2011 Nov 25 Talking Balls: Teams, Memes & Pipe Dreams
Happy Black Friday. Take a break from online shopping (or for non-Americans, from finding out what Black Friday is) and give thanks for the week in Chinese sport.
On this big Thanksgiving weekend, let’s start with football – in what else but the American sense? The Beijing Guardians are going all the way to Shanghai to protect our fair city from a beating in the Founder’s Bowl. The game takes place on November 27. Let’s boo the Shanghai Nighthawks from afar and hope that Beijing win this debut showdown.
Fresh from releasing their latest snowboard movie epic, Chuan’r, the lovely lads at Mellowparks are now preparing for the tenth Red Bull Nanshan Open in January. Stay tuned to this blog for all of the powder-packed news on what is going on.
Weibos are how people find out about things these days. Stephon Marbury, arguably Beijing's most famous subway rider, has been telling JR Smith – the man who gets more triple-doubles than Ice Cube on a good day – what’s up via the medium. Starbury congratulated Smith on his victory over the Guangdong Leopards and then there’s some whole lotta next story here on China Sports Review. Holla.
OK, now that America’s had more props than an England rugby team at the recent Rugby World Cup, we can talk real football. Shanghai Shenhua are in the market for a genuine superstar. Top of their list is Chelsea’s France striker and soon-to-be-free agent Nicolas Anelka. The CSL side has been in touch with the Londoners and are quoted as saying "We contacted his entourage but there is no more news.” That just brings forward images of Zhu Jun BBMing Ari Gold. The money spoken about is in the region of RMB 90 million per year in wages. Gosh.
While we are on the topic of overpaid foreigners in the Chinese Super League, China Daily has a roundup of the fortunes of overseas CSL players this season.
Still on soccer: Liverpool have taken two Chinese youngsters onto their books. Long Cheng, 16, and Chen Xiaomao, 14, have been accepted to the club’s Future Stars program. There’s more here but let’s hope that the kids getting in early bodes better than Chinese players’ previous forays into the English league. Let’s also hope that the misguided notions of shirt sales that seem to drive English football into Asia are not the key motivation.
China Daily have treated us to another edition of Who’s Hot and Who’s Not. It’s great reading as ever but not for JR Smith who has dropped in their estimation this week.
Apparently Yao Ming is a meme and the Shanghaiist has all of the photoshopped pictures of his face that anyone could ever want to see here.
And finally, while we’re on the subject of the big man, Yao Ming is putting that university education to good use already. He’s set up Yao Family Wines. The giant center is using grapes from California’s Napa Valley; his first bottles of 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon will reportedly be on sale at RMB 3,800 per bottle. The first bottle will be auctioned at a charity event in Shanghai on Sunday – it has a reserve price of RMB 60,000. With all this wine and college, maybe this is the year of the Yao that they should have filmed.
STOP THE PRESSES. We're told that KickerClub.com is celebrating its tenth anniversary of Beijing skateboarding at Jam Bar tomorrow night. Put on a hat and some baggy pants. Go and show them your appreciation.
Photos: Drunkathlete.com
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Happy New Year! That’s for the last one, not the upcoming one. Our gift to you includes links to the first two “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not In Chinese Sport” columns of the year from China Daily. It’s the same as ever, apart from the fact they no longer separate out the "Who's Hot" from the “Who’s Not.” How will we know which sports stars are worthy of our ire if we have to read all the way through?
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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.
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Another week and another deluge of Jeremy Lin coverage. It's about time that you became a fan as he's going to be the subject of a lot of column inches for the foreseeable future. You can say what you want about the boy (and some people notably have) but he's got people talking about the Knicks for the first time since Patrick Ewing. Here are some of the Lin stories from the last week: China Sports Review wonder whether he's on CCTV enough, the Guardian get their right-on knickers in a twist on behalf of Asian Americans and China Daily have wrapped up all of the coverage on Jeremy Lin ever (and it is in Comic Sans).
