By BD Narayankar
Bengaluru, Jan 15 (.) The National Basketball Association (NBA) is confident that India will produce a player capable of succeeding at the highest level of the sport on the global stage in the coming years, driven by a rapidly expanding grassroots and high-performance development ecosystem across the country.
Speaking to ., Bharath Ganesh Anantharaman, Senior Director, Basketball Operations, NBA India, said the league is already seeing strong indicators that Indian basketball is moving in the right direction, with structured pathways now in place to identify, develop and nurture talent from a young age.
He noted that over the past decade, the NBA has focused on making basketball more accessible to children across India, believing that early exposure to the sport is essential for long-term success. As interest in basketball continues to rise nationwide, youth development has become the central pillar of the NBA’s India strategy.
Anantharaman said the league has built a clear “grassroots to global” pathway for boys and girls, beginning with mass-participation programs such as the ACG Jr. NBA initiative and NBA Basketball School, and progressing to elite platforms including Basketball Without Borders Asia and other high-performance opportunities. From there, players can advance to national teams, overseas scholarships and professional leagues around the world.
Citing tangible progress, he pointed out that several Indian players have already emerged from these pathways. Princepal Singh, Amaan Sandhu, Ann Mary Zachariah and Harsimran Kaur are among 20 graduates who have earned scholarships to U.S. prep schools and junior colleges or gone on to sign professional contracts, underlining the growing competitiveness of Indian talent.
He also highlighted the participation of young Indian prospects Piyush Choudhary and Taarushee Tarun at the Basketball Without Borders Asia 2025 camp, organised by the NBA and FIBA, as well as India’s representation at the inaugural NBA Rising Stars Invitational high school tournament in Singapore last year.
At the grassroots level, Anantharaman said the scale of participation is a key driver of future success. The ongoing 2025–26 ACG Jr. NBA 3v3 National Tournament for under-14 boys and girls is the largest of its kind in India, while the ACG Jr. NBA program has reached more than 15 million youth and 15,000 physical education instructors across 35 cities since 2013.
He stressed that the growing ecosystem, supported by trained coaches, structured competition and increasing international exposure, has significantly improved India’s chances of producing truly elite players.
“When you combine scale with quality training and global opportunities, it’s not a question of if, but when an Indian player reaches the NBA or WNBA and changes how the world looks at Indian basketball,” Anantharaman said.
Looking ahead, he said success would be reflected in wider participation beyond major cities, stronger domestic competition and more Indian players earning international scholarships and professional opportunities, reinforcing the NBA’s belief that India is firmly on the path to producing a global basketball star.
. . CDS