We mistook the first floodlights we spotted in the Nagpada maze for NNH when we first went there. Some rounds of smirking later, we were directed to the abode of Mastan’s fiercest rivals—NNH’s Bachoo Khan courts—down the next lane. This was cordial, when compared to the antagonism that fills the air, every time Central Mumbai’s two biggest hoopster powerhouses clash in games.

“It’s like India-Pakistan cricket, and the face-off between the two is the feature of every tournament played either here or there,” says NNH’s Noor Khan, a former player and now organiser of the yearly Bachoo Khan memorial event. The two met in the mini-section final this year, and it was apparent why the rivalry gets ingrained early.

The Dimtimkar Road forms the border-holding apart the two sides, who have nurtured the duelling instincts for over 50 years. “It was a healthy rivalry since early ‘50s and ‘60s. The balance keeps tilting with every successive mini, youth, junior, senior batch, but later it got political and there was nastiness,” says Afzal Khan, earlier a player, and now coach of NNH.

The two courts are probably the only pair in Mumbai that stay awake with their floodlights-alive and dribbling-with practices stretching past 10 pm.

Zoaib Khan and Amaan Qureshi are a curious case of cousins, living under the same roof in a joint family, yet playing for the two separate outfits. They call their clashes on court quasi-wrestling. “Most of my friends played for NNH so I joined them,” says Amaan.

“The clashes are sensitive and aggressive, egos come into play,” explains Zoaib, adding that all’s forgotten over kebabs and cola as the final-hooter buzzes.

As games stretch into the night on the Bachoo Khan courts, the legends from both teams hulk in-are accorded respectful salutes by youngsters from either sides. A partisan crowd does a mass shirt-hurling like Dada’s stunt on the Lord’s balcony with every successive lay-up. The gallery adds up to a few hundred more than what Mumbai’s Ranji league game attracts, on a ground that is a tenth-size of Wankhede. Unlike cricket though, it hasn’t added up to a huge star emerging from this part of the town in recent years. The rivalry though has done its bit to enliven basketball in Nagpada-the spiritual seat of the game.

The Nagpada jargon
* Engineer Player: Coined by the legend Abbas Moontasir, it’s a term used for players with complicated manoeuvres, instead of a simple distributing routine.
* Cheecha/Poorana Chawal: Cheecha (Uncle) precedes the crowd’s instructions to ageing veterans to play their age while they still hang around in the game.
* Iska khaali bhawani lagta hai: The crowds know players’ free-throw success rates, and pick out those who tend to convert the first, but miss subsequent ones.
* Kanoon ke haath lambe hote hai: This is a special for when the Mumbai Police teams (MSP) are on court, and manage freak three-pointers from a distance.