An NBA Academy Asia Development Camp will be hosted in Singapore for the first time from May 8–11 at the OCBC Arena at Singapore Sports Hub, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said on Wednesday. 32 of the best male basketball players in Asia will compete and learn from one another at the four-day elite basketball development camp, which Sport Singapore (SportSG) will host.
Along with staff from the NBA Academies in Australia and India, the camp will be directed by NBA Global Academy Technical Directors Marty Clarke and Scott Flemming. Prospects will participate in skill-building exercises, anthropometric and athletic evaluations, exhibition matches, and off-court events that foster cross-cultural interaction. The best camp performers will be given the chance to participate in future NBA basketball development camps, showcases, and programs.
Additionally, a team of NBA Academy India prospects from the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) will travel to Singapore for a brief basketball development program that will include exhibition games against participants from the NBA Academy Asia Development Camp and the Singapore Under-18 Men's National Team.
NBA Associate Vice President and Head of Elite Basketball Chris Ebersole said, “The first NBA Academy Asia Development Camp in Singapore will give top prospects from across Asia the opportunity to learn from coaches with professional, collegiate, and international coaching experience and put their skills to the test against their peers from across the region. This camp is a part of our larger efforts to grow basketball in Asia, where there is a wealth of potential there.
The NBA opened a Singapore office in 2022 to increase its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region. The league's Singapore office builds on its current initiatives to grow basketball in the region, including live game distribution, youth development programming, interactive fan events, merchandise sales, and social responsibility initiatives. The office joins the league's Manila and Mumbai offices in reporting to NBA Asia Managing Director Ramez Sheikh in Hong Kong.
The Jr. NBA, NBA Basketball School, Basketball Without Borders (BWB), and NBA Academy are just a few of the league's current grassroots and elite basketball development initiatives in Asia. Since 2007, the Jr. NBA, the league's international initiative for boys and girls to play junior basketball, has touched more than 40 million children and coaches across Asia.
BWB, the NBA and FIBA's international basketball development and community outreach initiative, has been staged 12 times throughout Asia at the highest level. 26 Asian prospects have committed to or gone on to attend NCAA Division I schools in the United States through the NBA Academy program, which is run in conjunction with regional organizations in Australia (NBA Global Academy), India (NBA Academy India), Mexico (NBA Academy Latin America), and Senegal (NBA Academy Africa). This includes Derrick Michael Xzavierro (Indonesia; NBA Global Academy), who became the first player from Indonesia to receive an NCAA Division I scholarship when he signed.
