Hat tip to loyal reader Lan Qiufan for sending me this video of a fight between the Guangdong Foshan Dralions of the Chinese Basketball Association and team from Melbourne, Australian. It is not the greatest fight video of all time, but it is part of a growing trend. With fights having been all but eliminated from the NBA, the best stuff is coming in from China, like the big brawl two months ago between Georgetown and the Bayi Rockets.
From Sun Xiaoche of China Daily: “The Longlions released an apology on their website on Wednesday and said the teams had reconciled. “We feel so sorry for the fans and the Australian side for the reckless behavior during the match. We have taken the necessary efforts to avoid further negative effects of the incident, and both sides have reached full understanding and forgiveness,” said the statement. On Wednesday afternoon, the Chinese Basketball Association imposed a one-week suspension of competition and training for the team. Its officials and all the players that involved were ordered to hand in written self-criticism to the sport’s authority. Despite the apology and the punishment, a history of reckless acts has damaged the international image of Chinese basketball. Two months ago, a brawl erupted between another CBA team, the Bayi Rockets, and the NCAA’s Georgetown Hoyas on Aug 18 in a friendly game during United States Vice President Joe Biden’s China visit. Last October, the Chinese national team’s Asian Games warm-up against Brazil was marred by a fight that left several players hurt. FIBA, the sport’s world governing body, imposed suspensions and fines on China’s head coach, Bob Donewald, and some of the players. The China team also fought visiting US all-star teams in 2001 and 2003, and the Lebanon national team at the 2001 Asian Basketball Championships. At the Stankovic Cup in 2005, China received a fine totaling $176,000 for an ugly melee with Puerto Rico.
From Jon Pastuszek of Niubball.com: “Three players in all were fined for their involvement in the fight. He Ben and Yang Wenbo, each of whom played big minutes for the team last year, were fined RMB 10,000 (about US $1587) and Zhao Lei, a reserve, was fined RMB 5,000 (US $793). On Wednesday, just one day after the Foshan incident, it was reported that Jiangsu got into a major fight with a travelling All-Star team from Chicago (pictures). However, soon after reports hit the internet, Jiangsu general manger, Wang Min, went on his Weibo (Chinese twitter) account to set the record straight. “People on the internet have been saying that [Jiangsu players] Yi Li and Meng Da were involved in a fight today. But, in fact that simply did not happen… both of them held up and controlled themselves.” Wang was right — a video of the incident has since surfaced on online video sites that proves initial reports were exaggerated. … I wasn’t at the game, but I didn’t have to be. I, like anyone else who has either watched games or played in them, knows that Chinese refs do a piss-poor job of managing games. On top of that, they cheat blatantly. Overly-physical play is allowed, cheap shots go uncalled and vexed, argumentative players and coaches aren’t reeled in and T’d up. What happens next is pretty easy to understand: Players get really frustrated and ultimately really angry that the laws of the game aren’t being held up, and play escalates until tempers get out of hand and a fight breaks out.