“I am really blessed and humbled that this has happened and I am proud that this has happened to a guy from India, a Sikh from India, a fan of Toronto Raptors.”
On May 15, 2021, the 69-year-old India-born Canadian Nav Bhatia walked into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame museum in Springfield, Massachusetts and there it was – His Toronto Raptors jersey (which he was given when the team gave him the title of Superfan in 1998), the replica of his Championship ring (which he received from the team after they won the NBA Championship 2018-19, his famous courtside chair, and his white turban with the red band. Only a few metres away is the gallery of Kobe Bryant, who was also inducted this year. For everyone who goes to the museum, one can watch his highlights from the games for 10 minutes. “Disbelief, crazy” is how Bhatia describes becoming the first-ever fan to be inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Bhatia moved to Toronto amid the anti-Sikh riots in India way back in 1984 and he calls everything he has achieved in Toronto a “pure blessing”. He calls his induction into the Hall of Fame a win for all the fans and says it will take him some time for it to sink in. “I am the first Indian to go (in the Hall of Fame), the first fan to go, the first Sikh to go,” Bhatia passionately tells News18.com in an exclusive interaction.
The Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held over the May 15-16 weekend at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. It took place in a bio-bubble where everyone was tested every day, adhered to social distancing norms and wore their masks. Bhatia shared how he felt more than welcomed in the midst of some great personalities.
“I was talking to the NBA commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum and they said, ‘Nav, now you are not only a Raptors Superfan but a world Superfan because everybody knows you all around the world. Thank you for the way you represent NBA and basketball.’ It was very touching. And then I can never forget the moment when I saw the turban in the gallery.
“It was simple but still an amazing ceremony, especially when Vanessa (Kobe Bryant’s wife) came to speak and then Michael Jordan was there, it was very touching. I was able to meet so many Hall of Famers, I was pinching myself all the time,” Bhatia described.
On being asked whether the Sikh riots that forced him out of India fuels his pride on the turban making it to the Hall of Fame, he stresses he doesn’t like to look into the past but focus on the way forward. “Very few people were involved at that time (1984 riots). Basically, people are very good, look at how everyone’s helping one another during these times of Covid. Our first prayer is ‘Nanak Naam Chardi Kala, teraa bhane sarbat da bhala’, we pray for everyone’s wellness and happiness. That’s what we the Sikhs are,” he said.
‘BRINGING CULTURE AND COMMUNITY TO MAINSTREAM’
How did it all start for Bhatia? He says back when he shifted to Toronto, from 1984 to 1995 he was a workaholic, working 100 hours a week. So when the Toronto Raptors came into the being, he found a way to get away from all that stress and channel his love for basketball.
“This game is so beautiful, best game in the world, most entertaining, the fastest in the world. I fell in love with it the very first day. My wife says ‘basketball is your first wife’ because for 25 years of my life, I have never missed a minute of any of my Raptors games, I have never been late and I have never left early and I have missed my wife’s birthdays, our marriage anniversaries. I am a Superfan outside but I am not very much loved at home, you know (chuckles).”
Bhatia says it is the excitement and the pace of the game that attracted him to it. “For two and a half hours, you forget everything,” he shares. Bhatia said he wanted to change the perception of Sikhs and South Asians in the mainstream and going to the NBA games provided him with that opportunity.
In the 1998-99 NBA season, Bhatia enabled the first Baisakhi Day game. He took various 10-13-year-old kids from all religions to the arena and celebrated the festival by performing Bhangra and more. “My goal has been for the longest time to bring our community and culture in the mainstream. If you go to the game in the arena now, you will see a lot of South Asians, lot of Sikhs, we are 3000-4000 South Asians, who come for every game. For me, I want everyone to integrate without reservations – whether someone is wearing a hijab, or a turban – deep inside we are there to share with the team.”
Bhatia has seen the game develop in Toronto and the team making the bond with its fans and the city. Bhatia remembers the time where there would be just some 4000 people in the arena and then when the team would be losing by 30 points in the last quarter, they would all leave “as if there was a fire in the arena”. But then he talks about the 2019-20 season, where 15000 people were outside the arena watching the team play on the big screen.
“Back in 1995 or so, if you wanted to buy the jersey, there were hardly any in the stores and now every corner has the jersey. During the Championship parade, we had two and a half million people from all over Canada. I think the Canadians have embraced the Raptors and when you are winning, people come on the bandwagon and it has happened to us. Even in our Sikh community, when I go to Gurudwaras, people talk about it, 80 90-year-old Babas and Bebes talk about the game and how they watch it with three generations. Our basketball community has become very big,” he added.
WHEN BEING THE SUPERFAN SAVED BHATIA FROM A CHALLAN
“I almost missed a game one time. I was running late on the highway and as I was driving and thinking that my record is going to go bad. I did something very wrong and went to the side road on the highway and almost made it before I saw the policeman standing with the lights. He wanted to give me the challan but he saw and said, ‘oh, you’re the Superfan.’ He said ‘don’t do it again, I am going to let you go this time’ and actually he guided me to the arena and I was able to make the game on time.”
FEEDING OFF THE FANS
Bhatia shared that the bio-bubble NBA season due to coronavirus was a very difficult time for the players and the fans alike. He said he was asked to join the bubble and be there for the games but he felt it was safe for the players, their families or him and decided against it. “I think that’s why the Raptors didn’t do very well and didn’t make the playoffs because our team feed off the fans. Lot of our players affected with Covid. That was last season but we are going to be roaring back this season on top of the Eastern Conference.”
BEING THE FACE OF THE FANS
When Bhatia bought his first two tickets to the Toronto Raptors’ games in 1995, he never imagined that he would become a Superfan, get so much love and recognition from not only his fellow fans but the team and the NBA
“Where does a fan get to be the Grand Marshall of the parade, the biggest sports parade that happened in Toronto in 2019? Where does a fan, ever in the history of any sport, gets a Championship ring worth 80,000 dollars from the team? That means the team considers me as a player. And the third now, with the Hall of Fame ring. This is not supposed to happen to a fan but it has happened. God is good, Babaji is very good.
“When I accepted this (Championship) ring, I said I am accepting this on behalf of all the (Toronto) Raptors fans everywhere. I made sure when I go to the games, I wear this beautiful ring so that all the fans can have the pride and the bragging rights. Nobody has a chance to see the Championship ring, I want to make sure as many kids and adults can see and wear this ring. Same with this Hall of Fame ring, this belongs to all of us, not just me,” he said.
PHILANTHROPIC BHATIA
Nav Bhatia is the global ambassador of World Vision, which has helped him build 135 washrooms in Faridkot in 35 schools. Through the project, Bhatia wants to help the girls continue their education who would otherwise drop out after their menstrual cycles began. There is another 550,000 dollars project in the pipeline, according to which they are looking to make 200 washrooms and some basketball courts in Alwar.
Bhatia said such projects show the power of the game of basketball and one that even unites him even more with his family.
“It gives me great pleasure to see those 14-15-year-old girls going to school and continuing their education because poverty breeds poverty. People say cancer or heart attacks are big diseases but I think poverty is the biggest disease. These girls who aren’t able to go to school because there are no washrooms, basically they are poor. They get married at the age of 13 if they don’t go to school and have kids by 15, it’s a crime, it’s a sin, that’s what we want to change. Now as these girls continue to study, few of them are going to change the world and they are going to bring their families out of poverty when they find jobs,” he explained.
Bhatia further said that he was praying for everybody in India and shared that 12 of his family members were affected by Covid, three of whom had to go to the ICU as well. “This is the worst time I have ever witnessed with people begging for oxygen but proud to be a Sikh that we aren’t just giving langar for food but also oxygen to help the humanity. I hope that it gets better soon and in the next year or so, we can beat this Covid and I can visit my beautiful homeland again.”
Bhatia also said that due to Covid, two years were also wasted for NBA India, which was ramping up its activities in the country. He hoped that the Indian community could enjoy basketball and see that it was an easy, non-expensive sport. “NBA India has a nice academy in Noida and they are working on getting kids into basketball. You don’t have to buy a cricket bat and pads and all that, just a 30-40 Rs basketball. I think you will see a lot of positive things come out from NBA India and make this game very popular because I truly believe this is the best, most entertaining and the fastest game.”
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