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Haymakers, Bedlam, Malice
Mass brawl at China match
Jul 31, 2005
A basketball game between China and visiting Puerto Rico deteriorated into a mass brawl that state media denounced as a "night of shame", saying it set a bad example for the 2008 Olympic hosts.
The fighting erupted at Beijing Capital Gymnasium on Friday night after two Chinese players charged off the bench to fight Puerto Rican players in the dying moments of a game in which China was leading comfortably.
The bad feeling spilled into the stands where 3,000 home fans hurled insults and missiles, the China Daily reported on Saturday. Officials abandoned the game as the visitors fled to the locker room, one shielding his head with a plastic chair.
Chinese players Li Nan and Mo Ke had reacted after seeing teammate Yi Jianlian fouled hard by Puerto Rican centre Manuel Narvaez, the newspaper said.
"Fists, plastic cups, water bottles and even a fan's shoe went flying during the fracas with China's Yi Jianlian, Tang Zhengdong, Mo Ke and Li Nan right in the middle of it," the official China Daily reported on Saturday.
China's basketball association deplored the violence as setting a poor example just three years before Beijing hosts the summer Olympics and said it would adopt measures to prevent such violence from recurring.
"Such behaviour is very disgusting and leaves an extremely bad impression," the China Sports Daily quoted association spokesman Li Jinsheng as saying.
NBA superstar Yao Ming, out with a toe injury, watched from the sidelines as the melee erupted but took no part.
"The Chinese basketball team should learn a lesson from this incident," Yao was quoted as saying by sports.sohu.com.
Victory in the Stankovic Cup game, abandoned with China ahead 91-80, was later awarded to the hosts. A basketball association official said China should apologise to fans.
State media railed about the team's behaviour.
In a story headlined "China suffers night of shame", China Daily said the brawl "badly hurt the growing reputation of Chinese basketball".
"China and Puerto Rico stage 'free for all'," said the Guangzhou Daily.
It said they had turned the Capital Gymnasium, a 2008 Olympic venue, into "the Palace of Auburn Hills arena", where Detroit players and fans brawled near the end of a game against the Indiana Pacers in November 2004.
Three thousand fans hurled abuse along with drinks, plastic bottles, yoghurt and popcorn at the Puerto Rican team as it headed off-court.
"This is the ugliest scene I have ever experienced in my life," 31-year-old fan Wang Kai was quoted as saying.
"The Puerto Rico players have travelled more than 30 hours to come to China and they are our guests. As the host team, how can we treat them with such disdain?"
It was not the first instance of violence for Chinese basketball.In Shanghai in July 2001, China and Lebanon clashed just 10 days after Beijing won the right to host the Olympics.
Both benches emptied after the final buzzer of a physical game, Chinese fans threw water bottles and other objects and several Lebanese players were bloodied before police broke it up.
In other sports, overzealous Chinese supporters have frequently embarrassed the authorities. Soccer in particular has seen a number of violent incidents.
Fans rioted in Beijing in 1985 after the national soccer team lost a World Cup qualifier against tiny Hong Kong, missing out on the 1986 finals in Mexico.
In August 2004, angry fans went on a rampage in the capital after the national team lost the Asian Cup final to Japan.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/600941
Haymakers, Bedlam, Malice
were there haymakers thrown?
At least we know China is watching the NBA. Every continent needs a good brouhaha to liven up the fan base.
Missiles? Dayam.fans hurled insults and missiles
Yeah, they made those missiles out of their pocket calculators.
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Was Artest anywhere around?
Classic.
As a Chinese, I do feel ashamed of the incident. It hurts our image as a host of 2008 Olympics.
Luckily Yao was not involved, otherwise perhaps his only asset in NBA, i.e. being a nice man, would be lost.
Yao is as calm as tayshaun.
We all know the Chinese are years behind the Japanese in pocket calculator to ICBM technology.
For your information, the relationship between China and Japan is not good now, mainly because of Japanese refusal to face the history of WWII (8 years' invasion of China which ended by US atomic bombs on Japan). We Chinese only has one goal now : economical development peacefully. I would like to know what you Americans think.We all know the Chinese are years behind the Japanese in pocket calculator to ICBM technology.
Damned Chinese.
Just curious if anyone's seen a clip of the brawl, if it was released by China's Communi...I mean, State-Run Media.
I saw this on ESPN, and I must say, one of the Chinese dudes was a ...he tried kicking a Puerto Rican player, but missed. I was thinking he was whippin out some Kung-Fu on his ass, but that kick was really bad...
One thing about economic development is it eventually leads to economic compe ion, and maybe worse. Kind of like the Chinese government wanting to buy a US oil company, all the while limiting what foreign companies can do in China. We call that hipocrisy.
Screw China and Puerto Rico. Lets talk Spurs basketball.
That MoKe kid was rumored to be the next AK47 OR KG type player comin outof asia and look what he pulls off. AND YI LIANJIANG wasnt his name mentioned alot last 2 years about being better then yao for his age or sum .
Its kind of stupid to have politocal struggles with Japan over WW2 though. I'm sure theres more too it ass the world has moved on and these problems are pretty recent.
This is a well-known rivalry that goes back thousands of years. It was inevitable.
The Puerto Rico team didn't pull out switchblades and said "i'll BEEPing cut you man!"..
(not racist just saying I have friends from there and that's what they normally do).
Puerto Rico should have just woked off the floor.
So how was the yogurt?
They're learning. Awsome.
Did they throw cups of beer, or Saki?
Yeah China gets really out of hand with their sports sometimes. Especially the Asia Cup match against Japan noted at the end of the article. It was really ugly as the spectators made it akin to a war being fought rather than a game.
I wouldn't want to go to the Olympics there.
China has always been a country I'd like to visit.
The history is incredible.
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