NBA and ACG Worldwide Group (ACG) have announced the ACG-NBA Jump, India’s first national basketball talent search programme, to provide hoopsters from around the country the opportunity to develop their skills.
One leading player from the programme will attend the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) national tryout in the United States. Satnam Singh, the first India-born player in the NBA, will launch the programme at the Thyagraj Sports Complex in Delhi on October. 26.
The programme will be in three phases; in the first phase, six regional, one-day elite camps will be held in Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The second phase will consist of a national elite training camp where 32 players selected from the six regional camps will assemble for a four-day training period.
In the third and final phase, one top player from the national elite training camp will be selected for the national tryout in the United States for the opportunity to earn a spot on an NBA D-League roster.
NBA India MD Yannick Colaco said: “With Sim Bhullar becoming the first player of Indian descent to play in the NBA and Satnam Singh becoming the first India-born player to be drafted, basketball-playing youth in India now have figures to look up to, and this programme will give them a path to the professional ranks.” Sony SIX, the official broadcaster, will create a feature around ACG-NBA Jump, following the programme through its various stages and tracking the winner till his NBA D-league tryout.
