Marbury's debut: Angry fans and a blown save
Sunday, 31st January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (4)
UPDATE: The "journalist friend" mentioned below is Anthony Tao, who was in Taiyuan on assignment for Deadspin. He wrote and reported The Lone Wolf in China, along with a photo gallery.Stephon Marbury just finished his first game in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Here are a few quick observations:
+ According to a journalist friend who was at the game, Shanxi fans were not happy with the referees, and not shy about showing their disgust. They threw lighters and shouted "Hei shao" (black whistle), accusing the officials of taking bribes.
+ Was the refereeing actually bad? I wouldn't know because only the last few minutes of the game were broadcast on CCTV-5. The national sports channel stuck to its regularly scheduled programming, a home game for the Bayi Rockets, the People's Liberation Army team led by Wang Zhizhi (first Chinese player in the NBA). You don't mess with the PLA's airtime.
+ Marbury clearly was not informed of his role on the team. With 22 seconds to go and down one point, he dished the ball from the top of the key to a man just above the baseline who didn't have much of a scoring opportunity. The play ended up in free throws, which the Shanxi shooter split to tie the game. A Marbury foul at the other end, followed by a made free throw, put Dongguan New Century up 102-101. With 5 seconds left and down one point, Marbury brought the ball up and dished to forward Maurice Taylor for... wait for it... the three! Psst: Stephon, your job was just to drive and score or get fouled. And Mr. Taylor, you had no excuse for being so far from the basket.
+ Shanxi team huddles during timeouts looked chaotic. Coaches spent more time talking to, and apparently arguing with, each other than they did talking to the players.
+ I've never seen a CBA gymnasium so packed. Less than 50 percent attendance seems to be the norm, but Taiyuan had a full house for Marbury's debut.
+ Apparently, even with a sellout crowd, Chinese gyms are still uncomfortably cold. Most fans wore heavy winter coats.
+ The bottom line: Marbury played 28 minutes, had 15 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 turnovers and 5 fouls, plus two blown chances to be the savior in a 1-point loss.
Tags: CBA, Maurice Taylor, NBA, Shanxi Zhongyu, Stephon Marbury, Taiyuan
The Starbury has landed. Will it take off?
Thursday, 28th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Stephon Marbury at Taiyuan Airport, Shanxi, China
From the looks of this photo, taken at the Taiyuan airport, Marbury is counting up the stacks of cash he can make selling Starbury shoes in China. I wish him the best, but color me skeptical on whether he will stick out the culture shock he'll encounter from the minute he steps outside that airport and gets his first lungful of Shanxi's coal-heavy air. Interviewed for the Wall Street Journal, Bruce O'Neil, president of the U.S. Basketball Academy says: "If he lasts 10 days, I'll be amazed. The culture shock is tremendous." (That WSJ story is a must read if you're interested in this saga, with details about the team, city and arena).
There's no guarantee that Starburys will sell in China, either. He's reportedly putting out a special edition with the characters for Shanxi (山西）and Marbury (马布里）embossed on the side. That's a smart move, and I could see interest in that first edition as a collector's item. But he needs to sell a lot of shoes, and can a Shanxi shoe have staying power in big markets like Beijing and Shanghai? And I have yet to see a distribution plan. Where is he going to sell these shoes? Carrefour? Kiosks outside the Li Ning and Nike stores? There's no Dick's Sporting Goods, no Sports Authority, in China. The sportswear distribution is dominated by brand-name stores, and there are already a handful of homegrown brands that offer shoes near his $15 (100 RMB) price point. And those aren't the shoes that people are wearing to play basketball.
Hopefully Marbury has people working on all this—despite some of his antics, the point guard from Coney Island has shown some business sense in the past. It should at least be fun to watch.
Marbury landing at airport image: CQNews
WSJ: An NBA Problem Child Packs His Baggage for China
Tags: basketball, CBA, NBA, Shanxi Zhongyu, Stephon Marbury
Stephon Marbury headed to China?
Tuesday, 19th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Stephon Marbury, following in the footsteps of Bonzi Wells
According to this Reuters report, team owner Wang Xingjiang indicates that the team is getting a bargain on the 32-year-old point guard, who wants to sell his sneakers in China. The CBA officially has a salary cap that limits players to $30,000 per month, which would leave a max of 60 grand Marbury could earn this season, if (BIG if) teams actually adhere to the salary cap.
Starbury is sure to get all the minutes he wants in the CBA, but can he put up with the hijinx of the Shanxi Zhongyu club? NBA coach Rick Turner spent some time with the team early in the 2008-09 season, and spoke of rambling motivational speeches from one coach, a 10:30 p.m. curfew, and requests that foreign players indulge the team owner in pre-game one-on-one sessions.
Turner also spoke of epic miscommunication with foreign players, leading to confusion about which of the three or four guys around actually had contracts and would suit up for the team, which, by CBA rules, can only have two foreign players. Looks like that could be a problem again—according to Asia-Basket, Shanxi currently has four foreigners living in Taiyuan, including Maurice Taylor, Lee Benson (picked up from the bankrupt Yunnan team that's been suspended from the league), Dontae Smith (who was unceremoniously given the boot last year when Bonzi showed up) and Kenny Adeleke. Coach Turner says he was let go himself in a pretty awkward way—informed after Christmas, as he was preparing to return to China from visiting his family back in the United States, that his services would no longer be needed.
But this post is about Marbury, and it can't be finished without asking some obvious questions: What is Shanxi's fascination with guys who are notoriously bad teammates best known for bad behavior? Can someone hurry up and create a reality show if this happens? And what is there to do in Taiyuan after 10:30 p.m. anyway?
Maybe Marbury's desire to sell his value-priced Starbury sneakers in China will keep him around once he realizes what he's gotten into, but don't bet on it.
Image: Photoshop genius courtesy of Fred Dintenfass
Tags: basketball, Bonzi Wells, CBA, NBA, Shanxi Zhongyu, Stephon Marbury
China basketball update
Thursday, 7th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The NBA is in full swing, and China's domestic league, the Chinese Basketball Association, started play a couple of weeks ago. Here are the top stories in the Chinese basketball world:Yao Ming's wife Ye Li is having a baby. Good thing we haven't done our "Top Sports Stories of 2010" yet. This child has been talked about since Yao married his sports school sweetheart, the 6'3" Ye Li. Chinese chat rooms are abuzz with speculation: How tall will the baby be? Will she be the first woman to play in the NBA? Will he be an NBA All-Star like Daddy? And can Chinese Internet users please, please be allowed to vote on a name? Here's a Xinhua article on the pregnancy news, along with some great suggestions for names (Yao'Neal is my personal favorite). Yao's been spending some time in China recently, which seems to be good news for the CBA team he is now a part owner of. The Shanghai Sharks are 6-2 and in fourth place in the league.
Yi Jianlian is back and beginning to show some of that potential Kiki Vandeweghe is always talking about. Since returning to the New Jersey Nets' lineup December 23, he has scored at least 22 points in four out of six games. He still needs to rebound more consistently, and the Nets still need to do some more winning, but he's proving that when healthy he is a valuable contributor to the worst team in the league.
The NBA's All-Star voting process is again at risk of an international incident, and China's at the center of it. The NBA declared Yi Jianlian ineligible for the game, knowing that despite barely playing this fall, he might still get enough votes from Chinese fans to make the starting lineup. But David Stern forgot to do the same for Houston Rocket Tracy McGrady, who is now cornering the China vote. Fans of more deserving players (aka, every starting guard in the Western conference) are understandably miffed at the Chinese voting bloc, and calls have been made for McGrady—who has only played in six games this season—to withdraw his name from consideration for the fan-picked starting lineup on the Western All-Star team.
A post is coming soon about the foreigners playing in China's domestic league this year. But two weeks in, the league already seems to be producing its usual bizarre personnel sagas. On Shanxi Zhongyu, the team that brought on Bonzi Wells for a short unhappy stint in the CBA, is reportedly bringing in NBA veteran Jerry Stackhouse to replace a player who supposedly had a fight with team "boss" Wang Xingjiang (Xinhua)
In Changchun, the Jilin Northeast Tigers (purchased this fall by Kenny Huang, a financier involved in buying a stake in the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers) ditched the disappointing Samaki Walker. Walker wasn't earning his keep, averaging 11 points and 11 points over seven games. His replacement, DeAngelo Collins, had 23 points and 16 rebounds in his first game, a loss to the Shanghai Sharks. According to a recent report in Xinhua, Collins has a history in the CBA, albeit a rocky one: "Collins left the CBA after he abused then head coach Wang Fei and was thrashed by his Chinese teammates during the 2007/2008 season in Zhejiang." Looks all's been forgiven, for now.
Tags: DAngelo Collins, Jiliin Northeast Tigers, NBA, Shanghai Sharks, Shanxi Zhongyu, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Yao Ming baby, Ye Li, Yi Jianlian
Wells drops 52, but what is wrong with the CBA?
Tuesday, 30th December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Yao Ming's former teammate Bonzi Wells is having a field day in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). After averaging 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds over the course of his NBA career, Wells is a scoring machine in the CBA. Last night, he scored 52 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a 119-115 overtime win for his Shanxi Zhongyu over Fujian.While Wells is blowing up the scoreboard and earning the dubious distinction of "best former NBA player in the CBA," China's professional basketball league seems to either be cleaning itself up or descending into chaos--we're reserving judgment on which one.
The news feed on the league's Web site right now features four stories about recent fines for players and teams. A recent league order required the Jilin and Jiangsu clubs to pay fines of 50,000 yuan ($7,300) each for unruly fan behavior at a game. Earlier this month, Liu Wei (a captain of the Chinese National Team and a once-upon-a-time NBA prospect) and Cai Liang, took on-court aggression off the court when they chased down opponent Gabe Muoneke after a game. Water bottles were thrown at Muoneke, who was reportedly leaving the arena with his family. Liu and Cai were fined 50,000 yuan apiece and suspended for 10 games; their club, the Shanghai Sharks, paid a 100,000 yuan fine. Also recently fined was the Tianjin club, again for fan behavior.
And while the fights and fines are getting headlines, the widespread practice of fudging players ages (making them younger so they can compete in youth tournaments) has also garnered some bad publicity. Li Zhigang, a reporter for Sports Illustrated's Chinese magazine, dug up some evidence that several players, including New Jersey Net Yi Jianlian, are a few years older than the age listed for them on official league documents.
It would be a good year for the CBA to get its act together, and a bad year for it to cement a reputation for lies and fisticuffs. The NBA is making big moves here—opening its NBA China office about a year ago, and announcing extensive arena construction plans this fall. Whether the CBA lets itself get bought out or digs in and tries to compete with a possible NBA-run Chinese league, the less shine it has on its brand image, the stronger the NBA's position gets.
Tags: basketball, Bonzi Wells, Cai Liang, CBA, Liu Wei, Shanghai Sharks, Shanxi Zhongyu, Yi Jianlian
Wells breaks 40 in first two CBA games
Friday, 26th December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Bonzi Wells image: Sports.sina.com
Tags: basketball, Beijing Ducks, Bonzi Wells, CBA, Shanxi Zhongyu