NBA Champion and Sacramento Kings' Harrison Barnes was present through the two-day camp and shared his personal drills and training techniques with all the finalists. He was also involved in the selecti...