Basketball in China

In an attempt to have more interaction with the Chinese while I am here in Nanjing, I went to play basketball on Monday night at this huge sports park. I have played basketball with Chinese people before in Hong Kong (the annual Church-sponsored tournament and our Christmas day 3-on-3 finding activity—both victories), but this was the first time that I was the only white person within seeing distance. When I walked into the caged courts, everyone was staring at me. I scoped out the situation and found the court where the best players (this is all relative) were playing. I walked over that way, and I asked them if I could play with them. They happily subbed someone out. They called me their “international friend.” The first play of the game they ran a “clear out” for me on the left wing (they have been watching too much NBA!), so I decided to go ahead and set the standard from the beginning. I took one dribble left and then spun back to the middle for an easy lay-up. I love the spin move! They all yelled, “piao liang!” (beautiful). :)

We played for about an hour. Here are some of my observations:

I am huge! I am not only tall, but I am significantly “thicker” than the average Chinese person. My 180 pounds has never worked so well for me in my life!

Americans play much more physical than the Chinese. I went up for a rebound and came down on someone’s shoulder (at least it wasn’t a nose this time), and you would have thought that Dwight Howard had just thrown a deliberate elbow the way he reacted. Gentle Ben? He played through it. :)

The Chinese style of pickup basketball is make-it-take-it. The ball only changes possession with a turnover or rebound. I quickly realized the focus of the game is a little more offensive than Gene Hackman would like. “I know you all can shoot, but there is more to the game than shooting! There are fundamentals and defense!” I love Hoosiers!

There is no such thing as “checking” the ball in to restart play after there has been a foul or the ball has gone out-of-bounds. I took the ball up top, and I passed it to the guy defending me. Everyone stopped and stared at me. My defender looked at me with a blank face and said, “你做錯了” which means “you made a mistake.” It was then my turn to return the blank stare. I was so confused. They were so confused. It was a confusing situation. It hit me. They don’t “check” the ball in China. I smiled, apologized, and tried to explain to them that is how we play in America. They didn’t get it. The staring continued. :)

The Chinese players seemed to get really tired easily. It didn’t take me long to discover why. When most people sit out, they do so to drink water and rest. When the Chinese people sit out, they do so to smoke. No wonder there was so much coughing!

It was really fun, and they were so friendly to me. I certainly counted it as a worthwhile cultural experience. We ended up talking for about 20 minutes after we finished playing, and they invited me to play with them next Monday. I couldn’t resist the invitation. My favorite sport in China? I’m there!