All I could think was ‘naam aaja’: Satnam Singh Bharama
Just over a month ago, Satnam Singh Bharama, India’s first hope of a basketball player to make it to the NBA, gambled with his decision to apply to the NBA draft. The risk paid off though as the 19-year-old form the Ballo Ke village in Punjab was picked by the Dallas Mavericks as the 52nd overall pick of the draft.
Bhamara had been invited for pre-draft workouts to seven different franchises, the Mavericks being the fourth on that list. Yet he found no sign of the team wanting to secure his services when he went to their training centre. “There was no real vibe that I got from them when I was there. It was the same as the workouts everywhere else. There were no hints that one team was more interested in me than the other. So for me, I just wanted to get picked, it didn’t matter where. Anywhere would do,” he says.
Dubbed the ‘international man of mystery’ after his first workout with the Boston Celtics, the management in Dallas too had questions in attempt to know more about their future player. “They asked me about my family, where I come from, how I got to the United States. Then they asked me why I wanted to be in the NBA, and I said that I wanted to be the first Indian to make it there so that others can follow,” he mentions.
The importance of being in the NBA, for Satnam, goes beyond the fact that he can expand his individual career. A second agenda he has planned is to promote recognition toward other Indian players. “The important thing is that there is an NBA player from India now. People will now start thinking differently about Indian players and maybe a few more doors will open to people back home. There are some very good players in India, and now hopefully people will look at them properly,” he adds.
While the lessons he learnt on court got him a spot in the draft, it were the words of his coaches that he needed during the event itself. He claims to have been nervous a day before the big event. “I didn’t eat a thing. Just didn’t feel like it,” he says. Yet his coach at the IMG Academy Kenny Natt, who is a former Indian national coach and interim coach for the Sacramento Kings, approached his ward with advice. “All he told me was to not get nervous and just stay focused, even if I didn’t make I didn’t get drafted. He told me to be calm and have fun at the event,” says Bhamara.
On the event of his selection, the teenager also shared a thought for his first coach, Dr Subramanian. “He was the one who found me and got me to where I am. It was his dream to have a player in the NBA, and here I am,” he adds.
Post selection, the requirement of drafted players giving interviews keeps him away from making a call to his parents with the good news. “I know that my parents, especially my mother and sister have been praying for me everyday. I prayed to all the Gurus and Gods I know before coming here today.”
It was divine intervention that he sought before the draft. Yet while the event was in progress, there was just one thing in his mind. “All I could think was ‘naam aaja,’” he concludes.
