Singh joins NBA Draft

Satnam Singh Bhamara might become the first India-born and only second Indian-origin basketball player after Sim Bhullar to feature in the NBA following his inclusion in the NBA Draft for the year 2015.

The 7 feet 1 inches tall hoopster from the IMG Academy is one of the 91 players — 48 players from colleges and post-graduate institutions and 43 international players — who were nominated as early entry candidates for the 2015 NBA Draft presented by State Farm.  Basketball in India

At less than 16 years of age, Satnam, hailing from Barnala in Punjab, became the youngest player to represent India at the 26th Asian Basketball Championship at Wuhan in China in 2011.

A towering Satnam has been training in Florida, US for the last five years along with youths of 39 countries on an initiative of USA-based IMG Reliance Academy.

“I am doing great, workout out a lot …I’m excited for a possible future in the NBA, and I know it would be good for India.”- said Singh.

The NBA has been tracking Singh’s development. The league considers India one of the great untapped basketball markets in the world. Only about five million of the country’s 1.2 billion people play basketball, as the sport has struggled with resonance in a country where soccer, cricket and field hockey are the dominant sports.