Will the Celtics sweep the Magic and advance to the NBA Finals?...

"Why there is no live streaming, can somebody plzz tell…"

Well, these are not exactly bytes from a social networking site between basketball fans in the US, but the home page of "NBA India" on Facebook. For a cricket-crazy country, it's heartening to note that there is room for other emerging disciplines as well.

While it's still a one-sport country for all practical purposes, the satellite channel boom and a greater exposure has ensured that the urban Indian youth lean towards other disciplines as well.

If it was Formula One over the past five years or so, and it's bound to grow by leaps and bounds once their own circuit goes revving by next year, it looks to be NBA's turn next.

Mahindras — an automobile major who was associated with football over a number of decades — took the first tentative steps when they tied up with the league to launch the Mahindra-NBA recreational league last month.

It was quite a revelation for the sponsors to find more than 1000 eager applicants in Mumbai alone.

The boys and girls were showing off their jerseys bearing the names of a "Kobe" or a "LeBron" on their backs.

As a sport, basketball had always enjoyed a degree of popularity at the school and college levels in India.

Hence the NBA must have done their homework well before setting out to expand their base in the country.

It's one piece of Americana which even some of India's rabid politicians won't mind — though it remains to be seen how long it would take before they produce an indigenous star. In a recent interview, Adam Silver, the NBA Deputy Commissioner made no bones as to what made them choose India as a potential market for the future. "What we are seeing in India is a burgeoning middle class, as well as a young population… It's hard to resist a population of that size," Silver said.

The Facebook page mentioned above gives you peek at the profile of the followers that NBA has been able to hook onto: young, urban and net-savvy.

Is it time then, to look beyond the likes of cricket, football and hockey for a new team game in India?