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    NBA needs to find a star player from India

    Synopsis

    The NBA also has on-going partnerships with Reliance Foundation since 2013 for Jr. NBA program, and Sony Sports Network for live telecast of the NBA games in India.

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    MUMBAI: India is a priority market for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the league will see a surge in popularity in the country once an Indian player makes it to the NBA, said Diane Gotua, vice-president of global business operations at the men's professional basketball league of North America.

    The NBA, which recently hired former Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi as its India managing director, is organising its first-ever India games next month. The Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings will play in two pre-season games in Mumbai on October 4 and 5, marking the first games the NBA has played in India and the first games staged in the country by a North American sports league.

    "We are really excited about the India games. It's a huge deal for us and the fact that the tickets of October 5th game were sold out on the very day of opening of the ticket sales, was a great sign," Gotua told ET.

    For the upcoming India games, the NBA is joined by BookMyShow and AEG as partners. "We have a mix of global and local partners already for the India games, which is very encouraging. We have long-term plans to bring authentic NBA experience to India, and though it took a long time, this is just the starting," Gotua said, as she has made Mumbai her base ahead of games. She was also serving as interim managing director of India business till Sethi's appointment last week.

    Gouta, who believes that local heroes are the key for the growth of basketball, said that NBA needs to find a player from India. “That will give Indian fans a reason to root for. That will also help us to increase our relevance in India,” Gouta said.

    And she isn’t wrong. A big reason for the NBA to grow big in China was Yao Ming, who brought China to the NBA and NBA to China back in 2002, making basketball a top team sport in the country. Since 2012, the NBA has been organising pre-season games in China almost every year.

    At present, the NBA does games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 100,000 stores in 100 countries. NBA rosters at the start of the 2018-19 season featured 108 international players from 42 countries and territories. Almost 25% of the players in the last five years have been from outside of the US.

    “I believe it is just a matter of time before we find a player here,” Gouta said, hinting at the NBA Academy India, which has 24 students.

    The NBA academies are a network of elite basketball training centres around the world which offer educational development for top male and female prospects from outside the US. The Indian academy was officially launched in May 2017 in Noida and it is the seventh in the world. Other countries where the NBA has academies are Australia (Canberra), China (Jinan, Urumqi and Zhuji), Mexico and Senegal (Thies).

    The NBA also has on-going partnerships with Reliance Foundation since 2013 for Jr. NBA program, and Sony Sports Network for live telecast of the NBA games in India.

    Last season, more than 350 live NBA games were aired in India on Sony sports channels, including 78 games with Hindi commentary.

    “Over 91 million viewers consumed over a billion minutes of the NBA content on Sony in India in the last season. We also have one million paid users for NBA fantasy game, and we have seen over 20 million social media engagement per month on our social media handles here,” Gotua said. “We are clearly here to stay.”


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