Mark Tatum, the NBA’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, spoke to a group of Indian journalists about the NBA’s plans in India, its liberal policies and other issues.
The journalists were in Cleveland, Ohio, at the invitation of the NBA to cover the 2017 finals. Excerpts from the interview:
Where can India be on the basketball map.
India can have a very prominent place on the basketball map. It is no accident that we have decided to put one of our first academies in India which I had the opportunity to go and open, a couple of weeks ago.
And we have our first 21-player (21 of the best [upcoming] players in India) who we are going to provide NBA-style basketball coaching, development, training, strength & conditioning, nutrition and so on. We are going to apply all the knowledge we have learnt [here in the NBA] for this young men. Hopefully one day, one of them is going to have the opportunity to play right here in the NBA finals — in an NBA game.
In a country where there are 1.3 billion people, we feel very excited about the prospects for basketball.
We already have an Indian origin owner in the NBA. Vivek Ranadive of the Sacramento Kings. I suppose there are lot of Indian hands working in back-offices, in terms of helping with NBA analytics and so on?
Oh yes!
You think there is enough of a critical mass that will help to build something big, like what is happening in China now, in India as well, with regard to participation, presence and support base with respect to the NBA?
Very much so. One of the things we are doing to promote the game is to develop the junior NBA programme. One of the opportunities in India is to get more and more kids to play the game. That is why we launched it. We have been able to reach 6 million kids through the schools system.
Importantly, we are also bringing NBA coaches there to India, to train and work with the physical education teachers to teach them how to teach the game of basketball. We have around 5000 coaches there who have been trained by the NBA coaches.
That said, we think of this as a very long-term opportunity.
What kind of constraints do you see in India in terms of facilities, in terms of court availability to play the game. Where do you think India stands among other developing countries in terms of basketball infrastructure?
I think there are opportunities to improve the infrastructure. The great thing about basketball, though, is that you don’t need a lot of space — it can be played indoors or outdoors. I know that some parts of the country and in some parts of the year, it is very hot to play the game outdoors and the game should be brought indoors.
But that is why facilities like the Jaypee Academy are unbelievable. You have three NBA-style basketball courts indoors. They have incredible world-class facilities and we need such facilities to be able to host games, to be able to give kids better access to facilities. But there are a couple of arenas in India which could host NBA pre-season games, which is our hope.
(The writer was in Cleveland recently at the invitation of the NBA)
