The National Basketball Association (NBA) India selected three city cagers for the NBA India Selection Camp.
All the three selected Nagpur players will attend a two-day camp featuring 20 boys and 20 girls from across the country who were picked from their performance during the NBA National Championship which concluded at Noida on Sunday.
From this camp a 10-member Indian team from the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program will represent the country in the Jr. NBA Global Championship, a youth basketball tournament for the top 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls teams from around the world that will be held Aug. 6-11 at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.
The three city cagers who were representing the West Region in the NBA India National Championship include Shomira Bidaye, Dhara Phate and Taaran Kakkad.
Shomira is a student of Centre Point School, Katol Road and practices at the Shivaji Nagar Gymkhana, while Dhara is a student of BVM Trimurti Nagar and plays at the Dharampeth Krida Mandal. Both Shomira and Dhara were members of the title winning West Region team. Taaran is a student of Centre Point School, Dabha, and practices at the Nutan Bharat Yuwak Sangh.
The Jr. NBA Global Championship India Selection Camp will be held April 29-30 at The NBA Academy India in Noida. The camp will feature 40 participants from the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA Skills Challenges, City Competitions and National Finals, and will focus on positional skill development and five-on-five competition, culminating with the selection of 10 boys and 10 girls who will be chosen to represent India at the second annual Jr. NBA Global Championship.
The Jr. NBA Global Championship will feature boys and girls divisions, separated into U.S. and international brackets that begin with round-robin play and continue with single-elimination competition. The winners of the U.S. and international brackets will play in the global championship games on Aug. 11.
If selected to represent the country all these three city cagers will become the first from Nagpur to play in the NBA Global Championship which is scheduled at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, from Aug 6-11 this year.
President of the Nagpur District Basketball Association (NDBA) Sandip Joshi, secretary Bhavesh Kuchanwar and all members of the district association congratulated all the three selected players and wished them luck.