NEW ORLEANS — Vivek Ranadive wants the Sacramento Kings to go Bollywood.
The first India-born owner in NBA history said Friday that he is pushing for his club to play preseason games in his native country by the end of the decade.
“I think we’re probably a couple years away, but not five years away,” Ranadive told ESPN at the site of this weekend’s All-Star Game. “There are facilities that could work. We just have to get them to an NBA level. I fully expect that in the next two or three years, we will be able to do that.”
The NBA is making a strong push to expand its footprint in India, a largely untapped market with a population of more than 1.2 billion, but the league has yet to stage a game there. Ranadive said he has discussed the idea with Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon, who is interested in taking his club on a historic trip to oppose the Kings.
Ranadive envisions the Kings playing a game at Indira Gandhi Arena in Delhi, holding an open outdoor practice in front of the Taj Mahal, putting on youth clinics, and participating in a sports, music and cultural festival in Mumbai. Additionally, he said staging another international game on the same trip is a possibility, mentioning Dubai as a host candidate.
The NBA sends a pair of teams to China annually to play two exhibition games, and Ranadive said he would like to see the league do something similar in India. While the league has no official timetable to make such a decision, NBA India managing director Yannick Colaco said it’s a legitimate proposition.
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“We are absolutely looking at it,” Colaco said. “We think that getting an NBA team into the market would be great, and it’s something we’re evaluating very closely.”
Should Ranadive’s plan come to fruition, it would mark another India-related first for his franchise. Earlier this season, the Kings became the first NBA team to stream a game on Facebook Live in India when they played host to Golden State as part of an annual Bollywood celebration. In April 2015, Canada-born Sim Bhullar became the first player of Indian descent to play in the NBA when he appeared in a game for the Kings.
“I think it’s really important for us to actually go and show India what a real NBA game looks like,” Ranadive said. “So my dream is to become the first team to actually play a game in India. Then we have to keep doing that.”
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