In a historic day for Indian
sport, Satnam Singh Bhamara has become the first basketball player from
the country to be drafted into the National Basketball Asociation (NBA).
In the 2015 NBA Draft that was held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn,
New York on Friday, the 19-year-old from Chawke village in Punjab was
picked up by 2011 NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks as the 52nd pick out of
the 60 picks, thus becoming the first player from the country to be
chosen by a leading NBA team.
Prior to the Draft, Satnam had done the pre-draft workout with seven
teams – Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards, Dallas
Mavericks, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trailblazers –
and had impressed many coaches with his height and build.He had been undergoing intense training at the IMG-Reliance academy in Florida for the last 5 years, thanks to a scholarship provided to him in 2010. That opportunity to train under some experienced coaches has well and truly paid off now, and the dreams of not only Satnam but also millions of basketball fans in India have come true today.
Although not Indian-born, Sim Bhullar declared himself at the NBA Draft in 2014 but went undrafted. Despite that, though, he represented the Sacramento Kings in the 2014 NBA Summer League.
Responding to the fantastic news,
former Indian basketball coach Scott Flemming also tweeted his
congratulatory wishes, saying that Satnam would learn a great deal at
Dallas. Amidst the crisis that Indian basketball currently finds itself
in, Flemming welcomed the positive news for the sport in the country.
10 things to know about Satnam Singh Bhamara
India’s
Satnam Singh Bhamara created history on Friday after he became the
first Indian basketball player to be drafted into the NBA. The
19-year-old was picked as the 52nd pick at the 2015 NBA Draft by the
Dallas Mavericks, thereby realizing not only his but also a country's
dreams.
Here are a few things that you might not know about Satnam1.Satnam Singh Bhamara was born on December 10th 1995 in the small village of Ballo Ke, with a population of 463, in Punjab to a poor farmer.
2.As a kid, Satnam was nicknamed “Chottu”, which means,”Little One” or “Small” in English and spent his early childhood in his father’s farm. Incredibly, his father also stands at the same height as him and his grandmother is also part of the same bracket, standing at a height of 6’9’’.
3.At the recommendation of his father’s friend, to pursue basketball, Satnam was sent to Ludhiana at the age of 10. Surprisingly, he first thought he was going there to play volleyball, and not basketball.
4.As a kid, Satnam idolized Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant and also admired India’s Jagdeep Singh Bains.
5.Satnam represented India in the Under-16 FIBA Asian Championships in 2009 and also helped his state side Punjab win the Gold medal at the National Youth Championships in Trichy.
6.His biggest turning point came at the age of 14 when he was picked for the IMG Reliance tryouts in Delhi, where in 50 students, he was among the 8 chosen ones, to be awarded a fully-funded scholarship to train at the IMG Sports Academy, located in Florida, United States.
7.After training under some experienced coaches in the academy, Satnam found praise from some of the trainers, who felt that while he still had a work to do on certain aspects of his game, his body size, physical strength and an excellent work ethic were very impressive for a 19-year-old.
8.In the 2014-15 season, Satnam averaged 9.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game in under 20 minutes for IMG.
9.In April 2015, Singh became the first player since 2005 to have declared himself for the NBA Draft in June, without having any prior experience of playing either in college, the NBA Development League or anywhere overseas, professionally.
10.On June 26th 2015, history was created as he became the first Indian player to be drafted in the NBA after he was picked as the 52nd pick by the Dallas Mavericks.
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