Brown Ballers bring basketball to the front court for South Asian community

Basketball is one of the most played sports in the world. According to the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) 610 million people play basketball at least twice a month — at a recreational level, semi-professionally or professionally.

So it's no surprise it's gaining popularity in India, the world's most populous country. While the Basketball Federation of India doesn't keep detailed lists of all players in every league, there is an organization closer to home that is seeking to amplify South Asian basketball players, highlight their talents, offer opportunities and remind the world that they are dominating courts.

Brown Ballers is not only a media platform but has a team of the same name featuring players from across the subcontinental diaspora. The current Brown Ballers team is largely made up of Indo-Canadian players with a Pakistani head coach, but also includes a range of ethnicities such as Punjabi and Tamil. Seven of the 10 players are Canadians with South Asian roots. All of them have played on NCAA or U Sports teams, and Jasman Sangha is the first Indo-Canadian to play in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. In April, he signed with his hometown Brampton Honey Badgers.

Gautam Kapur, 31, co-founded Brown Ballers in 2022 after previously working in the NBA. It started as "India Rising," but the group changed its name to be even more inclusive of the region. I asked him why an organization like this was important to him, and for the sports ecosystem.

"As a community we have two options," Kapur said. "We can wait for an Indian Yao Ming to fall out of the sky and have someone to root for and feel seen. Or we can take all of the talented players we have around the world, treat them the way they need to be