Punjab invites NBA coach Reid

Chandigarh, May 26 (UNI) Punjab Sports Department has invited former NBA player and now coach Robert Reid to train basketball coaches of the state to be held early next month at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana.

Announcing this at a press conference here today, Sports Director Pargat Singh said invitation has also been sent to the Sports Authority of India to send their experts to take part in the clinic.

Pargat said, ''The Objective of this effort is to raise standard of the Indian basketball players and the coaches. State team caoch and coaches from all districts of Punjab will be in attendance.'' As the clinic immediately follows the 57th Dhanoa National Junior Basketball Championships to be held in Ludhiana from May 27 to June 3, Pargat said the Sports Department is exploring options to invite the visiting coaches and top players of the tournament to stay on and benefit from the clinic.

There will be nine sessions in three days which will broadly cover diverse aspects of the game -- nurturing talent and improving skills; technical nuances and the latest advancements and injury management and feedback.

''Reid is a name to reckon with in basketball coaching in the US.

By bringing him here, Punjab looks to expose its coaches to the cutting edge techniques and strategies employed by those who train teams in NBA,'' Punjab Sports Department consultant Sunil Yash Kalra said.

Reid played 13 seasons -- from 1977 to 1991 -- 11 for Houston Rockets -- in the NBA rubbing shoulders with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Michael Jordan and was nicknamed as the ''King of rebound attack''.

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