King Rice stepped onto the court one day last week and blew up a remix of Jay-Z’s “Beware.” The song doesn’t make the short list of the rapper’s most famous or well-received songs, but it was a perfect choice for one of Rice’s audience members.
Amaan Sandu arrives at Monmouth College with a very heavy addendum to his name. Five years ago he was the youngest member of the new NBA Academy of India; currently, he is the first Indian-born athlete to win a Division I men’s college basketball scholarship. He brings hope to his Jersey Shore campus for the NBA’s attempt to gain a foothold in India. Also inherited by him are the ambitious goals of millions of Indian youth who have finally seen a legitimate path to basketball success that never existed before.
It’s a lot, to say the least. “I have to get up now,” says Amaan. “As my coach told me, it’s time to put on the big boy pants. He can play, but he won’t strain it.”
This is where Rice and his musical choices come into play. “Beware” is an Americanized version of “Mundian To Bach Ke (Beware of the Boys)” originally recorded by Panjabi MC. Rice, he heartily admits, did not know this. “He’s a lot more worldly than I am,” said his assistant JR Reed, linking artists like Sandu to be from Punjab. Reed told Rice. “He’ll love it.” Sure enough, Sandhu laughed out loud when Rice jumped onto the court with music blaring. “I’m doing my research, brother,” Rice cried in court.
“He’s the first one, so there’s pressure on him,” Rice says. “My job is to make it easy for him so he won’t be the last.”
Troy Justice first arrived in India 12 years ago to help lay the foundations of the NBA and helped the league establish an office in Mumbai in 2011. In a country of more than one billion people, Justice, the NBA’s vice president and head of international basketball development, says perhaps his three million people, including umpires, coaches and players, are basketball “stakeholders.” I’m assuming it could be considered. For reference, the Aspen Institute’s State of Play found that about 4 million kids in the US (from age 6 to her 12) play basketball.
People who played basketball were into it, but it existed as a niche sport at best.The national team qualified Olympic Only once in 1980, and by default, thanks to a boycott of these games. Children didn’t flock to courts when they could find them, and schools rarely offered courts as a physical education program.
Justice and his team tapped into all of the NBA’s resources, including the Junior NBA Program, Basketball Without Borders, and NBA Basketball School, to stop worrying about no trickle downs and start working on trickle ups. . “Every kid knows how to play cricket,” says Justice. “They didn’t know how to play basketball.” The NBA struck a deal with Indian schools asking participating principals to agree to include basketball in their physical education curriculum for a minimum of three months. . It found scouts scouting the country for raw talent, and in nine different cities he opened 20 of his NBA basketball schools (tuition-based development programs). With 3 million stakeholders coming to play basketball with his 10 million young people alone, the sport currently ranks second only to football as the fastest growing sport in the country.
The latest Hawk is on board.
excited and welcome @Amaan Sandhu23 to our program!#flyhawks pic.twitter.com/LTsFzAMZLh
— Monmouth Basketball (@MonmouthBBall) August 3, 2022
Let me be clear, this is both a philanthropic act and a smart business decision. The NBA’s global reach currently includes 109 players in 39 countries, but India, a country with a billion potential fans (Shimbra, who played in Sacramento in 2015, is of Indian descent But no one from Toronto). Justice initially thought he was on his 20-year timetable, but believes his grassroots effort is ahead of schedule, but the country still awaits its success his story. .
Two players toyed with India’s NBA dream come true. Satnam Singh Bhamara, who played for the IMG Academy, is the first Indian-born player to be named by the Dallas Mavericks in 2015. signed with his G League. But neither stuck. Santham Singh Bhamara is currently a professional wrestler, having only played for his affiliate in the Mavs’ G League. Princepal Singh played in the Australian Basketball League last year.
But in some ways, designating an NBA player as a sign of India’s arrival almost skips a step. says. “Everybody dreams of playing in the NBA. Of course they do, but what Amaan has accomplished is something that is easier to understand. will produce.”
Sandu is an outlier. He comes from a Borer family. His father, Gurcharanjeet Singh Sandhu, played professionally with the national team while his mother Rajinder Kaur played locally. His older sister Aakarshan played for his U18 team. Sandu grew up wearing Jordan Brand clothing and watching basketball. Mohali, Punjab, where he grew up, had a wide variety of sports facilities. Sandhu tried them all and initially thought he was a swimmer.
But as he grew up (he’s 7 feet now), his family pushed him towards basketball. He was blessed with good timing. Around the same time Sandu started taking basketball seriously, the NBA opened his fourth academy and settled in Delhi in 2017. Relying on expanded regional scouting, the academy searched for the top 20 high school students. Players from all over the country. Sandu, who was only 13 years old, was already flipping him feet when the scouts first saw him and he was standing 6-7. “He was tall and it started there,” says NBA Academy India Technical Director Scott Fleming. “He was so heavy that he could hardly walk up and down the court without getting tired. Oh yeah, not just raw, but his height.”
Before moving to India in 2012, Fleming spent years as a college coach, working at the NAIA (Mount Vernon Nazarene) and Division II (Northwest Nazarene) levels. He was like stepping into India. “I didn’t even know they played basketball,” he says. In 2011, he was an assistant coach for the Mavericks’ G League team, the Texas Legends, working alongside Del Harris. Several people asked Harris for suggestions. Harris named them Fleming. In his second year as national team coach, he helped India to arguably their biggest victory in the Asian Games against China. When the NBA needed someone to lead its academy, Fleming was uniquely qualified.
Like Justice, he sees a D1 scholarship, or even a series of D1 scholarships, as a more rational way to increase the popularity of the sport and bring India closer to the promised land of the NBA. Parents value education above all else, and most children choose academic after-school programs over sports. Scholarships offer the double penance of a challenge to success in sports and a free education.
Early on, Fleming certainly didn’t predict that Sandu would score the first skoly. Frankly, neither did Sandu. People called him ‘Big Baby Punjabi’ and at 300 pounds he had a lot to do. He loved bread and parting with his beloved paratha was no small sacrifice. “No bread. No sugar. Nothing,” he says. “All the protein and fiber.” Within two years, Sandhu had dropped his 50 pounds and in a growth spurt pushed him to his seven feet and became a very viable basketball player. Knowing that the road to success lies in the United States, his parents supported the move. With Fleming’s help, he moved to First Love His Christian Academy in Pittsburgh. Fleming and his coach, Nate Lothing, head of First Love, have known each other for years. The transition went very well. Sandhu already speaks English quite well and his speech is sprinkled with Americanized slang and humor, making him a very approachable child.
Rice first saw Sandu on the summer circuit playing for Team Takeover. “Big Old Man” is how Rice remembers him. But he liked his footwork and appreciated how hard he played. With a more focused weight room effort now that Big is gone, Sandu thought it was worth the risk. His transcripts had to be thoroughly vetted, which scared some schools.Sandhu only visited Monmouth this summer and committed in late August, finally arriving.
He’s not physically prepared for the rigors of the D1 whoops, but he’s also not easily demoralized.Rice introduced this summer Harsh, perhaps downright brutal jump drills for his training. “Okay, bro, let’s see what we got,” Rice remembers thinking. Sandhu Bound His jump wasn’t the best. His high jump was not the best. “But he did it all without complaining,” says Rice. “Then he headed off to the ice bath.” Thanks to his work at the NBA Academy, Sandu already understands spacing and can shoot threes. Rice hopes that training in his weight room will help his lower body keep up with his upper body strength. “I suspect there was already a robbery,” Rice says. “If you call me again in a year or two, I might be fighting to keep him.”
Two reporters moved to Spokane, Washington in 2018. Follow Hachimura Ruiit was so big Gonzaga When he returned to Japan, he deliberately refused to reveal his parents’ names, fearing they would be cornered.
Sandhu hasn’t reached that level — at least not yet. He is a pioneer rather than a savior. Last year, the U16 national team finished fifth in his FIBA Asia Championship. His best result so far is 10th. Every starter is a player in his NBA Academy and all have some degree of scholarship potential. Behind them, 11 new players arrived at the academy. Everyone is itching to do what Sandu did. The path has always been clear and it feels more within reach now that Sandhu has finally closed the gap and taken his first steps.
But it’s a brass ring. Grabbing one, there’s always another, hanging out of reach, begging to come true. Sandhu has another task to complete. He must be successful enough to convince other American college coaches to take the leap as King did. It is a simple guessing game. The more athletes who understand the game early on and join the NBA system, the better quality of players the Academy can coach. The better your Academy players are, the more likely you are to receive a scholarship offer. More scholarship means that the Indian-born NBA player’s impossible goals are becoming increasingly possible.
But it all started from scratch and now Sandhu stands alone at the beginning. “Take that Jackie Robinson role,” Rice says. “That’s a lot to ask of a kid. But that’s why I’m here. I don’t want him to do it alone.”
(Photo above: Courtesy of NBA Academy)
