JOIN USAspiring sportspersons often find it hard to strike a balance between academics and their sporting pursuits. It is easy to find a talented sportsperson failing to give studies its due attention. But then, there are those who have managed to excel on both these fronts. Local lad Achintya Krishna is one of them.
Achintya’s first love is basketball and he is taking big strides to turn this passion of his into a full-fledged career. But the youngster has not left his education behind. Last week, he found out that he had scored 96 percent in the CBSE tenth standard board examination.
“Actually, balancing both sports and academics is not that tough if you’re determined and know how to manage your time and not have any distractions. If you cut down your time on other things, it’s easy,” explained Achintya, a student of Jaypee Public School in Noida, where he shifted after getting admission to the NBA Academy.
At 16, the young hoopster has already captained Karnataka twice in the Sub-junior (2016) and Youth Nationals (2018). In 2017, he was the only player from Karnataka to get into the NBA Academy, which houses some of the best upcoming hoopsters in the country, in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Now in his second year at the facility, Achintya believes he has grown a lot as a player. “It’s been really great basketball and academic-wise. I have improved a lot as a player. They’ve helped me develop a lot of qualities,” he said.
Being at the Academy has its own advantages.
“Lot of NBA players have come to the Academy. Kevin Martin, Robert Horry, Michael Ray Richardson. They’ve all played in the NBA and they come here to share their experiences, it’s a really proud moment. We all want to see ourselves playing in the NBA and they tell us the amount of work we have to put in,” Achintya said. “Everybody said it’s all about practice and how much work you put in. That’s how the results show,” he added. At the recent State Youth (under-16) tournament here, Achintya led Beagles Basketball Club to a second-place finish in the boy’s section. In the final, he scored an impressive 44 points but his team lost to SAI Dharwad by two points (74-76).
“Scoring 44 was a really great experience even though we didn’t get the win. That was the highest number I’ve ever scored. It was really exciting to play in the final,” said Achintya.
His father Ramprasad and mother Rupa are proud of his achievements, and Achintya feels it is all down to hard work. “It’s really a matter of pride to be regarded as one of the top players in your age category. It shows hard work pays,” he said.