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The NBA tipped-off the first-ever NBA Academy Women’s camp this morning at The NBA Academy India in Greater Noida. Eighteen top female prospects ages 17 and under from throughout India took the court and had the opportunity to learn from 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame member Jennifer Azzi, 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist and two-time WNBA Champion Ruth Riley, former WNBA player Ebony Hoffman and former college coach Blair Hardiek, among others.
The campers began the day with warm up drills and fundamental drills including ball handling, shooting and passing before breaking into offensive skills work stations. The on-court portion of the day concluded with five on five games after a life skills session led by Hardiek.
Gold Medalist and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame member Jennifer Azzi, Ruth Riley and former college coach Blair Hardiek – the global technical directors for women’s programming across the league’s seven academies – are overseeing the camp.
At the end of Day 1, women’s Basketball Hall of Famer and 1996 Olympic Gold medalist Jennifer Azzi felt it was a great experience being here in India for the camp. “I love it. Being here in India, everyone is so friendly and kind and warm hearted. And the girls have fantastic attitudes and that is something I love the most. And I already see quite a bit of skills in the first morning of camp, so I am very impress.”
Two-time WNBA Champion Ruth Riley was equally excited running the camp with the girls here at the NBA Academy India. “It has been really fun to be on the court here in India for the first ever NBA Academy India elite camp. Really impress with what we are seeing with these young girls. Great fundamentals and the girls are really hungry to learn and are working very hard.”
One of the camper Vaishnavi Yadav could hide her excitement being at the first-ever NBA Academy Women's camp, “I am very happy to be in the camp, the coaches are teaching us new skills to help improve our game such as box out, pivoting, shooting and dribbling. Our coaches tell us to play hard, to support our team no matter the game situation.”
The campers will return on Monday, Day 2 starting at 10:00 am IST.
Day One Video preview: https://youtu.be/_2bf31wt2uU
Guess the Lakers players!
