Carlos Barroca asserts basketball is here to stay in India

Carlos Barroca kickstarted third edition of NBA’s junior program today

Born in Portugal, raised in Mozambique and uplifting Indian basketball! As unique as it sounds, that’s NBA’s Senior Director Carlos Barroca for you.

A potent player himself, he turned to coaching and broadcasting after his fledgling career was cut short with an elbow injury when he was just 20. Now an administrator, he maintains promoting and taking the sport of Basketball to every nook and corner of the world is his calling. Currently deployed in India, SportsKeeda caught up with him at the marquee launch of the third edition of NBA’s junior program here at the capital.

Talking exclusively to us, he emphasized on how much joy he derives out of his job and the way he intends to take things forward in India, “Basketball is a beautiful game; its also extremely simplistic, so much so that you don’t even much space to pursue it. I myself grew up playing it all day at my home where I had a small basket installed in my room.

While I was lucky to be brought up in a place which was crazy about this sport, I would like to believe there is enough interest here too. Its after all a little improbable that the country with the second highest population in the world doesn’t excel in a sport as amazing as ours.”

Having taken over from Troy Justice last year, he, by his own admission has developed ties with federations and players alike across India, “I know most players here, also the coaches. Even last week I was in Ludhiana interacting with the squads at the Under 18 nationals. All of them seem extremely keen to improve and that’s a brilliant thing.”

Shedding light on the launch, he elaborated how the aim for them was not to rake in money but just increase the popularity of the sport and the marquee league here. The comprehensive youth initiative that applies the on-court values to positively impact the lives of Indian boys and girls and expects to engage more than 1.5 million boys and girls and 2,700 physical education instructors and coaches over the next year or so certainly adds credence to his claim.

About the possibility of setting up a professional league here, “It will take a long time coming; for now, I believe the players should be allowed to enjoy themselves. We should not however discount individually brilliant players making their name abroad.”

If Barroca is to be believed, the wait for the next Satnam Singh might not be too excruciating, after all India, as he describes has a plethora of talent waiting to be unearthed.