So Much Potential, So Far to Go for Young Basketball Prospect

[rug]

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — When the 7-foot-4 center Sim Bhullar walks through airports, people flock to him and ask him to pose for pictures. When he recently visited India, where his parents were born, so many approached him at the Sikh shrine known as the Golden Temple that he was ushered into an office. People hung on the bars of the office windows to catch a glance.

Despite his potential, some are skeptical Sim Bhullar (15) can be a consistent contributor.
Yet only a few who follow college basketball recruiting actually know who Bhullar is: a 17-year-old from Toronto who orally committed to play for Xavier. Recruiting gurus also know his brother Tanveer, 16, another college prospect at 7-2 and 260 pounds.

But as untrained eyes from airport terminals to religious landmarks have shown, Bhullar’s basketball potential is obvious. No matter what level he rises to, Bhullar is poised to become the world’s first prominent men’s basketball player of Indian descent.

“I think it would be a blessing,” he said, “to be the first from an entire country to go to the N.B.A. and be a role model.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/sports/basketball/sim-bhullar-could-be-asias-next-basketball-superstar.html?ref=basketball