Mumbai: NBA is coming to India! It is easily one of the most talked-about and long-awaited sporting events in the country. The pre-season games to be played between the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers is a sporting extravaganza like no other on Indian soil.
Pre-season games are the National Basketball Association’s way of promoting the game in markets where the sport has not yet picked up, and basketball fans in Mumbai could not have been more glad. Nevertheless, fans can expect nothing less than an intense battle between these two competitors. Speaking of which, which side should you cheer? Both teams have some really good players and they will be looking to bring their A-game forward in a bid to win over hearts and minds of the Indian viewers.
If you’re a Mumbaikar then the answer is easy, throw your weight behind the Sacramento Kings. The NBA franchise has a Mumbai connection and it comes from none other than the co-owner himself. Vivek Randive, is the Mumbai-born chairman and is also the first Indian-born majority owner of an NBA team. He left India at the age of 17 to pursue higher studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Vivek is pretty stoked and is clearly showing the way forward when he says, “I expect every person here to be cheering for the Sacramento Kings”. Sharing his thoughts, the owner says, “I am super-excited, I am a Mumbaikar and I am back in the city of my birth, the land of my forefathers. To be able to actually have a pre-season game for my Sacramento Kings against Indiana Pacers here is one of the most exciting days of my life”.
So, now you know which team you should be screaming your lungs out for…Go Kings!
