STANFORD, Calif. — The world in Frisco, Texas, is simply a 30-minute drive from Ryan Agarwal’s hometown close to Dallas. However for a middle-school-age Agarwal, stepping inside was like getting into one other world.
In 2015, Agarwal was a sixth grader obsessive about basketball. In order that yr, when the Dallas Mavericks made Satnam Singh the primary Indian-born participant chosen in an N.B.A. draft, Agarwal knew he needed to go see him compete. On a visit two years later together with his cousin and father to observe Singh in an N.B.A. G League sport, Ryan Agarwal realized he wished to play like Singh himself.
Agarwal’s dad and mom had emigrated from India, and he was born in a Dallas suburb. He stated he had by no means seen somebody who seemed like him enjoying basketball and had due to this fact by no means thought of taking the sport critically. It was watching Singh, he stated, that made him imagine he may play at a excessive degree.
“It was simply pleasure for him to attach with somebody he can see is like himself,” Ashok Agarwal, Ryan’s father, stated.
Six years later, Ryan Agarwal is way farther from house — 1,700 miles away at Stanford College, the place he’s a freshman capturing guard making an attempt to bolster the Cardinal’s faltering offense. He’s nonetheless chasing Singh, hoping to select up the place Singh left off in representing India within the American basketball panorama whereas enjoying the game in school.
“I simply have to remember the truth that I assist characterize such a giant neighborhood, and solely so little individuals have the flexibility to do what I’m making an attempt to do,” Agarwal stated lately on the sideline of a Stanford follow.
Agarwal stated he didn’t draw back from a specific amount of stress that comes with individuals judging a complete tradition primarily based on his play. The highschool expertise evaluator Rivals.com rated him as a four-star recruit, among the many greatest 150 gamers in his class. When the time got here for Agarwal to announce the place he would play in school, he selected to share the highlight not simply with the coaches and kinfolk who helped him get there, however with India. In a video with dramatic music set to a montage of him strolling alongside practice tracks, Agarwal voiced his intention “to set an instance for a complete heritage and show that we will do it, too.”
“The dedication video that he did was his thought course of, his message that he wished to say,” his mom, Ranjini Agarwalla, stated. “It was not something that we even talked about. So we have been shocked when he introduced that up and stated, ‘That is what I wish to do.’”
That Agarwal was even recruited out of highschool was notable. Solely 2 p.c of Division I student-athletes recognized as Asian within the 2021-22 college yr, based on N.C.A.A. statistics. Agarwal’s dad and mom stated that as he was rising up, it wasn’t all the time clear how they need to proceed by the rigorous world of recruiting and elite sports activities.
“For us, every thing was a studying expertise,” Ashok Agarwal stated.
Now, households attain out to them to ask for recommendation, Ranjini Agarwalla stated, partly on tips on how to encourage their kids in sports activities and get them observed by school coaches.
“I’m blessed with the dad and mom I’ve, as a result of they put me in each sport potential to simply attempt to see what I like, which actually, not a whole lot of Indian dad and mom do,” Ryan Agarwal stated. “I believe that’s the most important factor for me. If it wasn’t for the help from my dad and mom, who is aware of the place I might be.”
To date this season, Agarwal has come off the bench for Stanford in almost two-thirds of its video games, averaging roughly 8 minutes when he performs. Rivals.com as soon as ranked Agarwal as a top-20 capturing guard, however Stanford Coach Jerod Haase stated he thought of Agarwal a extra full participant due to his measurement at 6-foot-6 and his passing capability.
“He’s going to be actually good,” Haase stated.
Simply how good stays to be seen. For now, Agarwal’s efforts are centered on serving to Stanford (11-15) discover its footing in a aggressive Pac-12 Convention.
The one participant of Indian descent to have logged N.B.A. minutes is the Canadian-born Sim Bhullar, who wasn’t drafted however performed in three video games for the Sacramento Kings in the course of the 2014-15 season. Bhullar now performs in Taiwan.
Singh, billed as a “one in a billion” participant in a Netflix documentary, was unable to make it within the N.B.A. He failed to realize traction within the G League, enjoying solely two seasons with the Texas Legends, and by no means appeared in an N.B.A. sport.
Because the N.B.A. opened an academy in India in 2017, 20 graduates have earned scholarships both to prep colleges or junior faculties in america, or signed skilled contracts, based on Mark Pozin, a spokesman for the league.
Zach Reynolds, a spokesman for Stanford, stated that when he was making an attempt to determine what number of gamers of Indian descent performed Division I males’s basketball, he and different sports activities data administrators across the nation have been capable of give you three: Agarwal, heart Amaan Sandhu of Monmouth and the Penn State walk-on participant Ishaan Jagiasi.
At Stanford’s first house sport of the season, 1,500 college students from Palo Alto, Calif., elementary and center colleges filed into the stands at Maples Pavilion. Haase stated Agarwal took delight in setting an instance for teenagers who have been simply beginning to think about their futures, like Agarwal was when he watched Singh in Frisco in 2017.
“There’s most likely a whole lot of these youngsters who didn’t understand these targets are achievable,” Haase stated. “Even when it’s simply coming to a sport and seeing somebody like Ryan, I believe he takes nice delight in being that beacon of, ‘Hey, work laborious, have enjoyable when you’re doing it, and there’s some nice issues that may occur.’”