Brookline High School in China

China 10: I Got The Basketball Jones

weird food: i'm not sure if I already said Pig Ears, but if I did I'll throw in the boiling milk that they give me every morning for breakfast. I think somebody told them Americans like milk but forgot to tell them we like it cold.
Chinese Medicine: Very spicy soup. One of my biggest mistakes so far is admitting to my host mom that I had a little bit of a cold. (And if my Mom is reading this, it truly is only a LITTLE cold!) First of all, they blame my cold on the weather and my eating habits, and when I disagreed saying that it was because there are germs (a very difficult word to explain w/o a dictionary) in China that I'm not used to, they all cracked up. Secondly, they gave me this very spicy soup as a remedie which made me sweat my ass off and they wouldn't allow me to take off my sweatshirt.

So I've joined my class's, Class 8, basketball team. There's a basketball tournament next week in which all the classes take part. This seems to be the only real sporting event the school has to offer, which, compared to American schools, is an atrocity to seperate athletics and academics. First of all, I was recruited because apparently Class 8 was the worst class out of the 10 classes in grade 1. According to the student I hosted in the US, Zou Leyang, with the addition of me the team is all of sudden in the running.

We started practicing today, and I followed some plays that the team captain had created. The team captain is about 5' 3" and wears a rubber bracelet that says Kobe Bryant in purple letters. His plays were pretty basic, so I added my own ideas to them which was a bad idea because our team couldn't even run his plays w/o mixing it up. Nevertheless, I'm confident in my team's ability, and if that doesn't come through, I'm confident in myself.

As I am in China, I feel obliged to compare some sort of cultural difference between the US and China in these entries. I've played basketball since I can remember at many different levels, and at this point in my basketball career I feel more than able to recognize the subtleties of the sport even though I quit competitive basketball two years ago. The only difference between Chinese basketball and American basketball is the motivation behind both games. (Now I apologize to the non-basketball enthusiast at this point realizing this topic is only for a select audience which probably doesn't even read this blog.) In the US these days, basketball has become a mark of, for lack of a better word, "coolness." Basketball superstars attempt to rap, sell Sprite, and buy flashy cars. Even the American game of basketball has more than enough evidence of the machoism that has become the main reason for playing the game. Slam dunks, slick cross-overs, and the amount of points one man out of a team scores are the most important things to look for whether watching Sportscenter or playing at the park. Needless to say, China's level of talent is lightyears behind the US. This isn't b/c of a lack of enthusiasm, but rather it's because of a lack of coaching. What I do find in China is a pure love of the game that resembles what the 1980's and early 90's were to basketball in the US.

The kids I play with here aren't trying to impress anyone; they're trying to win. Just like in the 80's in the US, the game here in China is focused around including the team. Now, the talent level of the kids I play with here has not reached the level of effective passing yet, but even still every kid is not afraid to take a shot if he's open, and even though I usually am the best player on the court, I'm not always passed to. Maybe I could win the game every time if they passed the ball to me for every shot, but where would be then. We'd be where the NBA and American kids are, where 4 kids on the team are afraid to do anything but pass it to the "best" player and play 1 ON 1!

I'm at a much higher level than these kids, but I'm also 2 or 3 years older then all of them. The fact is, I love playing with them because even though they haven't had the coaching and can't keep up with me, they are playing for the right reasons. They aren't playing for the reasons I quit playing AAU and high school basketball. I even have to admit that sometimes I feel guilty of playing too much like an American doing flashy moves and stuff. The other day I dribbled through this guys legs and got a lot of applause, but the guy wasn't embarassed or anything, he was just impressed I could do it. Without out doubt Chinese basketball will progress to where American basketball is very soon, but right now I think it's at the opitimy of what basketball should be.

Speaking of progression in basketball, Lauren, who's 15, has decided to take steps to break the sex divide in sports at Gao Xin High School. She joined her team today, and is actually better than a lot of guys on her team. People have been amazed to see a girl who can play sports. Me and her (I know it should be She and I) play bball all the time during our break, and I think if she has a good day she'll really tear it up. If she does, who knows, maybe some Chinese girls will consider taking up the sport.

posted by dAVID @ 5:48 AM