Kenny Natt to Coach Indian Basketball

India welcomes three world-class coaches for its national teams

This article was first published on SLAMOnline.com on May 18th, 2011

If there’s one thing that you can say with complete surety about Indian culture is that we treat our guests with honor. As a child, when my family had visitors staying over and I refused to give up my bedroom for the guests, my mother would take me to a corner and repeat the old Indian proverb: “Mehmaan Bhagwan Saman Hai” – The Guest is like God.

Yes, guests in India are showered with presents, treated like royalty, and are force-fed meals until their stomachs churn (we consider this a good thing). Anyone who has ever been welcomed into an Indian household knows that, when it comes to food, ‘I’m full’ means ‘I could eat two more rotis, please,’ and a firm ‘No’ means, ‘Yes, I wouldn’t mind that last piece of Butter Chicken.’ From simple households to State Diplomats, the over-welcoming philosophy of the Indian people (mostly) remains.

And this is one of the major reasons why, despite all the teething troubles that have hampered the game of basketball in the past (rampant corruption at the state level, backward infrastructure, little cohesive organization, etc.) the game continues has continued to develop at a good pace. India has welcomed the world of basketball with open arms – from IMG Worldwide to the NBA – and in return, the world of basketball has invested wisely to the growth of the game in India. The welcoming attitude has worked well in our favor, as everything from infrastructure to personnel is now showing promise of progress.

April in particular was especially big for the game in India. Geethu Anna Jose, the former captain of the Indian Women’s team, became the first Indian to get a tryout with the WNBA – she wasn’t accepted, but she left a good impression with the Chicago Sky, the L.A. Sparks, and the San Antonio Silver Stars. Meanwhile, Bucks’ point guard Brandon Jennings made a trip over to our shores, becoming the 16th NBA/WNBA player/legend to visit India over the past three years.

But the biggest piece of news was leaked out this week, as the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) announced that it hired three world-class coaches to lead the Indian Basketball Teams and further the BFI’s grassroots growth of the game in India.

Kenny Natt, who was interim head coach of the Sacramento Kings after the firing of Reggie Theus during the ‘08-09 season, has been brought on board to coach the Indian Senior National Men’s Basketball team. Natt was an assistant coach under Jerry Sloan with the Utah Jazz from 1995-2004, and was part of the team that twice reached the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. He then became an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2004-2007, including the season when the LeBron James-led Cavs reached the NBA Finals.

Natt’s first job will be to work with Indian Men’s team at a camp in Delhi in preparation for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship set to be held in Wuhan (China) in September. Natt will be taking over the reins of the Men’s team after Coach Bill Harris, formerly head coach of NCAA DIII side Wheaton College, who led the Indian team to the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou (China).

The Indian Senior Women’s National team will be headed by Pete Gaudet, a famous name amongst college instructors. Gaudet has been involved with college hoops for over 40 years, coaching both men’s and women’s basketball in the process, including holding positions at West Point, Duke, Vanderbilt and Ohio State. While at Duke (as mostly an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski), Gaudet won two NCAA Championships and made seven Final Fours, coaching eight All-Americans, three national players of the year, and 12 NBA draft picks.

Like Natt, Gaudet will also be preparing the Women’s side for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship – the Women’s edition of this competition will be held in Omaru and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of August. Before Gaudet, the Indian Women’s side was coached by WNBA player Tamika Raymond at the 2010 Asian Games.

Lastly, the BFI brought in Zak Penwell as a Strength and Conditioning coach for the national sides in India, the first time that such an appointment has been made for the national level players in the country. In the past, the Indian national teams had been thoroughly exposed by several Asian opponents who were stronger, faster and more durable – even if the skill and talent level was closed, India lagged behind when it came to their physical fitness and performed poorly.

The last bit of news has been especially encouraging for top-level Indian players like Jose, who admitted that she struggled amongst the stronger American players during her WNBA tryouts. And now, with experienced NBA and college coaches being the guiding forces behind some of India’s brightest stars, expectations are high for the country to follow in China’s footsteps and play up to its potential – more than a sixth of the world’s population is over in India, and it is about time that the country ends its historic underperformance in most other sports excluding cricket.

Meanwhile, the other pieces to complete basketball’s jigsaw puzzle are shaping up nicely: Jose may not have qualified for the WNBA, but a tryout in itself was a major step forward. Youngsters have been encouraged by her success and are now confident that they can follow her footsteps to the world’s best leagues.

The biggest contribution comes by the hand of IMG-Worldwide, who in their partnership with India’s Reliance Industries is hell bent to change the face of the game – IMG-Reliance have been behind every major development for the BFI since 2010.

The NBA continues to put a lot of its time and effort in developing grassroots popularity of the game here: Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Brandon Jennings and George Gervin, to name a few, have carried the message of hoops to this cricket-crazy country over the last year. The NBA has held inner-city recreational leagues in five major cities around the country, and this year, introduced a Junior Skills Challenge to get the kids started early.

And then of course, there are the players themselves. More than ever, young players are taking basketball seriously as a career option and present stars are hopeful that they will one day participate in India’s own National Basketball League. The biggest (in size and potential) hope comes in the size-22 sneakers of Satnam Singh Bhamara, the 15-year-old, 7-2 inch giant with a rare combination of size and skill who is currently a student-athlete at the world-renowned IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL and is, as we called him on SLAMonline, the ‘Big Indian Basketball Hope.’

So yes, we’re ready to welcome the world of Basketball in India, bring it into our households, treat it with the respect that only a guest deserves, and make sure that we feed it until it’s full and then feed it a little more.

Is the world ready to welcome us?

Brandon Jennings in India: “Basketball is an easy game that anyone can enjoy”

Brandon Jennings isn’t exactly the typical NBA star. While most of the NBA’s best players follow a similar path to stardom (High school star, College star, lottery pick in the draft, and then, slowly growing into a productive NBA player), Jennings took a different route that took him from the West to East to the West, and in this journey, he has collected a plethora of experiences that make him the unique player that he is today.

From Compton (California) to Rome (Italy) to Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and now, the Milwaukee Bucks point guard who has just completed his second professional year in the NBA, added two more destinations to his resume: the cities of Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, India. In the process, Jennings became the 16th NBA/WNBA player/legend to visit India over the past three years. He came to this country following the footsteps of Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol last year, but Jennings is a different case.

Firstly, it’s his height: Troy Justice, the Director of Basketball Operations in NBA India, said that the NBA was adamant in making sure that this time around, a smaller player is brought over to India so that even the young players who aren’t gifted with naturally bigger bodies can feel encouraged that they can work hard to stand amongst the best in the world. At 6 foot 1 inch, Jennings is one of the shorter players in the NBA, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a burgeoning superstar.

This is his story, so far, in summary: He was one of the most acclaimed high school stars in the USA, before he skipped college and headed to play professional basketball in Europe, playing amongst the best in the world, far away from home, at the tender age of 18. He came back to the NBA a year later, was picked 10th by the Milwaukee Bucks, and had a successful rookie year, highlighted by a 55-point performance in just his seventh NBA game.

Last week, Jennings came to India where he took part in several programmes. He participated in the ‘Magic Bus’ programme to hold a basketball clinic for kids from vulnerable communities. He attended and judged the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge Finals on May 15 in Mumbai. And he traveled to Pune to become the first NBA player to visit the city, where he also held Jr. NBA/WNBA and NBA Cares clinics.

I got the opportunity to hold a short Q & A session with Jennings at the end of his trip in India. In addition to several questions that I threw at him concerning the present and future of basketball in India and of his own play in the NBA, I also asked him a few questions sent over to me by Jennings fans via Twitter. Enjoy!

Hoopistani: Is this your first time in India? How has the trip been so far?

Jennings: Yes it is my first time here. The trip is going really well, although I am a little jet-lagged! I have had some incredible food in India, and I’ve especially enjoyed the fish and chicken dishes. Mumbai reminds me a lot of New York City, because it’s a city that is always alive and busy. The weather has been good, too.
Of course, the highlight of my trip here has been the experiences I’ve had teaching kids the fundamentals of basketball.

Hoopistani: What has been the most memorable experience of your time in India?

Jennings: Just getting the opportunity to observe the Indian talent and work with them has been great. I have seen a lot of talent in India, and the kids are very eager to learn.

Hoopistani: You worked with the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA programme – how do you rate the talent level of the kids you saw there?

Jennings: The game of basketball is still relatively new to these kids – but I’ll say that they have the fundamentals and the mentality right. They want to be good at basketball – and from what I saw, they listen to their coaches and have been coached very well.

Hoopistani: You also took part in the ‘Magic Bus’ NBA Cares programme (a not-for-profit organisation using ‘sport for development’ for underprivileged childrend) in Mumbai – tell me about that experience?

Jennings: That was tough – I was teaching fundamentals to children who didn’t know anything about basketball. Many of them didn’t even have shoes on their feet. They played barefoot or in sandals. It took me back to my younger days in the hood I grew up in where I played against guys who couldn’t afford to buy shoes.
But the wonderful part was that they were eager to learn the game of basketball and have fun. They understood me and we enjoyed the experience.

Hoopistani: What do you think India needs to do to raise the level of the game here?

Jennings: The first thing is that we must accept that cricket is the #1 sport in India – basketball might not get to the top but it can be the #2 sport here. To raise the level of the game, the young players just have to keep practicing hard. Basketball is an easy and a fun game that anyone can enjoy.

Hoopistani: You have a unique view of global basketball, especially after your experience in Italy. Do you think playing away from the USA for a year improved your game?

Jennings: I didn’t go to college in the USA and became a professional at 18, and I stayed with my family overseas. Playing with grown men at that age helped me mature my game a lot. It also brought in certain habits that are common in the European game, such as twice-a-day practices which instilled a habit of hard work in me. All that hard work helped me raise my game to the next level.
Before the NBA Draft in 2009, many of the people hadn’t really seen me play for a long time or knew about my game. I think it helped me, because they were curious to see what I had learnt in Europe and that’s why I got picked 10th.

Hoopistani: What do you predict for the future of global basketball?

Jennings: The game of basketball is getting everywhere now. I’ve seen it being played all over the world. The NBA is doing a good job in promoting the game, and in India, the sport is growing and getting a big response.
The international competition in the game of basketball is getting great. We have seen this for several years now, and we saw it in the Final of the Beijing Olympics, where a very talented USA team had a hard time beating Spain.

Hoopistani: What is so special about the game of basketball that it can be embraced by so many worldwide?

Jennings: Basketball is a simple game – you can put up a hoop anywhere and play. It’s unique, easy, and fun. You don’t even need too many people to get started – it can be played one-or-one or five-or-five. It’s this simplicity that makes it such a popular sport.

Fan Question- Karan Talwar, New Delhi: What do you think about the new point guard revolution in the NBA?

Jennings: I think it’s great – it’s a new era. I love that some of the best players in the NBA are now smaller guards. Especially with someone like Derrick Rose winning the MVP, it gives other point guards hope for the future.

Fan Question- Kaushik Lakshman, Bangalore: How did the European experience give you an edge last season? How is the style of play different there?

Jennings: I got to travel all around Europe and play some of the best talent in the continent – the Euroleague is the second-best league in the world after the NBA and the competition was tough. The style of play in Europe focuses more on team ball, and it is never about just one player. That habit naturally rubbed off on me and it helped me play with the team-ball philosophy in the Bucks.

Fan Question- David Stern, Milwaukee (USA): What will be the goals for the Bucks in the upcoming season?

Jennings: We want to bring the winning mentality back into the team. We are hoping to finish top five in the Eastern conference, and get back the same form and team chemistry we had in my rookie season.

Brandon Jennings attends finals of Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge

Danish Qureshi of Hume High School, Mumbai and Nishanti of St. Joseph’s Anglo Indian Secondary School, Chennai were crowned champions in the Jr. NBA and Jr WNBA National Skills Challenge and earned an all-expense paid trip to the NBA headquarters in the US.

Together with 50 of the most skilled youngsters of the 10-12 year age group, Qureshi and Nishanti exhibited their skills at the National Finals of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge at the Indian Gymkhana basketball courts on Sunday evening.

The event was attended by Brandon Jennings, star NBA player of the Milwaukee Bucks, who was also a judge at the finals. Jennings handed the winners their trophy and their prizes. Impressed by the talent displayed by some of the kids, and gave the students some useful tips on the game and demonstrated a few tricks, too.

Geethu Anna Jose, the former captain of the Indian women national team, too was pleased with the talent and determination displayed by some of the students and had encouraging words for the winners, who will have the opportunity to train with an NBA coach, visit the NBA league headquarters and historic landmarks in New York.

The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program in India, supported by Basketball Federation of India (BFI), HP, Spalding, and Ten Sports saw around 500 schools from five cities participate in the Skills Challenge, a competition that tests the participants’ abilities in various basketball fundamentals, including dribbling, passing, and shooting.

Brandon Jennings to visit India!

NBA's rising star Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks will travel to India from May 13-18 to conduct a series of events to grow the game of basketball in Mumbai and Pune. He will become the 16th NBA or WNBA player or legend to travel to India in the last three years, as part of the league’s continued commitment to grow the game.

Jennings will attend the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge Finals on May 15 in Mumbai. The event is the culmination of the largest school-based initiative ever conducted by the NBA in India. Since March, the NBA and HP have taught basketball and life skills to youth in 500 schools in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune. Additionally, 500 coaches attended two-day clinics in each city where they learned coaching techniques and received a “Basketball in a Box” coaching kit, which will provide them with a resource to grow basketball in their community. HP Dream Screens were used at all coaching clinics to provide video demonstrations to help illustrate certain coaching techniques.

The first thing that comes to the mind of most fans with Jennings is the legendary 55 point game as a rookie on November 14, 2009 against the Golden State Warriors. Jennings became the youngest NBA player ever to score 55 as he did it in only his seventh NBA game. Jennings averaged 16.2 ppg for the Bucks as a sophomore last season.

Before his NBA career began though, Jennings was already a legend - he was one of the best players to come out of high school and spent one season (2008-09) playing in Europe, with Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Italy. He was selected with the 10th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. He guided his team to the NBA Playoffs in his rookie season and became the first player to win Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month four times.

“Having played in Italy, I have seen first-hand how the sport is growing globally and I am excited to visit India with the NBA to help continue the growth of the game,” said Jennings. “The NBA has the best basketball players from around the world and it is amazing to think that one of the kids I teach in India could one day play against me in the NBA.”

Fifty youth from across India have advanced to the National Skills Challenge Finals by qualifying at City Championships. Jennings will crown the boys and girls National Champions, and conduct a basketball clinic for participants. HP and the NBA will provide the champions with an HP laptop and a trip to New York City to train with an NBA coach and visit NBA headquarters.

On May 16, NBA Cares will partner with Magic Bus, a not-for-profit organization in India to conduct a basketball clinic in Mumbai. Magic Bus works towards creating equal opportunities for children and youth from vulnerable communities. Over the past 12 years, Magic Bus has used its unique “sport for development” approach to empower children and youth to make positive life choices in areas of gender, education, livelihood and health. Jennings will work with youth from two communities, using basketball to illustrate the importance of living a healthy, active lifestyle.

Jennings will then travel to Pune where he will become the first NBA player to host an event in the city. He will conduct a clinic for children and coaches who participated in the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program on May 17 and will host an NBA Cares basketball clinic for disadvantaged youth on May 18.

So this is Jennings' schedule in India - catch him if you can!

May 14: Magic Bus/NBA Cares Clinic - 4:00-5:00 PM, Magic Bus, Mumbai.

May 15: Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge Finals - 3:30-7:00 PM, Indian Gymkhana, Mathunga, Mumbai.

May 17: Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Clinic - 4:30-6:00 PM, PYC Gyhkhana Club, Pune.

May 18: NBA Cares Clinic - 9:00-10:00 AM, Pune (Venue TBD).

It would have absolutely criminal for me not to embed this: so here are highlights from Jennings' fabled 55 point game. He was scoreless in the first quarter, scored 10 points in the second, then 29 in the third, and 16 in the fourth. Bucks won the game 129-125.

NBA’s Greg Stolt: “In India, Basketball thrives because of the people’s passion.”

There could perhaps be no more suitable candidate for the NBA to send to India to help promote the game than Greg Stolt. Stolt, who works with the international operations unit of the NBA, made his third trip to India in late March/April 2011, during which time he has continued on the trail that his fellow NBA authority and the Director of Basketball Operations in India Troy Justice has been blazing for the last few years. In his most recent trip, Stolt was involved in helping conduct coaching clinics in Bangalore and New Delhi and the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skill Challenge in Mumbai and Pune.

Stolt’s resume is proof that he is the perfect candidate for the job because he brings with him experience of playing high-level basketball in the United States and across the world, as well as experience in behinds the scenes management that the development of the game requires, especially in other parts of Asia.

Stolt played college basketball in the University of Florida, and after finishing his degree, he tested the waters of the NBA as a player with a few tryouts. When that didn’t work out, he spent his professional career living the dream of a international basketball journeyman: from the D-League in the US, to league’s in Belgium, Spain, France, Japan, and Australia, Stolt played basketball overseas for six years. Afterwards, he settled with a job in Japan, which helped him improve his business acumen.

“The NBA recruited me to work for them because I’ve seen how things work in several different countries,” Stolt says, “My mixed background of business, basketball, and international experience helps a lot.”

Stolt has been working with the NBA for two years now, during which time he has visited India three times: In December 2009, he came to India for refurbishments and inaugurations of basketball courts in Mumbai and Chennai. Then again in the summer of 2010, he was involved with the running of the first season of the Mahindra NBA Challenge for two months.

“My job is to help improve the level of the game in India,” Stolt adds, “Along with Troy Justice and the rest of the NBA’s team here, I have been working with several people locally to build a strategy for the growth of the game here.”

Stolt also has knowledge and experience of the business of basketball in three other important Asian countries which could be used as reference models for the game in India – China, Japan, and South Korea.

Comparing the game in India to the other three countries, Stolt said, “These other markets are probably a lot more mature than India right now, in terms of their federation structure, their infrastructure, and the system of basketball development from the school level.”

“But in India, we see that change is coming – sport is growing quicker than ever before, especially since the success and popularity of the IPL or the Commonwealth Games. India is a little behind, sure, but it’s getting there. The best thing about this country is that its proactive and the people here are yearning for change.”

This year, the tasks were varied for Stolt, but equally important nonetheless. Since the NBA is targeting teaching the game to younger players in India so that they can get an early start, both the coaches training programme and the Junior Skills’ Challenge programmes are going to be crucial.

“We can’t go out and coach every child in this country,” Stolt says, “That’s why we have been holding the coaches’ training programme, so that these coaches know how best to train 12-year-olds. This programme was especially helpful for the young coaches, whom we provided with as much of our own knowledge and resources as we could.

In the two coaches’ clinics held in Bangalore and Delhi, there were about a 100 coaches in attendance each time. Stolt’s NBA-India associates Troy Justice and Marty Conlon extend the clinics to other cities like Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai, and a total of 500 coaches are expected to have been involved countrywide.

Meanwhile, the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge was set out to involve students from over 500 schools in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune in a youth basketball development programme. Stolt worked in Pune and Mumbai, where an average of 140 kids participated from each city.

“I think the Junior Skills Challenge was right on target,” says Stolt, “When the kids came out to compete in the challenges, we saw that the coaches we had worked with earlier had already prepared them in the right way. They knew the right drills and the fundamentals."

With the on-field work over, Stolt returned to the NBA office in New York to work on the other side of his job: planning and strategy. One of the NBA’s long term programmes, he says, has been to identify more markets in India for the type of programmes that have so far been held in some of the country’s major cities. The NBA is hoping to develop a database of the people with whom they have been involved in India and also study the results of the public’s reactions to the various programmes held by the NBA here. “We want to shape things to be perfectly suitable for the Indian market,” he says.”

And as far as he is concerned, Stolt is certain that the people that he has worked with will make the tasks a whole lot easier. “The one thing that pleasantly surprised me a lot about coming and working with India were the people involved with the game here,” Stolt said, “Unlike China, Japan, or Korea, who have structured leagues and systems, there is no guaranteed career paths for the coaches, players, trainers and referees in India: but they do it for the love of the game, and the game thrives here because of the people’s passion. That is a wonderful thing.”

NBA to host 1st Jr. NBA/ Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge in India

Press Release: MUMBAI, India, March 14, 2011 – The most comprehensive Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program ever in India tipped off today in Mumbai with the first of a series of coaching clinics. Students from approximately 500 schools in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune will participate in the NBA’s international youth basketball development program that builds the game of basketball within schools and teaches its fundamentals and values to youth in a fun environment. This will mark the first-ever NBA initiative held in Pune as the league continues to expand in India.

The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program in India is being supported by Basketball Federation of India (BFI), HP, Spalding, and Ten Sports.

“The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program will not only provide access to basketball for thousands of children across the country, but will help develop quality coaches who can become ambassadors for our sport,” said NBA India Senior Director of Development, Akash Jain. “We believe this program is a logical next step in our commitment to growing the game in India, and thanks to the support of our partners we will be reaching a large number of players and coaches in five major cities, including our first NBA event in Pune.”

At the core of the program is the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge, a competition for boys and girls ages 10 to 12 that tests participants’ abilities in various basketball fundamentals, including dribbling, passing, and shooting. Local Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA coaches will implement the first round of competition in approximately 100 schools in each of the five cities. Four winners from each school – two girls and two boys – will move on to compete in a citywide competition of 400 participants with 10 winners from each city (5 boys and 5 girls) moving on to compete in front of an NBA star at the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge on May 14. One boy and one girl will be crowned Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge Champions and will each win an all expenses paid trip to New York City where they will have the opportunity to train with an NBA coach, visit NBA league headquarters and historic landmarks throughout the city.

In order to provide coaches necessary resources to establish a consistent and sustained basketball curriculum in schools, the NBA has partnered with the BFI and HP to distribute a Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA ‘Basketball in a Box’ kit to 500 schools across India. This box will include a coaching guide customized for India, a Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge overview, clipboard, stopwatch, basketballs, and other equipment. Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA coaches will learn about fundamental skill development at the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge from NBA coaches at two-day coaching clinics that will be held in each city to tip off the program.

Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Skills Challenge participants and coaches will be able to keep up with their competition by visiting NBA.com/India, which will include program information, coaching and player guides, training videos, and player highlights.

The first Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program staged in India was the 2008 Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Hoops School in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. The five-week program included coaching and youth clinics and tournaments conducted at between 20 and 25 schools in each city. Additionally, coaching guides and posters were distributed throughout the country, reaching more than 500,000 youth.