Amjyot Singh Gill (born January 27, 1992) is an Indian professional

basketball player Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. He has previously played for the

Tokyo Excellence Yokohama Excellence is a Japanese professional basketball club that will compete in the third division of Japan's B.League. Prior to the B.League's establishment, the club played in the National Basketball Development League, winning the champion ...

of the

National Basketball Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

(NBDL) and the

Delhi Capitals Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, ...

of the

UBA Pro Basketball League The United Basketball Alliance (UBA) was the first men’s professional basketball league in India, comprising eight teams. The UBA was headquartered in Pune and had a city team, Pune Peshwas. The first UBA match was played on 17 July 2015 at ...

. He and Amritpal Singh became the first Indian males to sign a professional basketball contract abroad. At 6 ft 11 in (2.12m), Singh is primarily a forward and has regularly competed with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on the international stage, playing in several editions of the FIBA Asia Championship. A native of

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which a ...

, he was trained at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy in

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

while playing for the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

state team. Early in his career, Singh spent several years with local teams in Punjab and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

, winning the Senior National Basketball Championship multiple times.

Early life and career

Singh was born on 27 January 1992 in a jat Sikh family in chandigarh . His mother Nirmal Kaur was an athlete, while his father Mohinder Singh was sub-inspector of the

Chandigarh Police The Chandigarh Police is the law enforcement agency for the Union Territory of Chandigarh in India. Chandigarh Police has its headquarters in sector 9 D, Chandigarh. The head of the state police is the Director General of Police of Chandigarh. ...

and a former member of the India national basketball team. Amjyot started out by playing

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

, the most popular game in India, and he was mainly a bowler. In high school, an injury prevented him from playing cricket for three months. During the time, Singh's interest of basketball grew, and his father and coach advised him to switch. He joined his high school team in 2007. Singh said, "In all honesty, I didn't even know the rules of basketball or even thought of playing the sport ever." By 2008, Singh was promoted to the state team and the national under-16 team. He also joined the prestigious Ludhiana Basketball Academy in Ludhiana, Punjab. The

state-run academy has trained many of India's top players, such as

Satnam Singh Bhamara Satnam Singh Bhamara ( pa, ਸਤਨਾਮ ਸਿੰਘ ਭੰਮਰਾ; born 10 December 1995) is an Indian professional wrestler and former basketball player, currently signed to the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestli ...

, Amritpal Singh, and Jagdeep Singh. With Ludhiana, Amjyot was coached by S. Subramanian. Singh, in 2010, led Punjab to a junior national basketball title as its captain. In March 2011, his Ludhiana team was defeated by Punjab Police Jalandhar at the Shaheed-e-azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games championship. Singh won the 2012 Senior National Basketball Championship with Punjab, helping defeat Tamil Nadu by 8 points. In May 2012, he was selected to play at the third edition of the India Basketball All-Star Showcase in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. In 2013, Singh left Punjab to join Tamil Nadu at the Senior National Basketball Championship. However, he was unable to play because he did not receive a

No Objection Certificate No Objection Certificate, popularly abbreviated as NOC, is a type of legal certificate issued by any agency, organisation, institute or, in certain cases, an individual. It does not object to the covenants of the certificate. The certification is ...

(NOC) to compete for Tamil Nadu. Without Singh, they were defeated by his old team in the semifinal round. At the same event in 2014, Singh was forced to sit out again after suffering five fractures to his nose during the tournament. Despite his absence, his Tamil Nadu team won the title.

Professional career

In the summer of 2015, Singh took part in the BJ Challenge Summer League in Japan, where he played for Hyogo Impulse, the developmental team to the Hyogo Storks, in pursuit of a professional contract. He saw immediate success in his first week with his team at the summer league. On 25 August 2015, he signed a one-year contract with the

of the

(NBDL), the second-tier league in Japan. Singh and former Hyogo teammate Amritpal Singh, who joined the Excellence at the same time, became the first Indian men's players to play in a professional basketball league outside of India. He finished the season averaging 18 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 blocks per game. On 17 March 2018 he was waived by the Oklahoma City Blue, but was re-signed five days later.

National team career

Singh made his first international appearance for India with the under-16 national basketball team at the Children of Asia Games in Yakutia, Russia. In the following years, he played with the under-18 team and was soon promoted to the senior national team. Singh made his first appearance for the senior team at the

2011 FIBA Asia Championship The 2011 FIBA Asia Championship for Men is the intercontinental championship for basketball organized by FIBA Asia that doubles as a qualifying tournament for the men's basketball tournament of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, United K ...

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

, China. In his debut on 15 September 2011, he recorded 2 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 blocks vs.

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. At the event, Singh most notably posted a

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

of 13 points and a team-high 12 rebounds against

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Singh averaged 6.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game mostly coming off the bench, but India would lose all four of their games. In June 2013, Singh helped the

India national basketball team The India men's national basketball team represents India in international men's basketball. It is controlled by Basketball Federation of India.http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/fibaStru/nfLeag/nfProf.asp?nationalFederationNumber=301 FIBA. ...

earn a bid for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the seat of government and one of three defined metropolitan areas in ...

, Philippines, scoring 13 points in a win over

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

at the qualifying round of the

SABA Championship The SABA Championship is a basketball tournament for national teams organized by the South Asia Basketball Association, a sub-zone of the FIBA Asia. It serves as a qualifier for various FIBA Asia events such as the FIBA Asia Championship and th ...

. At the FIBA Asia Championship, Singh took on a starting role for the Indian team, averaging 9.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks en route to a 2–6 record. India suffered an overtime loss to

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

in their opening game, as Singh scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Singh represented India at the

2015 FIBA Asia Championship The 2015 FIBA Asia Championship was the 28th and last edition of the FIBA Asia Championship in men's basketball in Asia. It was organised by FIBA Asia. At the FIBA Asia Congress held in Doha, Qatar, the Central Board awarded the hosting rights to ...

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...

, China where he recorded most minutes, points, rebounds and blocks for his team. He was the tournament's overall second-best scorer. Later on he went on to represent India at the 2016 Williams Jones Invitational Cup followed by the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge. Singh is also the first Indian national to participate in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Finals. In 2016, he starred in the FIBA Asia Challenge, where he averaged 12.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.6 blocks. He led the tournament in free-throw percentage. In July 2016, Singh competed at the William Jones Cup for India. He entered the tournament expected to be one of his team's top scorers.

References

External links

Singh's 32 points & 11 rebounds against Palestine - 2015 FIBA Asia Championship
Youtube.com video
Asia-basket.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Amjyot 1992 births Living people Asian Games competitors for India Basketball players at the 2014 Asian Games Basketball players from Punjab, India Forwards (basketball) Indian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Indian expatriates in Japan Indian men's basketball players Oklahoma City Blue players Basketball players from Chandigarh Yokohama Excellence players Wisconsin Herd players