Though the Miami Heat‘s 2017-18 season ended weeks ago, Kelly Olynyk is still focusing on the sport. In this case, he’s set to travel to India to help instruct attendees at a clinic for the Basketball Without Borders initiative set up by the NBA that will be held from May 30 to June 2.
Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel noted that 66 young players will make up the contingent of attending prospects. Olynyk, five other NBA and WNBA players and four NBA assistant coaches will be instructing those players that come from 16 different countries and territories. The event will mark Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia’s 10th edition of the program that not only instructs the players, but also offers them the chance to hear directly from Olynyk and the other players.
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This will mark the first time that Olynyk, a native of Canada, has served in this particular role. However, he previously attended a similar event as a prospect at the age of 18, when the BWB event was held in Mexico.
Within the past two years, a branch of the fertile NBA Academies program opened up in Delhi NCR India, a clear sign that the NBA sees the development program as a way to grow the league’s overall talent base. With regard to the BWB program that began in 2001, the 53 previous clinics held around the world have drawn more than 3,000 attendees from 127 different countries. Among that group, over 50 have been either been drafted by NBA teams or signed as free agents. At the start of this season, 24 of those players were on NBA rosters.
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