Philippines' Padrigao, Ramesh of India named MVPs of 10th BWB Asia Camp

GREATER NOIDA (Basketball Without Borders) - Some of the top young talent from the Asia-Pacific region came together for the 10th edition of the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia Camp and learned valuable life lessons about being a professional basketball player while also receiving elite level instruction on how to improve their game skills.

Sixty-six campers - 40 boys and 26 girls - took part in the camp in Greater Noida near New Delhi from May 30-June 2 and left excited about the expert knowledge they been given.

"I have not only improved as a basketball player but also as an individual," said Philippines point guard Rence Padrigao, who was named the boys MVP of the camp and will play for Philippines this summer at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018. "The focus here was on your overall development at the personal and professional level."

Sanjana Ramesh (IND) and Rence Padrigao (PHI) were named the MVPs of Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia 2018 camp

The girls camp MVP Sanjana Ramesh of India is already thinking about all the ways to use the things she learned in the camp.

"Whatever I have learnt here playing with international players and coaches I am going to take that back and share the knowledge with my fellow players. Basketball is my life and these four days at the camp were the best I have had in my life," Ramesh said.

The goal of the collaboration between FIBA, the NBA and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) was to help change the campers’ lives in a positive and decisive way by opening their eyes.

The BWB Asia Camp 2018 campers receive life lesson advice from Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Ryan Sauders, Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham and former Olympic and WNBA champion Ruth Riley (from left to right).

The participants paid close attention to the two life lessons sessions with NBA - and Canada national team - players Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell, NBA assistant coaches Darvin Ham and Ryan Saunders as well as 2004 Olympic gold medallist and two-time WNBA champion Ruth Riley and former WNBA player Ebony Hoffman.

Among the topics discussed were: the necessity for proper sleep and nutrition; the importance of time management; some of the advantages of attending college, including balancing studying, playing and working out; and how life is full of obstacles and challenges and learning to deal with them is crucial.

"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable," were the wise words of advice from Hoffman.

Ham, meanwhile, talked about one of his philosophies of dealing with youngsters, calling it the "Four Cs: Competitiveness, Communicate, Comprehension and Commitment."

After a first day of skills development and evaluation scrimmages, the players were drafted into four boys teams and three girls teams, which then played two days of games before the knockout action on the final day.

The Milwaukee Bucks - coached by Ham and Indian national team star Satnam Singh - narrowly defeated the Brooklyn Nets - led by Bret Brielmaier and Caris LeVert - in the boys final by the scoer of 22-18. Samuel Jenkins from New Zealand tallied eight points to lead the Bucks while Padrigao scored scored four points. Chen Chiang-Shuang of Chinese Taipei, who would later win the MVP of the All-Star Game, had five points for the Nets.

The other awards for the boys saw Taine Murray of New Zealand win the Grit Award while the High-Flyer Award went to Lachlan Joseph Bofinger of Australia and Amir Hossein of Iran was the 3-Point Champion.

"BASKETBALL IS MY LYFE AND THESE FOUR DAYS AT THE CAMP WERE THE BEST I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE."Ramesh

 The girls final saw the New York Liberty facing the Minnesota Lynx and the Lynx - coached by Riley and Sakshi Sheoran - won 20-13 with Australian Paige Price scoring a game-high seven points with MVP Ramesh also on the winning team.

The All-Star Game MVP was Zhao Dan of China while Vaishnavi Yadav of India picked up the Grit Award and Indiah Bowyer of Australia was crowned 3-Point Champion.

FIBA