League in India work in progress, creating the ecosystem: NBA

Kolkata : The National Basketball Association (NBA) India is "collaborating with all the stakeholders" to make a league in the country a reality at the earliest, Rajesh Sethi, managing director of its India business, said.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had spoken of launching a league in India during his visit for the first-ever NBA Games in the country in October last year.

The first-ever NBA Games between Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings was held in Mumbai.

"We are diligently focused on creating an ecosystem for basketball in the country and having a local professional basketball league will be a natural progression towards creating economic value for players and the country at large," Sethi told IANS in an interview.

"For the past few years we have been investing in development of basketball, including our grassroots programme Reliance Foundation Junior NBA, NBA Basketball Schools and the NBA Academy India.

There has been interest shown from many corporates to be an integral part of this league. While the League format is a work in progress, we are collaborating with all the stakeholders to create the ecosystem," he said.

Silver had said that five years would be a fair target to set as the NBA expects an Indian player to take part in their league within that time frame too.

"Continuing our efforts to develop the ecosystem of basketball, we will tip-off our grassroots programme Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA for the 7th consecutive year, across 34 cities in more than 7900 schools later this month," Sethi said, throwing light on plans on how to get a player from India who can go and play in the NBA.

"We will look to increase the number of NBA Basketball Schools across India. Besides, we will continue to look to develop elite talent at the NBA Academy India.

"We have had success stories coming through our NBA Academies Programme including the NBA Academies Women's Programme.

Till date, six prospects from our programme, five female and one male, have joined schools, colleges and universities in the USA."

On the success of the first-ever NBA Games here, he said: "The success of India games has triggered an inflection point for the NBA in India.

While it has created a lot of buzz in India, it has also ticked many boxes for us. It has sent out a message internally that India is ready for the next leap."