Hi all. Anybody see footage of the basketball brawl? Where here's a bit of it.

v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2MTE1MTQ0.html

I live here. I've played a lot of basketball in China and I've watched a lot of the pro teams in China play foreign teams. From sandlot games to pro league games, its damn interesting to watch how brutal fouling is tolerated. Its also interesting to see how locals and pros alike really gear up to play foreigners. For my own playing experience, I just chalked it up to sandlot style play and also Chinese players viewing it as a fun and unique opportunity to test themselves against foreigners. But after watching quite a few pro games on CCTV5 and finally this brawl, I have to say its getting a bit weird. Its like institutionalized frustration. China wants so badly to compete at basketball WAY before its time and I think they're just tired of losing. When the rules of any game break down, its all fighting...and fist fighting is definitely something that is quite common here. Lowest common denominator arrives really quickly when you're getting beat by 20 points every game. When I watched the video, two things struck me: 1) the gang up: There was a scuffle between two players and IMMEDIATELY the four other members of Baiyi swarmed the Georgetown player in question 2) bad bad sportsmanship: later as one Baiyi player was connecting with consecutive blows to the head of a prone Georgetown player, his teammate stood right over him and watched. Check any NBA or NCAA game and you see players trying to intervene or stop their teammates from pulverizing other players. Also, Georgetown players looked like they were trying to restrain themselves and the Baiyi guys were PICKING UP CHAIRS to use as weapons.

Good luck to any Chinese team playing abroad where they're not supported by a homogenous adoring nationalistic crowd when they mete out cheap shots when they're once again getting their butts kicked within the rules of the game.

That's pretty shocking, not at all surprising though. Delicate childlike egos are hard to play sport against.

It happens all the time here in China, and it doesn't take much; a foul, a loss of face, any perceived injustice however slight are all things which can start a brawl, and yes, when that happens all sense of what is right or wrong goes out of the window. A bunch of guys beating one prone guy is the norm, as is use of weapons (chairs, shoes etc), and the coaches and fans joining in. The Chinese love a good brawl.

'Good luck to any Chinese team playing abroad where they're not supported by a homogenous adoring nationalistic crowd when they mete out cheap shots when they're once again getting their butts kicked within the rules of the game.'

This did happen, when the men's Chinese national football team played QPR in London, England. And guess what? They got their asses handed to them. Seven Chinese players were sent home, one with a broken jaw. As one Chinese netizen put it so succinctly at the time:

'Lost the game. Lost the fight. Lost face.'

That shit doesn't wash outside of China, especially with level playing fields.