Satnam Singh Bhamara: Freak turns Maverick
A place to casually blend in – could be the hardest thing to find if you are 7 feet-2 inches tall. Balbir Singh Bhamara who lived his life being stared at as a seven footer, wished for such a place for his rapidly shooting up son. He’d reckoned basketball was just swell – Satnam could be amongst equals and not live the life of a freak. On Friday, Satnam Singh Bhamara, India’s tallest basketball player turned from a freak to a Maverick as he was the toast of the nation of billion.
Picked by Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the NBA draft, Satnam finally found his pedestal, a natural habitat even, while giving Indians a reason to preen and talk tall about their boy making it to sport’s most acrobatic league, that’s also the pinnacle of glamour. It won’t be easy as the American sporting arenas are cauldrons packed with demanding diehards, expecting absolute athleticism from anyone who cracks that league. Satnam will need to rise taller than his 7-2 frame and tide over the scepticism that’ll accompany him when he starts out in the summer league and then the development team – Texas Legends: Is he just a Maverick gimmick?
Former India coach, Scott Flemming, though dismisses any sort of similar cynicism about the Mavericks’ latest acquisition. “NBA don’t pick a player in the draft as a marketing gimmick,” says Flemming, a former Mavericks’ D-League team coach, whose intimate knowledge of the Indian player would’ve been sought after he spent a couple of years as India national coach.
Not a marketing gimmick
He’s not the only one. Senior director of NBA India, Carlos Barroca, too maintains that Satnam was part of a bigger plan for the Texas franchise. “What happens in the draft is that teams draw up several contingency plans. The fact that Satnam did get picked means he was always a part of their agenda,” he says.
A D-League start for the Texas Legends is what Satnam will have after he plays in the summer league, donning Dallas colours, next month. A maiden NBA appearance may have to wait a couple of years at least.
But according to Donnie Nelson, the team manager and the owner of the Legends, an extensive plot has been etched out by the franchise, who may have begun work on Satnam’s future when they invited him for a pre-draft workout just over a week ago based on an interview he gave Dallas Morning News.
Still, Satnam had little inclination that his fate would be decided by the Mavericks’ second pick on the day of the draft. “There were no hints that I got from them when I was there. And I couldn’t tell if they were more interested in me than any of the other teams I visited,” says Satnam.
Being drafted to the Dallas-based team makes him the tallest player in the squad. Poster boys and the veterans of the team, Dirk Nowitzki, who is in the Mavericks’ war room, and Tyson Chandler, are dwarfed by the teenager by two and one inch respectively. “He’s enormous. And what we really liked about him, believe it or not, was when he came in here he really could shoot the ball. He was one of the better three-point shooters that we brought through,” Mark Cuban told the Dallas Morning News.
In great company
But before Satnam can bring his prowess at long-range shooting—a rarity for someone so tall—to the American Airlines Centre, the home of the Mavericks, he will be plying his trade with the Legends just 30 miles north of the stadium.
The opportunity to play under Nelson, whom Flemming claims ‘loves to develop international talent,’ is an enticing prospect itself. “It will give him the chance to improve while being seen by the Mavericks coaches and front office on a regular basis,” says Flemming, who saw over Satnam’s progress during a national team training camp in 2013.
Barroca concurs with Flemming.
“He will be learning under a good basketball environment. And then he will be interacting with the first team players which will always do him good. Especially with the other big men like Chandler and Nowitzki,” he says. The only variable for both Flemming and Barroca is how Satnam, who failed to secure a college scholarship and applied as an early entrant to the draft, chooses to take advantage of the setting given to him.
“All he could ask for was an opportunity, and he has it now. It is now up to him to reach his goals,” mentions Flemming.
Another modern-day Mavericks star, Chandler Parsons, too was in his team’s war room as they boldly went where no other NBA team had gone before by recruiting an Indian from far away Punjab.
“The draft is where you start, it’s not where you finish,” Parsons had said on the eve of the NBA’s glitzy annual recruitment fair. It’s not the doting billion who he needs to impress now – their attention was hooked the moment he became the 52nd pick on Draft day; it’s basketball’s ultimate connoisseurs – the NBA paying public in the coming years.
