Palpreet Singh Brar, the winner of the national finals of ACG-NBA Jump, a nation-wide basketball talent search program, has signed a NBA Development League contract, becoming only the second Indian national to do so after Satnam Singh Bhamara, who currently plays for D-League team Texas Legends.
The NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the American basketball body’s official minor league, preparing players, coaches, officials, trainers and front office staff for the NBA, while acting as the league’s research and development laboratory.
The 21-year old Brar will now become eligible for selection in the NBA D-League Draft, which will be held in October. The 6ft 9in hoopster, who has been training at the New York Athletic Club with coach Ross Burn in Manhattan, said, “I am happy with the efforts I have put in and I will continue to work hard and make the most of this opportunity because not many get such a chance. The competition is tough but it is great to know you are competing with the best to play in the best league in the world.”
Brar, who is a power forward, had impressed NBA champion Brian Shaw in the national finals of the ACG NBA Jump held in the last week of February, and was part of the D-League National tryouts held in August in New York where over 200 pro-basketball hopefuls displayed their skills in front of NBA D-League player personnel executives, coaches, and industry scouts.
"Palpreet, we all thought, was the guy who had the best chance to succeed," Shaw had said after the ACG NBA Jump finals, adding, "His feel for the game and understanding, I could tell he grasps it."
Around 25 to 40 players from the tryouts sign D-League contracts and become eligible to participate in the D-League draft to be held in the last week of October.
NBA D-League players sign standard one-year contracts with the league, not individual teams, according to three different salary scales. A record 174 players with NBA D-League experience were on NBA rosters at the end of the 2014-15 regular season, representing an all-time high 39 percent of the league.