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A player, a coach, a referee, a leader. Shiba Maggon , called 'The Queen of Basketball', has found a way to be involved in Indian basketball for decades in a variety of roles. She has already given a lifetime of service to the game - and has a lifetime more left to give. For all this and more, she is now an entrant into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Born in Karnal, Haryana in 1976, Maggon found basketball success early in her life coming through the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Chandigarh. The untimely death of her sister - an international netball and aspiring basketball player - thrust Maggon more passionately into the basketball realm from the early 90s. She later joined Western Railways, Ajmer in 1996 and was with them till 2002. In 2002 Shiba joined MTNL Delhi and played with them till Jan 2011. Her glittering domestic basketball career included seven gold medals and eight silvers for Railways and Delhi in the Senior Nationals, plus three gold meda...

Whether he suited up for Rajasthan, Railways, or India, Hanuman Singh Rathore was often the smallest guy on the basketball court. But the talented guard exceeded expectations and succeeded with heart over height over a glittering basketball career in the 1970s-80s, with highlights including the Arjuna Award and a spot in India's only Olympic team. Today, Rathore is added to the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Rathore was born in Bhagwanpur, in Nagaur district of Rajasthan in February 1950. He attended the Military School in Ajmer and then the Rajasthan University in Jaipur. By the time he began to play for Rajasthan's state teams, the 5-foot-9 guard had developed into one of the best young talents in the country. Singh eventually joined Indian Railways, for whom he manned the point en-route to several titles in the domestic national championships. Rathore played an important role for Team India and was part of the legendary squad that played in the Moscow 1980 Oly...

The growing trend of 3-on-3 basketball in India finds a snazzy new face in Mumbai with the launch of the Street Ball League . Steered by several local celebrities in the city, the league held an auction for their 12 men's and 4 women's teams on Sunday, July 21st at the WeWork BKC in Mumbai. The basketball action is set to take off in September and will be held for two months in the league's first season. The Street Ball League is a brainchild of actors and social-media celebrity brothers Rannvijay Singha and Harman Singha. The two have long been involved with the promotion of the NBA in India, and this league brings together many of their celebrity connections as team owners for the first season, including actor Esha Gupta, dancer and choreographer Melvin Louis, Sana Khan, comedian Gursimran Khamba, former Miss India Universe Simran Kaur Mundi, MTV VJs Varun Sood and Divya Aggarwal and more. "Basketball runs in my veins," said Harman Singh. "Both my parents ...

Hoopdarshan's 80th episode is going to be a long, emotional journey, highlighted with an interview with India's new national team coach, Veselin Matic of Serbia. Matic discusses his plans for Team India going forward, the U16 SABA triumph, and how he hopes to bring a change to Indian basketball. Furthermore, co-hosts Kaushik Lakhsman and Karan Madhok talk about the frantic NBA Free Agency as well as Marathi basketball movie 'Ajinkya'. Matic was named the head coach of India's men's national basketball programme a few months ago and arrived in India with a wealth of basketball experience. He has coached the national teams of Iran, Lebanon, and Syria, been an assistant coach for a very successful stretch of Yugoslavia's national team, and coached club basketball in Serbia, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Lebanon, and more. Also on this episode's Hoopdarshan: India's U16 SABA victory reaction, Satnam Singh's draft rights traded, NBA Academy Games, th...

It's time to shower much-overdue love on a true Indian basketball legend. Sozhasingarayer Robinson might've never won big national awards or given the true respect he deserved during his playing days. But the 6-8 forward was pound-for-pound one of the greatest Indians to ever play the game, a player who took the sport into new frontiers for India, and in the process gathered a cult following behind him. For all this and more, Robinson is today's entrant into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Born in Puducherry, raised in Gujarat, and dominant eventually for Tamil Nadu, Robinson was a standout athlete and one of the first Indian players to play professionally abroad. After dominating at the state and national level, he gained fame in larger circles after leading India to a surprise win over South Korea in 2004's FIBA Asia Stancovic Cup, pouring in a scintillating 36 points in the victory. Robinson was in and out of the national team in the early part of t...

Imagine playing one on one, full-court basketball against the love of your life. You are a beautiful woman and he's a handsome man, and you are not just playing a game, but a game within the game. You want to defeat him, of course, because you're proud, and because he's riled up a gang of children around you to chant "girls can't play basketball". You want to prove them all wrong. But you also want to exert decades of pent-up frustration against this man. This man who was once your best friend, with whom you learned the game and honed your skills. This man, who years later, you find through the game again. And now, there's is something deeper in your connection. A little more chemistry. A little more passion. This isn't just one-on-one basketball. This is the beginning of a love story. Now imagine you stop what you're doing mid-court to fix your sari. Yes, you're playing in a sari. Can you relate to this predicament? Have you ever fought for t...

Last year, 3x3 basketball in India was revolutionised by the 3BL , the first FIBA-approved league for the shorter format in the country. The league reached several Indian cities and helped provide a new avenue for professionals and fans to find Indian hoops. With the success of the inaugural season behind them, 3BL will return for Season 2 next month - and this time, launch at a grander scale which will include a first-ever women's 3x3 pro league in India. Organised by YKBK Enterprises, the second season of India’s only FIBA-recognised league, 3x3 Pro Basketball League Indian Sub-continent (3BL) will be held from August 2 - September 29 across five cities in India. In a pioneering move, 3BL is also introducing a women’s 3x3 basketball league, which will be conducted simultaneously alongside the men’s league. The second season of 3BL will feature 12 teams with the best of Indian basketball talent, both men and women, competing in 9 rounds over the period of two months to emerge cha...

For the past few years, the NBA has significantly shifted its focus on the future on basketball, on finding and developing elite-level youth talent from across the world with their network of international academies. Every year, these academies come together for a battle royale, pitting the best against the best. This year, the 3rd NBA Academy Games were held in Atlanta, for the first time in USA soil, and the result was a repeat of last year: the top team of the tournament was once again the NBA Global Academy - based in Canberra (Australia) - who took the title with a final win against World Select Blue on Sunday. The 2019 NBA Academy Games were held at the Emory Sports Medical Complex in Atlanta, featuring eight Academy teams from around the world: World Select Red, NBA Global Academy, TSF, NBA Academy China, NBA Academy Africa, NBA Academy India , NBA Academy Latin America, and World Select Blue. The tournament held from July 9-14, with the final and third-place games held on Su...

One of the high-flying stars of India's national teams in the 60s/70s, Anil Kumar Punj rose to a rare level of basketball greatness in the country, culminating with the honour of the Arjuna Award in 1974. Today, I add Punj to the illustrious list of legends in the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Born in Kapurthala (Punjab) in 1947 - months before India's independence - Punj became an important player for India's Border Security Force (BSF) and the national team. He had an illustrious career in the BSF from 1968 to 2004 from where he retired as Commandant. He distinguished himself at the international and national level and was a member of the Indian Basketball Teams which participated in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok, and two FIBA Asia Basketball Championships - 1971 (Tokyo) and 1973 (Manila). Over his career, Punj bagged two Gold, four Silver and four Bronze Medals in National Basketball Championships and also 13 Gold Medals and 2 Silver Medals in All India...

It takes nuclear fusion of the intergalactic level to give birth to a star, a minor big bang. Often, these stars die in spectacular supernovas. But sometimes, they just whimper away in silence, disappearing into the dark universe. Four years ago, Satnam Singh's entry into the NBA began with a bang. The Dallas Mavericks made the 19-year-old, 7-foot-2 center the first Indian to be drafted into the NBA . His 2015 drafting was a major moment in Indian basketball history, spawning optimism for the growth of the game in India and a Netflix documentary detailing the astonishing story that ended with him wearing that Mavericks hat. Four years later, and without a single NBA game under his belt, Satnam dalliance with the Mavs has ended in a quiet whimper. The Mavericks announced on Monday, July 8 that they were trading the draft rights to Satnam Singh from 2015 along with two future second-round picks to the Memphis Grizzlies, in return for point guard Delon Wright. It will now be up to t...

She has dedicated a lifetime to the sport of basketball in India, and with the Dhyan Chand Award, been appropriately celebrated for her service. Today, I add the great Aparna Ghosh into the Hoopistani Indian Basketball Hall of Fame . Hailing from Bolpur in West Bengal, Ghosh has been one of the most accomplished players and coaches in Indian basketball, playing for the national team for 16 years and going on to become a highly-successful coach for Indian Railways. Since substituting herself to lead the charge from the coaches' bench, Ghosh has led Indian Railways women to a myriad of success for several years. She currently serves as the Sports Officer at RSPB of the Railway Board. In 2002, Ghosh was honoured with the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement in sports and games, handed by the Indian government. She is one of only two basketball personalities in India to receive this honour. Ghosh has also served as part of India's national coaching system, and was the natio...

Two years ago, young Jagshaanbir Singh Jhawar was in the first class of prospects selected by the NBA Academy India, joining a group of two dozen young players that took a risk into the unknown, into something that had never been done before, with the hope of unlocking a bright future with their basketball skills. This week, Jhawar has officially become the first of the group to unlock that dream. After two years of honing his skills at the NBA Academy in Greater Noida, the 19-year-old, 6-foot-10 big man from Jalandhar has been offered a scholarship to play for Golden State Prep (GSP) in Napa Valley, north of San Francisco and the home of the Golden State Warriors in California. He will join GSP's post-graduate programme starting next month. Jhawar represented India's U18 squad at the FIBA U18 Asia Championship last year, where he averaged 1.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg in a backup role. He was also part of the NBA's Asia Pacific Camp held in China in 2017. "This programme will ...

The wheels keep turning unabated for India's basketball dominance over our South Asian neighbours. India is by far the strongest team in the subcontinent, and every new generation of players emerges to reinstate our place at the top. The latest to do so were India's U16 boys team at the 2019 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) U16 Basketball Championship , held in Dhaka (Bangladesh) from July 3-5 . India finished the tournament at a perfect 4-0 on Friday at the Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium and punched their ticket into the FIBA U16 Asia Championship next month. India featured a long and athletic squad for the SABA Championship, captained by Kerala's Pranav Prince and coached by new Serbian head coach Veselin Matic. They faced off against hosts Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Maldives in the 5-team event. India started off the tournament with a two-game day on Wednesday, facing off against both Nepal and Bangladesh. They started off in style, exploding for a 103-2...

The dam has broken, and basketball talent is oozing out. After many recent success stories of young Indian women heading abroad for college basketball opportunities, another rising star joins the list. 19-year-old Srishti Suren will become the first Indian woman to play high-level college ball in Canada. The University of Winnipeg announced on Tuesday that Suren has committed to the Wesmen for the 2019-20 season and will have five years of eligibility. Suren, a 5'11 forward from Chennai, most-recently represented India at the 2018 FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Women held in Bengaluru. She averaged 10.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and helped the squad win Division B in front of the home fans. Suren also played for India's side at the 2016 version of the FIBA U18 ABC and the 2015 FIBA U16 ABC. She has been a part of the Tamil Nadu under-age teams since she was a sub-junior player. Suren now joins a number of young Indian women who have recently played or committed to pla...