Nba News

With an eye forward at the FIBA U16 Asia Championship, India's youth boys basketball team will have to contend with their first hurdle this week. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, India will participate in the 2019 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Basketball Championship , from July 3-5. Team India, the tournament's reigning champs from 2017, will compete against Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with the winner getting a spot in the All-Asian FIBA tournament next month. India's U16 squad will be led by new men's basketball head coach Veselin Matic from Serbia. Kerala’s Pranav Prince, who is a member of the NBA Academy India, has been named the captain of India's U16 team. The Basketball Federation of India released the full team roster on Sunday: India U16 roster for 2019 SABA U16 Basketball Championship Pranav Prince (Kerala) - captain Lokendra Singh (Rajasthan) Jitendra Kumar Sharma (Rajasthan) Digvijay Singh (Rajasthan) Achintya Krishna (Karnataka) Manoj B M (Kar...

Photo courtesy: Punjabbasketball.org For some, basketball just flows in the genes, giving them a natural magnetism towards the game, a magnetism that could potentially become a reality with hard work and persistence. One of India's most-respected coaches and accomplished former players, Ram Kumar is one such individuals, carrying on his father's legacy with the game, winning the Dhyan Chand Award, and now, landing up in the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Ram Kumar was born in Delhi in 1964, the son of basketball great and Arjuna Awardee Khushi Ram , who was added to the Hall of Fame last month. Kumar's own basketball career began in 1983, when he played his first Nationals in Calicut. He moved to Income Tax and then joined Indian Railways in the mid-80s, which became his professional home. Representing the Railways, Kumar - an extraordinary shooting-guard - won eight gold, three silver, and three bronze medals over the next decade and a half. Ram represented ...

Episode 79 of Hoopdarshan accomplishes two agendas: our reaction to the Toronto Raptors becoming the weirdest NBA champions in years... and the rise of 3x3 basketball in India. Co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok are joined by India's top-ranked FIBA 3x3 player Dhruv Barman who tells us about his unlikely journey into a basketball career and why India's 3x3 can make waves at the Olympics. Barman honed his basketball skills in Gurgaon and Canada, before returning home two years ago to play for Hyderabad and then Team Delhi in the 3BL league. He played in the recent RedBull Reign finals in Mumbai, which we discussed in Episode 79. The new Hoopdarshan also features Kaushik and Karan's thoughts on the Federation Cup, Yao Ming's visit to India, Anthony Davis' trade to the Lakers, the NBA Draft, free agency, and more. Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball , and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everythin...

Photo courtesy: punjabbasketball.org A stalwart of Indian basketball in the early days of the 1960s and an Arjuna Awardee, Manmohan Singh - no relation to the former Prime Minister! - is today's addition to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Singh was born in May 1946 in Lahore and was brought over to India during the post-independence partition. Eventually settling in Ludhiana, Punjab, Singh played for Punjab and Services for his domestic career from 1960-1980. He especially starred for Services in their dominant run of the National Championship in the 60s. He became a part of India's senior men's team in the mid 1960s and appeared for India in their first-ever appearance at the FIBA Asia Championship in Kuala Lumpur in 1965. His other major international appearances included the 1962 Pakistan tour, the 1967 Kuala Lumpur Tour, the 10th anniversary tournament in Manila in 1970, the FIBA ABC in Tokyo in 1971, and the Manila All Stars event in 1973. Singh was h...

Sometimes, basketball can be completely uncomplicated, when the most basic of tenets of the game shine brighter than all the rest: size and talent. At the 33rd Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men and Women held over the past week in Greater Noida, these were the tenets that made the difference, as the best squads separated themselves from the rest. At the tournaments finals on Sunday, June 16, the two biggest and deepest teams - Punjab Police (Men) and Eastern Railway (Women) - rose to the challenge and secured the prestigious gold medals. Organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Uttar Pradesh Basketball Association (UPBA), the Federation Cup was held from June 12-16 , 2019 at the Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida, featuring 9 teams from top men's units and 8 of the women's top state teams from around India taking part. On the final day, Eastern Railway Women were led by Libina MJ (28) and India's tallest women basketball player P...

A national captain. A veteran of countless major international events. The most-decorated domestic player in India. An Arjuna Awardee. And Indian Basketball's only Padma Shri winner. With her glittering list of accolades, Prashanti Singh  now easily carves her name into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Born in Varanasi, Singh quickly rose the ranks for the Uttar Pradesh junior teams before finding her footing in college and MTNL for the Delhi state team. Is was with Delhi that she became the most-decorated basketball player in the country, winning 23 medals in various national championships. The shooting guard first joined India's junior national team in 2002 at age 18. She soon graduated to feature and captain the senior squad, and went on to represent Team India at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games, and six FIBA Asia Women’s Championships (2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013), plus one more at the junior level. Some of her career highli...

If you wish to find the best basketball players in India this week, take the long route out to the Yamuna Expressway, in the barren lands of Greater Noida, far away from the crowds and infrastructure of urban Delhi, and you'll find a basketball court somewhere in this middle-of-nowhere, an oasis of hoops, a relief of slam dunks, slick passes, and big jump-shots. This is where the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in association with the Uttar Pradesh Basketball Association (UPBA) is hosting the 33rd Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men and Women . The tournament tipped off on Wednesday, June 12 and is scheduled until June 16 at the Indoor Stadium of the Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida's Gautam Budhh Nagar. 17 combined teams of the Men and Women's divisions are taking part in this year's event. The Federation Cup fray consists of the top teams 8 from last year's Senior Nationals, plus the host state for this year's event. In the Men's ...

Indian Gymkhana, Matunga in Mumbai hosted the first ever India Finals of Red Bull Reign - a unique global 3 on 3 basketball tournament on 8th June 2019. With 16 teams (the winners of the respective 12 city qualifiers and 4 wildcard teams) the national finals witnessed high paced basketball across 39 matches. Amritsar's Northern Spartans defeated Team Drop Step from Goa 17-11 in the final to secure the title, and win their ticket to the RedBull Reign World Championship in Toronto later this year. The winning team were led by the consistent dominance of India's recent national captain Amritpal Singh. He received ample support from Arshpreet Singh Bhullar, Rajvir Singh, and Israel Fernando en route to the title. Northern Spartans had defeated Tune Squad (Delhi-Chandigarh) in the semi-finals 21-14. While on the other side, Team Drop Step reached the final with a tightly-contested win over Income Tax from Ahmedabad, 16-14. The Red Bull Reign tournaments have been held in over a do...

The Asian basketball world descended to Bengaluru - the new hoops capital of India - on Saturday, for the group stage draws of the FIBA Asia Cup 2021. India were of course one of the teams drawn into the qualifying draw. A number of great Asian basketball players were present for this event, including Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming, who made his third visit to India. India were drawn in Group D alongside Bahrain, Lebanon, and Iraq. 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifier Groups Group A: Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea. Group B: Chinese Taipei, Japan, Malaysia, China. Group C: Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Guam. Group D: Bahrain, Lebanon, India , Iraq. Group E: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, Iran. Group F: Jordan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Palestine. India will play each of the three teams in its group on a home and away basis over three qualifying windows - November 2019, February 2020, and November 2020. At the end of the three windows, the top two teams from each group directly...

For true fans, the most intense NBA games are more entertaining as any blockbuster or award-winning movie. There's drama, there's action, there's suspense, there are gasps, cheers, some comedy, some heroes, some villains, and a whole lotta fun. So, it only makes sense that the NBA's next partnership in India is with a multiplex group, one that will bring the NBA brand close to where you watch your favourite movies. On Friday, right in the midst of the NBA Finals, the league in India announced its marketing partnership with India's second-largest multiplex chain, INOX Leisure Ltd. (INOX), with plans to integrate the NBA into select cinemas across Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. As the NBA's Exclusive Multiplex Partner in India, INOX will introduce numerous NBA elements in and around its cinema houses, including co-branded inflatables and popcorn buckets, NBA posters and NBA jersey wall displays. INOX will host screening parties for select games thro...

Born in Uttarakhand, honed by the Army, and excelling for India at the international stage, Hari Dutt Kapri is today's addition to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . The former national team captain enjoyed a storied basketball playing career that culminated with him joining the ranks of Indian basketball's Arjuna Award winners. Kapri was born in 1942 in Chiriyakhan of the Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand, a village in the Western Himalaya. But he only discovered the game of basketball when he joined the Army as a recruit in the Bengal Engineering Group. He eventually began to play a major role in the Services basketball team, where he was named captain in 1963 and led them to several National Championship gold medals in the 15-year stretch that followed. Kapri was eventually also made captain of India's National Men's basketball team. One of the highlights of his career was captaining Team India to a best-ever fourth-place finish at the FIBA Asia Cup ...

After a two-month, 12-city tour around India, featuring high-level 3x3 basketball action and some of the top present and future talents in India, the first-ever Red Bull Reign season in India will conclude in Mumbai with the national finals on June 8, 2019. The 12 winners of each city's event, plus four wildcard teams, will play out for the national crown at the Indian Gymkhana in Mumbai. Starting on April 7, the basketball tournament was held in Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Aizawl, Guwahati, Delhi, Ludhiana and Jaipur. This event is a continuation of Red Bull Reign events around the world, including the USA, UK, Canada, Philippines, and more. The National Finals winners in Mumbai will get an opportunity to represent India at the World Finals in United States. National Finalists Team Clutch (Bengaluru) Team Phoenix (Chennai) Team Loyala (Hyderabad) Income Tax (Ahmedabad) Team Customs (Pune) Team Dropset (Goa) Eklaavya Society (Jaipur) NFR A (Guwaha...

Two of the most prestigious invitational basketball in India came to a conclusion on Saturday after six days of high-level hoops action in Coimbatore. Indian Bank (Men) and Southern Railway (Women) won the 54th Nachimuthu Gounder Cup and 18th CRI Pumps Trophy respectively after a couple of close finals. The tournament was held from May 27 - June 1 by the Coimbatore District Basketball Association (CDBA) at the VOC Park Basketball Court. Indian Bank from Chennai defeated Income Tax in the finale 74-64 to secure the gold medal. In the women’s category Southern Railway (Hubli) managed to maintain the lead from the beginning over South Central Railway and won the match and trophy by two points 57-55. India Army defeated Indian Air Force 72-62 for third place in the men's division, while last year's women's champions KSEB finished third with a 46-33 win over Arise Steel. There was Rs.1.85 lakh prize money and Cup for men and Rs.1 lakh and trophy for women’s teams. Customs (...