NBA: Sacramento Kings have a legitimate chance of making it to the Playoffs, says assistant coach Roy Rana

Los Angeles, May 15: Sacramento Kings were on a fine run before the 2019-20 NBA season came to an abrupt halt on March 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They had won seven of their last ten games and were in contention to make it to the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2005-06 season.

For now, the Sacramento Kings are among the first teams to resume practice after the long hiatus and are eager to take over from where they left. Assistant coach Roy Rana is optimistic of making it to the Playoffs. "We finally found some consistency, which is what we wanted to find early on and it took us some time but I think Coach (Luke) Walton has done an incredible job of leading us and getting us to this place where we now are in a legitimate Playoffs hunt," said Rana following a Facebook Live session for Indian fans where he spoke about his journey to the NBA and shared valuable coaching tips.

Talking about his experience during the NBA India Games 2019, Rana recalled, "The first game that we played, having all those school children in the arena, I think is a legacy moment. It will help build a lot of young fans, young dreamers. Hopefully, some kids came out of that arena and went home and rolled up their socks and played ball."

Known for his work with youth teams, Rana famously led the Canadian U19 Men's Basketball team to a gold medal at the 2017 FIBA World Cup. He was head coach of Ryerson University from 2009-2019 and transformed the men's basketball team into a successful program.

The 51-year old feels the best way to grow the sport in India is through early talent identification and coaching development. "Giving kids more exposure to the sport at a younger age would be helpful. I think for the sport to thrive there needs to be a coordinated designed effort and alignment in teaching the game across the country,"

Much like Rana's belief, the NBA's developmental initiatives in India include Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program and ACG-NBA Jump program. Launched in 2013, the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program has engaged more than 10 million youth across 13,000 schools and trained more than 13,000 physical education instructors nationwide. ACG-NBA Jump is India's first national basketball scouting program launched in 2015. Top performers from the program receive a full scholarship and training at The NBA Academy India.

The impact of this systematic approach has seen 13 players who participated in the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program joining The NBA India Academy. This includes names like Achintya Krishna, Pranav Prince, Pritish Kokate, Janmejay Singh, Lalhneupia Chhakchuak, Lokendra Singh, Jagshaanbir Singh among others.

When asked if cricket was ever discussed while growing up in an Indian family, Rana quickly admitted it wasn't and he never really understood the sport. "I think the difficulty was probably when I was growing up, cricket had three-day or five-day games, it was a huge commitment. In North America, we want something in three hours," said Rana, who expressed his interest to watch the shortest version of the sport when he visits India next.