2011 Feb 22 Talking Balls: Kobe vs. Jay Chou, Sneaky Sneaker Deals, "China's Big Balls" & Meet Ed Wang Tonight
Tonight is the night that you can go and meet NFL star Ed Wang. The Buffalo Bill will be at The Pavilion for AmCham's Young Professionals Night. Also in town are Sidney Rice (Wide Receiver for the Minnesota Vikings), Jack Brewer (retired Safety from Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles & Arizona Cardinals) and Barrett Green (retired Linebacker from the Detroit Lions, New York Giants, and Houston Texans).The event starts at 6pm and if you are not an AmCham member then it's RMB 75 to get in.
Kobe Bryant and Jay Chou have come together to record "The Heaven and Earth Challenge" for Sprite's basketball campaign. The song has a video - we're not certain that it is the official one or the track laid over the making of footage from the advert - and it is quite something. This is not Kobe's first foray into the music world but he has never had dialogue like this:
Kobe Bryant: Man
Jay Chou: I’m not your man
Chart-topping stuff, chaps. It seems that Jay Chou is just a little too quick with his response, though. Anyway, enjoy the song and the video and wait for more from Sprite's 2011 China campaign including a slam-dunk contest. On a serious note the profits from official ringtone downloads of the song will go to Project Hope.
Last weekend was NBA All-Star Weekend. Despite not playing for much of the year, and currently being injured, the top vote-getter on NBA.com was none other than Yao Ming. This farce has sparked much debate in the US as to the usefulness of the fan vote in deciding starters for the All-Star game. They have a point. At the Dunk Contest, Evan Turner was spotted in the crowd wearing a Li-Ning cardigan. This was the weekend that he debuted his signature Li-Ning shoe, The Brassmonkey. Li-Ning are among a number of Chinese companies making big moves in the NBA but they are the only one that we know of that names shoes after Beastie Boys songs. In other shoe-related news, thanks to NiuBBall for highlighting this, Peak Sports made some NBA star laden Chinese New Year videos and Steve Nash has left Nike to sign for Lu You. If anyone except Steve Nash knows where you can get Lu You then we'd like to know.
The CBA's All-Star Weekend is coming up on March 19/20 at the MasterCard Center (as Wukesong Arena is now known). Tickets are on sale now. Call 400 610 3721 to get them and be ready to part with RMB 50-100. There's no word on if there will be a version of the NBA's Justin Bieber-as-MVP celebrity game.
China Daily has an interesting article on the "The fall of China's 'big balls'," where they state that China's performance in the team ball sports that are popular in the rest of the world is getting worse. Here's the stat that pins the piece together. It makes interesting reading.
China Sports Today has an article on the young man hyped to be the next Yao Ming. His name is Zhou Qi, he's seven feet tall and he just posted mad figures in a youth tournament that China won in Turkey. Remember the name.
Liu Xuan, the former Chinese gymnastics champion, has released her new album in HK. She is said to be 31 but can you trust a gymnast's or a singer's stated age?
The Farmer's Sports Meeting has been taking place in Cangwan village in Haiyuan county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Games included basketball, donkey racing and hitting a stick with another stick.
China's Badminton Super League has allowed foreigners into it in an effort to become the best in the world.
Hao Junmin came off the bench for Schalke 04 in their Champions' League draw with Valencia last week.
The captain of Team China's women's football team, Xu Yuan, is moving to Europe. Men's national side player Feng Xiaoting won't be going anywhere now he's returned from Korea to the CSL. He said a move to Europe is not of interest as he "doesn't dare to take risks easily" and if he fails he "will not be able to take it."
Chengdu Blades, Sheffield United's interest in the CSL were sold today. No one is quite sure who has bought them, though. The last we heard was that it was a private equity fund in Chongqing. The team will undergo a name change.
Finally, if you want to change your age to help you get ahead in sports here's how. Register in a village in the country and pay RMB 10k. If you need to change it again just find another village and pay the same fee to register there and change your age along the way.
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Talking Balls: A Smoking Rocket, Marbury Mania & The Olympic Underground
The Olympics are around the corner, or should we say, further along the line. Transport London, which runs the capital's world-famous Tube, have decided to cash in on the Olympics. They've released a map with a twist: All of the stations are now named after famous Olympians. We admit that it's better than the 2012 mascots but as merchandise goes, it's still pretty bad. There are 13 Chinese Olympians on the map:
Talking Balls: Will The Ducks Be Mighty?
Tonight at 7.30pm, the biggest ever game in Beijing basketball tips off. The Ducks are at home to Guangdong Southern Tigers in game five of the CBA Playoff Finals. The Ducks are 3-1 up in the series and one game away from greatness. If you're reading this, then you're not at Wukesong watching history being made but that doesn't mean you need to miss out. There are a number of terrestrial TV and online options to catch the action. BTV and CCTV will be showing the game live but if you don't have access to a TV, why not watch a webcast on Sohu, CCTV 5 and PPTV? We'll be back with a full-size Talking Balls tomorrow. Let's hope that there's good news to fill it.
Photo: China Daily
Talking Balls: Ducks Hunted, Guoan Stunted & Rio To China?
The Beijing Ducks began their final flight to glory this week. They beat the much-fancied Guangdong team to go one-up in the series. Guangdong resorted to some pretty fowl methods to down the Ducks. The on-court brawling led to Beijing's best baller bawling come the buzzer. Marbury, or MVPbury as he should be known, turned in another immense performance. This season he has carried more ducks than the dog in Duck Hunt but on Wednesday his teammates rose to the occasion.
Talking Balls: Shame On Shanxi, Ghastly Guoan & Some Sports Shorts
The Beijing Ducks and Shanxi Brave Dragons have gone to game five in their CBA playoff semi-final. The game was originally set for March 14 but was postponed until March 18 so that everyone could enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. No, actually it was put back because of a near-riot in game four. Shanxi’s fans also took that meeting as an opportunity to shower the court with debris. They've been fined nine times for similar incidents over the last four years. They have just added another RMB 60,000 to the CBA's Christmas party fund. You stay classy, Shanxi.
Talking Balls: Ducks Flying, Guoan Too Green & This J-Lin Stuff Gets Silly
Good evening, sports fans. Let's get right into it. The CBA playoffs are at their semi-final stage and Beijing Ducks are back in the series after winning game two. Stephon Marbury dropped a colossal 52 points to send them on their way to besting Shanxi by 132-123. Thanks to NiuBBall for the alley-oop on the video you'll see below. Don't forget to check out the 2011-12 NiuBBall Awards. Spoiler alert: Starbury gets what he deserves.
