The largest school-based basketball program in the nation, the ACG Jr. NBA program, a nationwide 3v3 tournament for the best U-14 players across India, was announced on Thursday by the National Basketball Association (NBA), ACG, a leading pharmaceutical solutions provider in the world, and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), which oversees basketball in the nation. The boys’ and girls’ divisions of the ACG Jr. NBA program will include teams from various schools around the nation. The tournaments will begin on Tuesday, September 24, in Chennai and Mumbai, and will subsequently travel to Aizawl, Delhi, Kolkata, and Ludhiana.
The top eight teams in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions from each city will then go on to participate in a league phase where the top three teams in each division, along with one all-star squad from each level, will proceed to the league finals early in the following year. The times and locations of the league finals, as well as the dates of the remaining city tournaments and league phases, will be revealed later.
“Over the past decade, we’ve engaged millions of children through the Jr. NBA program, and we look forward to expanding our development efforts in India alongside our partners and providing more opportunities for boys and girls to play the game and maximize their potential,” said NBA Asia Strategy.
The partnership intends to improve young basketball development locally, increase the identification of elite talent nationally, and offer additional development opportunities for players, coaches, and officials at all levels in addition to the ACG Jr. NBA program. For the first time, BFI will be an ACG Jr. NBA partner. The partnership expands on the previous relationship between the NBA and ACG, which saw the introduction of ACG-NBA Jump, a national basketball talent search initiative.