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Sejin Mathew From Tiruvalla finds his place as National Basketball Association (NBA) picked 21 young cagers for its maiden Academy, an elite basketball training centre in the country. Sejin was Selected over 2,500 players took part in the three-month nationwide tryouts held in six cities over India by experienced NBA coaches as they conducted these open tryouts and selected 45 best prospects for the three-day national final that concluded at the Jaypee Greens in Noida on Saturday. In the shortlisted 45 Pranava Prince from St Josephs HSS Thriuvanthapuram and Joseph Thomas From St Josephs HSS Pulicunnu also find their place to the final camp as they got selected from the 660 participants participated at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on 6th January.

Country’s first-ever NBA academy will take care of the overall development, besides basketball, of these 21 cagers with three more to be included in a couple of months. With an aim to groom cagers at a young age, the NBA in India will develop the talent to compete at the highest international levels.

At 13, 6-foot-1 tall, Mohammad Ali of Kolkata is the youngest player picked for the academy and will play alongside with 17-year-olds Sejin Mathew and M Shanmugam of Kerala and Chennai. This was NBA’s 5th training centre globally and first of its kind in the country will be fully funded by the NBA and will be launched in April.

Sejin Mathew Who hails from Thiruvalla now studying at St Thomas HSS Kozhencherry and was coached by Anish Thomas is now training Under Raju Abraham of State Sports Council Hostel at MTHS Sports Hostel in Kurianoor

THE CHOSEN ONES FOR THE ACADAMY
Manoj Sisodiya, Virat Dhakad, Brijesh Tiwari (all MP), Mohammad Ali (Kolkata), Riyanshu Negi, Prashant Rawat (Uttrakhand), Amaan Sandhu, Vivek Chauhan, Jagshaanbir Singh (all Punjab), Sejin Mathew (Kerala), Achintya Krishna (Karnataka), Rajveer Bhati, Digvijay Shekhawat (both Rajasthan), M Shanmugam, Arvind Kumar (Chennai), Shaurya Kohli (Delhi), Robin Banerjee (UP), Preshit Pawar, Suraj Phathak, Parth Sharma (all Maharashtra) and Rishabh Jaiswal (Chattisgarh).

The prospects for the NBA Academy India will play against top domestic and some international teams. Each centre will feature Under-18 and Under-16 teams, reported Northbridge Times, with travel sides selected for international events. Ultimately, the most promising players at NBA Academy India will be considered for promotion to the NBA Global Academy, which the league recently established in partnership with Basketball Australia in Canberra as an international hub for the training of elite prospects.

Sejin Mathew the first & Only one from Kerala Selected to NBA Academy in India from Kerala

Sejin Mathew Son of KSEB employee Paul Mathew and Sobha From Tiruvalla finds his place as National Basketball Association (NBA) picked 21 young cagers for its maiden Academy, an elite basketball training centre in the country.

Sejin was Selected over 2,500 players took part in the three-month nationwide tryouts held in six cities over India by experienced NBA coaches as they conducted these open tryouts and selected 45 best prospects for the three-day national final that concluded at the Jaypee Greens in Noida on Saturday.

In the shortlisted 45, Pranav Prince from St Josephs HSS Thriuvanthapuram and Joseph Thomas From St Josephs HSS Pulicunnu also find their place to the final camp as they got selected f from the 660 participants participated at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on 6th January.

According to NBA . COM

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the ACG Worldwide Group (ACG) on Saturday (Feb. 11, 2017) announced top 21 players from this year’s ACG-NBA Jump National Finals. The selected 24 (inclusive of the 3 players, who will be selected in the months prior to the opening of the NBA Academy) will become the first class to receive scholarships and training at NBA Academy India.

The selection of the 24 players at the National Final, held from Feb. 9-11, marked the culmination of the three-month nationwide program that conducted tryouts in six regions including Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata. The three-day camp held at the Jaypee Greens in Noida featured the top 45 prospects from across the country.

“ACG-NBA Jump has given basketball-playing youth in India a pathway to make a career out of the sport We are committed to growing the program in the years to come,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco. “The 24 players will now have a solid platform to prepare for the opportunity to move into the professional ranks.”

“The final pool of players represented the very goal of the program that was to identify, hone and create a pathway for the untapped talent pool of basketball players in India,” said ACG Director Karan Singh. “We wish the 24 winners all the very best for their future and hope they make the best of this unique opportunity they have earned through their hard work and dedication.”

The 24 players will get scholarships and training at the NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training centre in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). NBA Academy India, the first of its kind in the country and the NBA’s fifth elite training centre globally, will be fully funded by the NBA and will open in April 2017.

NBA Academies will employ a holistic, 360-degree approach to player development extending beyond the court by focusing on education, leadership, character development and life skills. NBA Academy India builds on the NBA’s existing basketball and youth development initiatives in India. The Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program has reached more than 2.7 million youth and trained more than 2,000 physical education instructors nationwide since its launch in 2013. The NBA launched ACG-NBA Jump, India’s first national basketball talent search program, in 2015 and provided the top player with the opportunity to attend the NBA Development League National Tryout in the United States.