Nba News

NBA is back with perhaps the most wide-open season in years. And in this post-NBA India Games era, Hoopdarshan goes back to doing what we do best: predicting the unpredictable. With the help of NBA India's creative director Nakul Yadav , co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok talk about the favourites, the lamest, the Lakers, the Clippers, the changes, the MVPs and everything else in between. Episode 86 also includes Kaushik and Karan taking an unccessarily deep dive into Indianised NBA games, from Steph Curry's type of curry to the best chai you can find with Gilgeous-Alexander 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. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involv...

Welcome to the biggest Hoopdarshan yet, literally, figuratively, metaphorically. Episode 85 is dedicated to the historic NBA India Games in Mumbai. In this jam-packed release, we include interviews with Vivek Ranadive , Jason Williams , Rajesh Sethi , Vanja Cernivec , Diane Gotua , Detlef Schrempf , Domantas Sabonis , Akshay Manwani , and Ridhima Pathak . In addition, co-hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok discuss the experience of the games in Mumbai first-hand and offer their thoughts on the ongoing NBA-China-Morey controversy. Breakdown of our guests in this episode: Jason "White Choc" Williams: Sacramento Kings Legend Rajesh Sethi: Managing Director of NBA India Vanja Cernivec: NBA Basketball Operations for the Europe Middle East Africa Region Diane Gotua: VP of NBA's Global Business Operations and Interim MD of NBA India Detlef Schremf: Indiana Pacers Legend Domantas Sabonis: Indiana Pacers Forward Akshay Manwani: NBA India Expert and Hindi Commentator for So...

An edited version of this feature was first published for SLAMOnline on October 3, 2019. Read the original version here. It truly hit me when I saw the promo on a national TV channel. A digitally altered Mumbai. Supersized balloon floats of Myles Turner and Harrison Barnes hovered over city’s iconic skyline. Young people gathered on the streets to watch. Kids jostled for space between the kaali-peeli —black-and-yellow—local taxis for a view. A massive Kings flag unfurled over the excited crowds, and a Pacers banner flew overhead. A cricket player stopped in his tracks to watch, in awe. I watched in awe, too. A day later, at a family function, my Maama —mother’s brother—asked me, for the first time, about work. “So, the NBA is coming here in a big way, aren’t they?” I smiled. In India, the ‘NBA’ and ‘basketball’ are buzzwords for the youth. People of my uncle’s generation would never “get it”, we thought. The game was too niche, the league was too far away from everyday Indian concern...

When I started this blog, almost exactly ten years ago , the mission was to capture the spirit and stories behind Indian basketball, the NBA, and any fringe ideas that somehow connected the NBA with India. There weren't many of the latter. I wrote back then about trips made by Kevin Garnett and Robert Parish to India, which flew so under the radar in the pre-social-media explosion that hardly anyone in the nation knew about it. I wrote about Dikembe Mutumbo showing up at the St. Dominic Savio High School in Mumbai with disbelieving excitement. I celebrated little-known clips , like the NDTV interviewing Shaq at the All Star Game about India, because there was so little other content to look for. 10 years later, with a slew of NBA activities in India including grassroots programmes, the elite Academy, India-specific programming, and superstar visits, we have come far away from those early days. This weekend, the NBA will host the first-ever NBA India Games at the NSCI Dome in Mumb...

The Japanese dominance over Asian basketball continued last week at the 2019 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Bengaluru, India. With a thrilling comeback win over China in the final on Sunday, September 29 at the city’s Sree Kanteerava Stadium Japan completed an impressive four-peat at the championship, cementing their supremacy over Asian basketball. Hosts India also took part in the tournament but ended the week in disappointment, losing all of their group games and losing the 7th/8th place qualifier to end their Division A appearance at last place. The final of the tournament was held between long-time Asian rivals Japan and China on Sunday. Japan, who had won the 2017 title with a final win over Australia in dramatic fashion, once again had to muster all of their heroics to complete a comeback and squeak past the Chinese squad. China commanded a 10-point lead in the first half, but slowed down to start the third quarter as Japan began their comeback run. Japan took a lead early in the s...