What Indian basketball learned from Asia’s best at the NBA Rising Stars Invitational | NBA news
TimesofIndia.com at: Singapore:: For most of this week, moving between the courts inside the OCBC Arena in Singapore for the NBA Rising Stars Invitational 2026 has become almost an exercise in repetition.A Japanese school won comfortably. A Chinese side followed with another convincing performance. Australia imposes itself physically. South Korea plays with a level of organization that rarely seems rushed.Different jerseys. Different opponents. However, the pattern is almost unchanged. Not only do these teams keep winning. This is how they won.The ball rarely stays put for long. A defensive rebound can quickly turn into an attack. Five players rotate almost instinctively, rarely looking to the bench for direction. The full-court press refuses to quit, even when the game is fair or the lead is out of reach.Watching from courtside, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate individual talent from the system that produces it.That pattern followed in the second match of Velammal International School to Hall 3 on Thursday afternoon.Against South Korea’s Kyungbock High School, India’s lone representatives found themselves chasing not just basketball, but the Koreans’ processing speed in every situation.
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By halftime, the contest was almost impossible to recover from.Every time Velammal looks to patiently build from the backcourt, another Korean defender arrives. The trails disappeared almost immediately. The loose balls were caught before the Indian players could react. The full-court press suffocated possessions before they even started, while every defensive rebound quickly turned into another attack.Each is a product of distance, anticipation and timing. The fast breaks came in waves. Even the usual properties are created with incredible precision.The final score finally read 131-46.However, as the afternoon unfolded, the scoreboard slowly became a less interesting part of the story. The bigger question lingered long after the final buzzer.Why do the same basketball nations continue to field school teams that appear to be several steps ahead of everyone else?
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More than talent
From those standpoints, it’s easy to assume that South Korea’s biggest advantage comes from the physical.Head coach Sungin Lim saw it differently.“The Indian team’s physical balance is actually very good,” Lim told Timesofindia.com after the game. “Their conditioning is also good. But compared to our players, the fundamentals are lacking. That’s where I see the biggest difference.”His answer echoed what happened in the four quarters.Kyungbock aren’t just bigger players. They defend as a unit.They trap ball handlers before seeing passing options. Each rebound triggers another transition. Each player understands where the next pass is going before it is played.The numbers reflect the collective understanding. Kyungbock finished with 54 rebounds, 31 assists and 26 steals, forcing Velammal into 40 turnovers.But Lim insists that those numbers are just the final product.“The most important thing is the amount of training,” he said. “Students have school, they have classes and they have other activities.“Basketball is always a team game. If you don’t have stamina, you can’t express your skills or your level on the court.”Watching the Koreans continue to press with equal intensity into the fourth quarter, it’s hard to disagree.
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A path beyond the school
Interestingly, Lim is quick to dismiss the idea that South Korea’s success comes only from greater investment. In fact, he believes that basketball receives less support now than it used to.“Korean basketball used to have a stronger structure and infrastructure,” he explained.“Support is down compared to before.” Instead, South Korea is focusing on strengthening the ecosystem around its players.Elite basketball schools now work with club programs, expanding the player base while maintaining coaching standards.“The important thing is to bring more schools and clubs into the system,” Lim said. “You need more kids playing, but you also need the right coaches to help kids reach their potential.”Just as importantly, the journey doesn’t stop when school basketball ends.Players move on to a structured university competition before progressing to the professional KBL, creating a path that lasts beyond adolescence.High school is not the end. Many players first go through college basketball before entering the professional league.
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Takeaway in India
Velammal head coach Shamsheer Basha spoke earlier in the week about India’s need to improve its fundamentals. Thursday only reinforced that belief.“Our guys were lazy today,” Basha admitted before adding, “There was a lack of practice, our defense wasn’t good, our offense wasn’t good.”Asked what fascinates him most about South Korea, his answers come immediately.“Their outside shooting is very good, their communication is very good, their game planning is very good, their full-court press is very good.”“Our guys move slowly. They attack quickly. That experience is what we learned from this tournament. I’m going to come back and teach these guys what our mistakes were.”Velammal’s task became more difficult with Fyodor Prem Athithan, one of India’s standout performers against Indonesia, restricted to just ten minutes.Without their leading point guard, much of the responsibility shifted to former NBA Academy India player Kushal Singh, who spent long spells initiating the offense instead of looking for his own points before finishing with 17.Captain Sri Saran Vadivel Murugan kept fighting throughout, adding 16 points despite a growing deficit.Kushal, however, refused to measure the week by wins or losses.“I knew I had to get my teammates involved first,” he said. “It’s a team sport. One player can’t do everything.”Reflecting on the tournament, he spoke less about basketball and more about mentality.“As a team, we lacked in a lot of areas. We lacked mindset. We didn’t have enough mental strength.Then came the line that perhaps best sums up why tournaments like the NBA Rising Stars Invitational are important.“We now know our mistakes. We know where we stand as individuals and as a team. So we can come back better.”
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