NBA India sets up online merchandise store

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has partnered with Jabong.com to launch its online retail store NBAstore.in. Though NBA merchandise is already available in over 200 Adidas stores in India, Yannick Colaco, MD, NBA India, says that the reason they chose to partner with an online retailer was because of their wider reach. Jabong is known to have distribution reach in over 400 cities.

Colaco, who took over the reins of NBA India last year, claims that NBA viewership in the last one year has gone up 200 per cent, while the fan-following on various social media platforms has increased 450 per cent. "The NBA ratings on Sony Six are higher than all the other football leagues barring EPL," says Colaco. He says that ever since it has set shop in India, the focus has been to grow the game of basketball in the country and increase its fan-following. The basketball league has partnered with Reliance Foundation for an initiative called Junior NBA, under which it has incorporated basketball into the curriculum of over 200 schools in Mumbai, Kochi and Kottayam. The NBA, which took care of both the equipment and training, now plans to take Junior NBA to six cities this year.

It also has an initiative called NBA Champ, which is a basketball festival that targets colleges. Currently being held in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, the plan is to take it to 16 cities this year.

The biggest challenge for sports  organisations in India is infrastructure. Colaco,  however, claims their priority is to ensure that more and more Indians play basketball.  He claims that India already has adequate basketball infrastructure. "A crowded city like Mumbai itself has around 150 courts which are underutilised. What is actually missing is proper curriculum," he says.