China Segment

My wife got the idea a few weeks back to check out a Shanghai Sharks game this season. I hadn’t been to a basketball game here in probably five years. The buddies I went with before have long since left China, and I guess I just never paid much attention to the local Chinese Basketball Association.

However, things have changed. The hapless Sharks of five years ago are now a strong team with super-charged fans. We went last Friday night, and though it was just a regular season matchup with Tianjin, the fans were pumped. They played Queen’s “We Will Rock You” twice before the game even started! There were quite a few scalpers outside, and only about 50 or so empty seats during the game. Cheer leaders fed the frenzy, and volunteers gave out inflatable batons that people whacked together to make some seriously loud crowd noise.

The venue itself has changed since I last saw a game, as has the team. The Sharks now roam Pudong, which I took as a bad sign at first. Banished to Pudong? That can’t be good. Nevertheless, with a relatively new arena right next to a football stadium, the team’s (relatively) new diggs are pretty decent. It’s a lot brighter inside than the old crap-factory Shanghai gymnasium that they used to play in. I remember a rather dull facility with people dressed like they were attending a politburo meeting. The crowd cheered, but the team sucked. Quite a few seats were empty. Now however, the fans are young and ready to make some noise, and the arena’s atmosphere is much better.

The seating is typical in that there is absolutely no legroom, quite similar to the buses in Shanghai, but it’s really like stadium seating with each row a lot higher than the previous one, so unless you’re behind Yao (an owner of the team now), you’ve got a good view. Curiously there are few seats at the ends of the court, and the ones they have are quite a ways back from the action. In case you’re wondering, the Shark Tank (they don’t call it that, but they should… not sure if they know about the San Jose Sharks), is nominally named 源深体育馆, Yuanshen Arena. Though officially located on Yuanshen Road, it’s actually on 桃林路, Taolin Road. I guess they state it that way so that everyone knows to go to Yuanshen Road station (line 6 just one stop from Century Avenue) in order to get there. Take exit 3 and turn right, and follow the crowds and scalpers.

The Sharks are having a successful season so far. The key reason why are three foreigners on the team and a couple of hot-shooting local boys. John Lucas (#1), a smooth shooting guard is the key to the offence, along with #33 Garret Siler, who gets down low, powers his way through the post, and loves to dunk. #23 Zaid Abbas is another fantastic player who does the rebounding, hustle work and defense. He was in foul trouble the game we watched, but has all the fundamentals. The local Chinese on the team are a mixed bunch. A couple had moves, and two or three can really shoot, but there were some rather lame players as well. #5 Meng Lingyuan 孟令源 (a starter for some reason?) can’t shoot at all and was playing rather dirty the other night, including a completely fake flop during a dead ball situation. #3 Yan Xingshu 颜行书 from Taiwan drew laughs from the crowd for passing the ball away when completely free in the key twice, and for his awful free-throw shooting, despite the two girls behind us gushing over his looks. All told however, they’re a good team.

The Sharks are not quite Sharks, however. Their new team name is 上海玛吉斯, Shanghai Majisi, which is the name of some Thai company that either owns most of the team or has some sort of sponsorship deal. (Online websites have conflicting claims over whether Yao owns the team or only a part of it.) It’s rather lame hearing the announcer chant “Ma-Ji-Si, Ma-Ji-Si” while the mascots are still sharks, and the team logo says ’sharks.’ Actually that was one of the stranger features of the CBA game. After a player scores, the announcer tries to lead the crowd in a short little chant of their name (surnames in the case of foreign talent, full names for Chinese). I thought I heard him make a sort of choking noise before a Tianjin player took a free throw. And quite often during play he was leading the chants of defense. Odd, but it kept the crowd rocking.

The Sharks dominated almost from the start and it was clear that their big men are very good, at least the starters anyway. However, aside from Lucas, they really have nothing going on at guard. He was on a roll and eventually scored over 30, but the Sharks wouldn’t have much bite if he ever got into foul trouble.

It was a good time, and worth the 40 kuai for our second-cheapest-class tickets. Not many home games left in the season, but we’ll try to go back for another.

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