USA Basketball 101

USA Basketball 101... sounds like an intro class in college for basketball, right? Well, you can say that the US basketball taught the world a lesson in how basketball is played -- American style!



The score: USA 101 China 70



An estimated 1 billion people (1,000,000,000) watched the game last night around the world. This was THE game of the Olympics, and the organizers knew it... that's why they put these two teams together on the first day of competition.



I really wanted to go the game. The problem is there were only 15,000 seats, and President Bush, former President Bush, Laura Bush and Barbara Bush (the younger) took up four of those seats so now there were only 14,996 tickets possibly available to be scalped!



I went by on August 7th to talk to scalpers... the several I talked to said the starting price was RMB10,000 ($1,500). Um, ok, I'd rather buy a new HDTV and watch it at home.



So the plan last night was to divide the four of us up at 6:00 pm, two of us to try to buy tickets and the other two to get a table at a sports bar for the backup plan to watch the game.



My friend Phoenix and I were the team to try to get tickets since we were the Chinese speakers, while Cliff and Zack went to the sports bar. Sounded great until the rain started. It didn't just rain... it poured!



We had no umbrellas... fortunately they were giving out "trash bag" ponchos at the metro exit at the venue:


The rain was crazy. You can see the street has turned ito a river. How safe is it for this bike rider??

So we ventured out from 7:15 - 7:45 pm looking for the obvious scalpers, you know, the guys just standing in the rain with no intent of going anywhere. We chatted with 20 or so different scalpers up and down the street. The cheapest ticket was still going for a minimum of RMB10,000.

So we regrouped, and planned to go out one more time, from 8:15-8:45. The hope was that since the first game had started, the prices would come down as the scalpers perhaps started to feel desperate.

We found cover under a large umbrella and were under there with three Chinese cops and one guy who was selling illegal Olympic stuff... stickers, headbands, etc.

We started talking with this guy, who said he was from Sichuan. I asked him if he or his family had been affected by the earthquake and he said that his family is OK, but that his family's village had to be abandoned. We then just had a great conversation with him until it was time go try to waste our money on Olympic tickets. He gave us two of the headbands he was selling, and the cops immediately moved in to prevent the illegal sale. But since he gave them to us, there was nothing for us to get into trouble about.

But since the cops were interested in us, I asked one of the cops to take a picture of us, you know, a picture of the guy selling illegal Olympic stuff and the Americans looking to buy illegal scalped tickets... and he did! Here we are (note the "cool" victory fingers!):

We went out on the second pass and the numbers of scalpers had dwindled. The price of tickets had dropped, they were now RMB7,000 or still $1,000. Um, no thanks... it was time for us to head to the sports bar on the other side of Beijing to watch the game. We arrived shortly before 10:00 pm, and had time to get ready for the game to start at 10:15. The place was packed, mostly with Americans cheering for the US, and also Europeans and Chinese cheering for China.

Who needs $1,000 tickets when you can have these front row seats!! Here's a picture of Zack, Phoenix and Cliff...

The first quarter was exciting... very close. The Chinese shot very well from outside while the US couldn't make a basket except for dunks. Fortunately there were plenty of opportunites for beautiful dunks. By halftime the US was up by 12. But in the 3rd quarter, the US pressure defense allowed for a lot more dunks and really the game was over then.

The plentiful dunks gave us a lot to cheer about!

There was a scare in the third quarter when Yao Ming rolled on the floor holding his bad foot. You could see the pain and just hope for the best. He has wanted these games more than anything. He came back in the game in the fourth quarter, but I really wonder why. The game was over and why risk hurting him. Perhaps just to show the crowd that he was alright, but still, I think I would have left him out of the game.

It was a fun game, exciting with lots to cheer about. But one thing is that the US needs to learn to shoot from the outside... as in the Austrailia and Russia games in Shanghai, the US has struggled in the half-court game. But as long as they can pressure the opposition into turnovers and easy fast-break dunks, they won't have to face that issue.

So after the game, we hopped on Cliff's and Phoenix's electic bikes (smaller than scooters). It was a beautiful evening, nice and cool, and with little traffic and dedicated bike lanes we zipped right back home. Zoom zoom!

Regardless of the final score, one thing was for sure... people cheering for either team really were cheering for both teams. I wrote a paper for an MBA class on the NBA's international expansion and in particular, its expansion into China. I turned in the paper last week, I only hope that my professor will grade it today, a day after the big game, because there is no doubt, the Chinese love Yao Ming, they love Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade and the NBA as well, and in short... the Chinese LOVE basketball!