Stanford’s Ryan Agarwal Wants His Play to Represent India

Singh, billed as a “one in a billion” player in a Netflix documentary, was unable to make it in the N.B.A. He failed to gain traction in the G League, playing only two seasons with the Texas Legends, and never appeared in an N.B.A. game.

Since the N.B.A. opened an academy in India in 2017, 20 graduates have earned scholarships to Division I programs, prep schools and junior colleges in the United States, or signed professional contracts, according to a spokesman for the league.

Zach Reynolds, a spokesman for Stanford, said that when he was trying to figure out how many players of Indian descent played Division I men’s basketball, he and other sports information directors around the country were able to come up with three: Agarwal, center Amaan Sandhu of Monmouth and the Penn State walk-on player Ishaan Jagiasi.

At Stanford’s first home game of the season, 1,500 students from Palo Alto, Calif., elementary and middle schools filed into the stands at Maples Pavilion. Haase said Agarwal took pride in setting an example for kids who were just starting to imagine their futures, like Agarwal was when he watched Singh in Frisco in 2017.

“There’s probably a lot of those kids who didn’t realize these goals are achievable,” Haase said. “Even if it’s just coming to a game and seeing someone like Ryan, I think he takes great pride in being that beacon of, ‘Hey, work hard, have fun while you’re doing it, and there’s some great things that can happen.’”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/sports/ncaabasketball/stanford-ryan-agarwal.html