A cager with a big dream
Dasun Nilantha has reached his goal, but he intends to go farther in basketball
Basketball player Dasun Nilantha on one hand is living his dream of representing the national team at the highest level, and on the other hand he has set sights on converting the coaching sessions into winning shows.
Nilantha, part of the 15-man squad for the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) championship, scheduled from November 15 to 21, is already on the ball of training hard day and night.
“In the run up to SABA, our training has split into mornings as well as evenings. Thrice a week in the mornings, we work on shooting, gym sessions
and recoveries.
In the evenings, too, we train as a team on other aspects of the game,” he said speaking to the Sunday Times from their bio-secure bubble stationed at Sugathadasa.
Nilantha, playing as a centre, and his team, are however, yet to be notified and kept on suspense against whom and when their opening game would be.
“We’re likely to get a game either in the morning or evening on the opening day of the tournament itself,” Nilantha, all set to play his maiden SABA, at Dhaka, Bangladesh, predicted.
The team would be taking wings come Saturday to Dhaka, hosting the tournament for the second straight time.
Though this will be his debut SABA outing, he has already been a regular feature in the team, having represented the country for the first-ever time at 2019 South Asian Games, where they lost to India, settling for a silver.
Nilantha, an old boy of Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda, was drawn into the game by the interest the sport had aroused within him watching his juniors and seniors at play.
“I was drawn into the game when I saw lots of boys playing in my school. Then it was my turn to join practices. Was not easy but I love the game that much and I started attending practices every day and never gave up,” Nilantha, turning 23 mid of next month, said of his early days.
His decade long career has been evolving every year since the day he took to the game during his schooling days itself.
“It all started with the support I got from my school basketball coach Mr. Ransin Ginige, who was the driving force in me prompting me to play the game all the time. Through these, I only became increasingly interested in the game. Old boys of my school also supported me. After my school career, I joined the Colombo Basketball Club and Mr. Ajith Kuruppu supported me individually and had been there throughout my career,” Nilantha, also having played for his school, explained.
“His support had led me to where I am now. Since then, I’ve been working really hard and pushing myself to succeed in my basketball career. I mainly focused on my mistakes and worked hard to rectify them. The more I worked on them, the next time I played, it was much better with additional skills. My first and career best tour was the South Asian Games 2019,” Nilantha, now, a sports development officer for the Education Ministry, added.
Slam dunk, is a stylish method of shooting, when a player leaps in the air, controlling the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by sending the ball directly through the basket with one or both hands touching the rim.
This, also called as, dunk, is mostly used by international players from renowned teams to treat the spectators. He too, tried and tested his shot at it following his favourite player, a Greek - Giannis Antetokounmpo, and regards that as the best moment in the game when he dunked for the first time.
“The best moment is the first time I dunked in a school basketball game, which was an All-Island Tournament and I was the highest scorer in the tournament”.
From delight to disillusionment, the worst moment for the then DFCC Bank player is when he went for a national selection as an 18-year-old, but despite his best efforts, he failed to get drafted.
“I was very disappointed, but after that I worked really hard and I’ve become who I am now representing my country,” he reflected and regretted.
“My strength would be my physicality, endurance, self confidence, my ability to jump and many more. I’ve converted most of my weaknesses but I’ve still got a few more basic fundamentals to improve,” he self assessed.