New Delhi, June 13: Two Canadian-Indian Sikhs, Parminder Singh and Preet Randhawa, were asked to voice the NBA Finals in Punjabi at the Oracle Arena.
This has happened for the first time with the two making history and living their ultimate dream.
“This is incredible, I can’t even put into words the emotions,” said Singh to Global News.
A first for the league, the two Canadian-Indian Sikhs broadcast the championship series to 200 different countries.
“It was amazing,” Randhawa told NBA.com. “We are basketball fans…and grew up through the (Michael) Jordan era, the Magic Johnson years, Larry Bird and so forth – so you could just imagine as being Canadians, we didn’t even have a basketball team back then,” he said.
But it took the duo a long time and a lot of hard work to get to what they believe may be the pinnacle of their careers.
“So this is 10 years in the making,” said Singh. “The first time we called a game in Punjabi, it was called in 2009 when the Raptors broadcast was actually covered by CBC.
“CBC had Sunday afternoon games. But since then, CBC had not had any games. We hadn’t called any games in Punjabi.”
Singh put his dream to call basketball aside and chased his passion for another sport by being one of the first on-air contributors to Hockey Night in Punjabi on CBC.
That sparked a lot of success and gained traction with the thousands of Canadian viewers who enjoyed watching the NHL in Punjabi.
And then in 2019, out of the blue, the dream was alive again.
“We got a call from the league and the NBA said: ‘Listen, so we want you to be a part of our global outreach for us’,” said Singh.
“That includes India, so they’re going to India early next season for a couple of games there which is the first time that’s going to happen.”
The duo called their first game of the 2019 playoffs during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Singh said it was enough of a success that they were asked to come back for the rest of the series and then call the NBA Finals.
