TALL STORY

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

The only time Princepal Singh got this much attention was when his friends would do anything to take him in their village’s volleyball squad. The struggle to get Singh into the squad was due to one reason — his height.

On Tuesday Singh, who stands 6ft 10in tall, felt the same way after becoming India’s fourth hoopster to be drafted in the National Basketball Association (NBA) G League, something he had been waiting for.

I had never thought of playing at this level. I mean, I have never played basketball back in my village. I never thought about getting a government job. — Princepal Singh, rising Basketball player

Singh, who belongs to Dera Baba Nanak of Gurdaspur district, started developing his interest in sports while playing volleyball. Destiny diverted his interest towards basketball and all this happened after he reached Ludhiana.

“I used to play volleyball with my friends. The friendly matches would go till late night. Everyone was amazed at my height and at some point, I also started feeling the same,” Singh said with a laugh while talking with The Tribune.

The problem of having no playing fields in his hometown did not stop him from finding the love of his life. “I had never thought of playing at this level. I mean, I have never played basketball back in my village. Like many other sportspersons, I never thought about getting a government job,” said Singh.

“But everything changed after I came to Ludhiana. And the journey from there is no secret,” he said.

Singh, who started playing basketball seriously at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy, joined the NBA Academy India in 2017. The elite training centre in Delhi, which had top prospects from all over India in its inaugural class, had athletes identified through the ACG-NBA Jump Program.

After Satnam Singh, Palpreet Singh Brar and Amjyot Singh Gill, Princepal Singh is the fourth Indian — notably, all four are from this region — to be drafted into NBA’s

G League. Satnam (2016-17) and Gill (2019) played for their respective G League teams while Palpreet remained unpicked after he was drafted in 2016.

“I will represent the 21-member NBA-Select team. Since 2018, the NBA started giving top young prospects from across the world a chance to begin their professional careers, with a direct contract by NBA,” added Singh, who will be coached by Brian Shaw, a five-time NBA champion. “It’s an honour to get trained under him. I believe this phase would be the toughest of my life and simultaneously, the most important for my career. I am surely going to give my best,” added Singh.

In 2018, Princepal was selected to play in the Indian senior team for the Super Kung Sheung Cup International Basketball Invitation Championship in Hong Kong. Earlier this year, he was a member of the Indian team when they defeated hosts Iraq in the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers in Baghdad. He had trained at NBA’s elite Global Academy at the Australian Institute of Sport centre of excellence in Canberra with 13 elite student athletes from across the world since 2018.