NBA Academy India Noida Facility to Shut Down?
The chatter had been building up in recent weeks, and now it can be confirmed with reasonable certainty that NBA Academy India’s Noida facility will be shutting down.
The chatter had been building up in recent weeks, and now it can be confirmed with reasonable certainty that NBA Academy India’s Noida facility will be shutting down.
What is NBA Academy India?
As described on the NBA Academy website, “NBA Academy India is an elite basketball training center at Jaypee Greens Integrated Sports Complex in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) for top male and female prospects from throughout India and the first of its kind in the country. Each year more than 20 of the top prospects from across the country receive scholarships and training to attend NBA Academy India.”
Ever since its launch in 2017, the premier facility has been a godsend and oasis for India’s top upcoming basketball talent. It has honed and nurtured international names including Princepal Singh (NBA G League), Amaan Sandhu (NCAA D1), Kushal Singh, Harsh Dagar, Lokendra Singh, Jaideep Rathore (all four part of India’s historic silver medal finish in the FIBA U17 3x3 Asia Cup 2022) and Pranav Prince.
In the women’s section, while not offering residential facilities, through the conduct of special camps, NBA Academy India has hastened the discovery and advancement of players like Sanjana Ramesh and Harsimran Kaur, both NCAA D1 athletes.
Reason for closure
NBA India’s Country Head Rajah Chaudhry stated in a News18 interview late last year that their “plan is to move away from the current facility in Noida to other areas across the country” and transition to a “a more scalable model…that allows talent to develop across the country.”
Elaborating on this, an NBA India spokesperson told Ekalavyas:
“We believe an expanded, scalable model that will reach a wider group of players across the country will be more successful in developing a sustainable pipeline of elite-level Indian players.”
Parallel Development
Notably, the news of NBA Academy India’s imminent closure comes close on the heels of Basketball Federation of India (BFI)’s announcement in February to partner with existing school, college and private sports centres to establish “10 National Basketball Academies across India”.
Under this scheme, BFI will be responsible for scouting school students from the age of 11 to join the academy, provide standardised coaching curriculum, supply foreign and Indian coaches, organize coaches clinics and certifications for upskilling and ongoing development, as well as diet and nutrition best practices.
Following this announcement, Manipal University became the first 'National Basketball Academy' partner of BFI.
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As time progresses, it will be interesting to see if these two seemingly contrasting developments (NBA Academy India - Noida closure & BFI’s National Basketball Academies) are linked in any way. Specifically, the commitment of BFI to supply foreign coaches to these National Basketball Academies, and NBA’s own proven expertise in this regard, is a synergy that could be capitalized on.
But as things stand today, we appear to be nearing the end of a short and incredibly successful era for NBA Academy India’s inaugural facility.
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