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| Edited By: Taus Rizvi |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 12, 2019, 05:40 PM IST
I am so excited that every day I am thinking of ideas of things I want to do. My colleagues have to slow me down and say, look we are only here for a short time. And there is only so much we can do. I want to play the game, see the Taj Mahal, see the tigers, do everything. I have to figure out how do I manage the time. For me, this is a dream come true. I just look at this as a showcase. Show the world that we are an amazing country, what an amazing culture we have and how there is history and also how advance we are in terms of sending the spaceship tomorrow and the things we have done. Then there is also the art and fashion and everything else. For me this is a dream come true.
One time, Abhishek Bachchan, who is a fan of basketball and is a friend, he mentioned to me when we were having dinner at Mukesh Ambani's house. He said to me what he loves about NBA and basketball is that it's more than a game, it's a vibe, it's a swagger, he called it. And if you met with my players, you see the energy and the swagger that they represent. And so, to go to India is a perfect marriage because we have Bollywood and we have cricket, we have fashion. India has a swagger. Indian culture, Indian music, Indian food just all aspects to be what is Indian is making its way into Western part and culture, particularly in this country. They see that, they see our music is popping up with the rappers over here and its becoming mainstream. So, to be able to go to India, enjoy that, participate and see first hand is really exciting for me.
There is some precedent on how to roll this out. NBA did this in China, now more people playing in China than there are people in the US. So, we are in that phase where we are investing in popularising the game. Here, the number of people involved and the play has doubled. Seeing an explosive growth in terms of the interest. We also know that as we continue to invest as we pick, there will be players that emerge from there. It will take time. We have to be patient. The league just announced partnership with FIBA where they are going to have 12 teams in Africa. That represents another model. I think there is play book for how you can do this, but I think we are going to be ahead of the curve. The reception we are getting is so strong. The roll out in India will be faster than it happened in other countries.
Sachin and Sunil are both heroes of mine. When I was growing up in Bombay, Sunil was one of my heroes. And I would love to do something where we bring basketball, Bollywood, fashion and cricket come together.
I actually grew up playing cricket in Bombay. I was a huge cricket fan. I came to this country at a young age. I had a family, did business somewhere along the line I ended up coaching my 12-year-old daughter's basketball, having never touched basketball before. Malcom Gladwell has documented in his book David & Goliath. With that experience, I fell in love with the game. I saw this as a greatest show on earth. It was constant action. It was extreme athleticism, again it had beauty and swagger to it. It was ballet with incredible athletes. So I fell in love with the game, so a few years later my friend and neighbour Joe Lacob was buying Golden State Warriors, he asked me if I would join him. I became the vice-chairman of the GSW. And then in a short while later, just as we started winning Sacremento Kings in play. There was deal to buy the team and move into Seattle. I was approached by various people who said wouldn't it be great to save the team and kept it in Sacramento and my initial reactions was, 'No, I live in the bay area we are just starting to win now'. Then, I saw the passion of the fans, Sacramento has an incredible fan base. Sacramento is the capital of the state, it's the fifth largest economy in the world. And it would be like ripping the heart out of the city. So, like as an immigrant, I had come with absolutely nothing in the state of California. Everything I had I owed it to the state, maybe this was something that fate had for me to do and I ended up buying the team.
My kids are huge basketball fans. She was completely blown away and she had been a Warriors fan growing up. Her room was like a shrine to the team. So, it was a dream come true for them.
I recognise cricket is a national past time and will always be so. But I thing basketball can be strong No. 2. In India they love cricket, but when you think about the practicality of it, it is hard to play. You need a big pitch. Average Indian, its not easy to play cricket match. Basketball anyone can play. You don't need a lot of space. It is a great equaliser. It will be played in villages, by rich and poor. It will be played in Boston, in Mumbai and all the African villages. In mind this is going to catch on in a big way.
I think having Indian owner helps. The kind of investments we are making in India, the academy all the grassroots programme. There are Indian players emerging, people of Indian origin over here. So, I think it's going to happen no matter what. There is no doubt at some point that player will emerge, but we are not waiting for that to happen. We are just moving forward.
Full name: Vivek Yeshwant Ranadive
