IBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger on Bringing Professional Basketball to India Sustainably

Jeremy spoke to ANI at the BudX NBA House event in Delhi. The IBL, the country's first-ever professional basketball league, is supported by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and will take place this year.

Speaking about the competition, Jeremy noted that the league will be looking to fulfil the aspirations of young Indian players to be professionals and truly bring pro basketball to India in a professional, sustainable way.

"The India Basketball League is launching early next year. It's all about bringing professional basketball to India, really, for the first time in a sustainable, long-term way. You asked about the vision. The vision is that we give young Indians something to aspire to in terms of being able to carve a profession out as a pro basketballer. That hasn't existed before. It is going to exist now," he said.

Acknowledging the importance of pathways for any professional sport and for the strength of national teams in any sport, Jeremy said that the IBL aims to lay down a "clear pathway" for the young basketballers to fulfil their dream of representing the Indian flag.

"Who knows, maybe going on to play in the NBA one day. That work is not something that happens overnight. What we are doing now is starting to put the tools in place to recognise talent young enough to then get them the coaching that they need early enough to transition into successful professionals," he said.

Jeremy said that so far in its journey, Indian basketball has missed the presence of experts training youngsters early in their lives, so that by the time they are 17 or 18 years of age, they are in a good place fundamentally and have to translate all the work put in their journey in a professional environment.

The IBL aims to do its work with a high-performance centre situated in Bengaluru, which is the nation's first HPC dedicated to developing elite-level basketball talent. At the helm is the head coach of the performance centre and league's technical director, Marty Clarke, a former player from Australia who won the National Basketball League (NBL) back in 1989 as a player.

"We have 88 players living there permanently. Marty is from Canberra, Australia, where he was the head coach of the NBA's Global Academy. You cannot find a better coach in terms of the development of young talent. He is currently working with the players who will form the first cohort of the professional players participating in the India Basketball League," he said.

"His next job is going to be working with us to identify and train those 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds to be the next generation of pro players. Around him, we've got some of the best assistant coaches, strength and conditioning, nutritionists, physiotherapists, you name it, they are there," he added.

IBL is also targeting players in its eight listed foundation cities, and wants to give "young and growing populations" there a reward in the form of a team that they can support.

Jeremy is extremely optimistic about the talent which will come out of India, but says that it will be a "10-year journey" since young players will need time to develop.

"We are going to see some really good talent coming out of here in the not-too-distant future, but I think it is a 10-year journey because you need to get those kids who are 14, 15 years old, and then you need to give them the opportunity to develop. But watch this space. There is going to be some really exciting talent coming out of India," he signed off.

- ANI