Four goals of NBA Commissioner David Stern for basketball in India

NBA commissioner, David Stern. (Getty Images)

David Stern visited India and got a signed cricket bat. One with which I want to whack my head in. Ideally a basketball fanatic treats cricket like a drunk, drugged up hobo not to be touched with a ten foot pole. Unless the pole has a rim attached and you can somehow convince said hobo to give up his wasteful ways and embrace the sport. Stern was dining with the enemy. Et tu Stern? Then fall basketball!

Ok that’s an overreaction. IPL‘s imitation is a sincere flattery of the NBA. David Stern’s visit was very symbolic, a sign that the NBA is interested in the Indian market. And that bodes well for the game in India. What are the things the NBA wants to accomplish in India? The commissioner named four things, on which I’m placing my own interpretation:

NBA commissioner, David Stern. (Getty Images)

1. “The right scale of adoption of the sport at school levels.”

Catch them young. Sports development occurs at the grassroots level, where you can introduce kids to the sport at a young age and groom them. On his visit here, Stern met Amritpal Singh Jr. and was impressed by the youngster’s skills. “I met Amritpal Singh who is 6″11, pretty good player. But he’s been playing basketball for the last three and a half years. Just imagine what would have been had he started say, 10 years back”, he told DNA. For basketball to develop in India, the players need to be introduced to the game at a young age.

Not every school has a cricket or football field, but a lot of schools have basketball courts. The “right scale of adoption of basketball at school levels” can be interpreted in so many ways. The BFI and IMG Reliance have a school league going in various cities already and those leagues are ripe breeding ground for upcoming talent. Basketball at the school level can be developed at various levels. The NBA already has done a number of Jr. NBA/WNBA Skills Challenge at the school level, for kids between age 10-12. That was for kids to compete individually in skills like dribbling, shooting, passing, and other drills.

The scale of the game can range from inter-school competitions to inter-city ones. Thus far, the BFI school/college league has involved Delhi, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. Presumably the NBA’s activities in India will be limited to the first tier metro cities at first. Hopefully we will see a trickle down effect.

2. “Successful TV coverage — one at the bottom, one at the top.”

This one seems like a curveball. I guess Stern means the NBA by coverage at the top and local basketball as coverage at the bottom. Back in the dark ages we used to watch only a couple of matches per week in India. These days it is much easier to just tune in to Sony SIX and watch around 6 games in 10 days. Assuming that Stern meant Indian basketball by the bottom level, currently the state is woeful. Sightings of Indian basketball on video are as rare as bigfoot sightings. At least a bigfoot affords footprints for us to speculate over, while there are hardly any videos of domestic Indian basketball available online. But if the NBA were to take an interest in it, I’m sure things would change. Again, this is all conjecture assuming that this is what Stern was referring to.

3. “Increase our presence on digital and social platforms.”

The NBA aims to increase its presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. To that end, they announced that fans can vote for the MVP via Twitter along with voting on their site. Voting closes on April 18. Fan voting counts as one vote, in addition to the other 122 votes. This is one way they are aiming to improve their presence on social media. A lot of the revenue of the NBA in India comes from the sale of its digital content.

“NBA.com has rich videos. But I understand that our videos are too rich for India. So we have got to replace a few videos with text matter for India. But down the road, the broadband penetration will get better and better,” said Stern. NBA is active on its Facebook page, NBA India. The NBA is pulling out all stops to increase its presence on digital and social media.

4. “Run a collegiate league”

BFI has started college leagues in a few cities, but those are all one shot leagues. India lacks a sustainable college basketball league which runs for a good duration of a year. It is interesting that the NBA is targeting a college league over a professional league. When you compare the NCAA and the NBA, the former doesn’t pay its players and has an easier time managing them. Running a college league ensures that there is already a pool of teams, clearly demarcated and homogenized. More fun than a school league, less difficult to organize than a professional league. And it targets the big city with its consumer demographic at the college level.

The possibility of college leagues in India was talked about two years ago. Seems that the day is not too far off that it turns into a reality in India. India is the next frontier for the NBA’s ever expanding global market. And the above four ways, in addition to their existing initiatives, bode well for the development of the sport in India.

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Edited by Staff Editor