Basketball Without Borders camp coming back to India

The National Basketball Association (NBA), the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) on Friday announced that Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia 2018 will be held from May 30 to June 2 at the NBA Academy India in New Delhi.

It will be the second time that the NBA and FIBA's global basketball development and community outreach programme will be held in India.

BWB Asia 2018 will bring together the top male and female players aged 17 and under from throughout the Asia-Pacific region to learn directly from NBA and FIBA players, legends and coaches and to compete against the best young players from the region.

"Ten years ago, India hosted its first-ever Basketball Without Borders Asia camp in New Delhi," said FIBA National Federations and Sports Director Zoran Radovic. "We're excited to return to the world's second-most populous country where basketball has really taken off over the past decade. The sport is growing extremely fast and there are great development opportunities for boys and girls. We look forward to teaming up with the Basketball Federation of India and the sport's wider community in India so that basketball can achieve its full potential in the country."

Meanwhile, BFI President K. Govindaraj said the camp will be a great learning experience for the young and talented players from India as they will get to train under the best basketball trainers in the world.

"It is a great pleasure for the Basketball Federation of India to get the opportunity to host another BWB camp in India.This will be a great learning experience for all the young and talented players from India as they will be under the guidance of few of the best basketball trainers in the world, which will help them grow as basketball players and make their country proud in the future," Govindaraj said.

The NBA and the BFI also announced that they will also host a basketball development camp for top female prospects from throughout India from May 27 to May 29.

The NBA and the BFI will identify 20-25 female prospects aged 17 and under to attend the camp. 1996 Olympic gold medallist and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame member Jennifer Azzi, two-time WNBA Champion Ruth Riley and former college coach Blair Hardiek - the global technical directors for women's programming across the league's seven academies - will oversee the camp.

It will also include a variety of NBA Cares and Jr NBA community outreach efforts with youth in New Delhi in partnership with the local community organisations.

The NBA and FIBA have staged 53 BWB camps in 33 cities across 27 countries on six continents. More than 250 current and former NBA, WNBA and FIBA players have joined more than 200 NBA team personnel from all 30 NBA teams to support BWB across the world. BWB Asia was previously held in India in 2008.