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Q: NBA obsession - why?
Can someone who's been in China for a fairly long time explain to me why Chinese young men are so obsessed with basketball, and how long has it been popular in the country? Why basketball and not say football, a more global sport? I asked a Chinese colleague (male, about 40) and he shrugged and said he also has no idea why. If i hear one more statistic -laden speech about "Kobe" or "Iverson", i might finally snap...
Basketball is huge in the US - you can see it reflected in the fashion choices of people - wearing Jordan's everywhere, basketball jackets or jerseys... similar to here....
It's just that you have never heard somebody break out in pure passion charged speech admonishing "Kobe" or "Iverson," the likes of whom I didn't even know who they were before coming to China simply because I don't like basketball. I'm not sure why they profess their love for these men so much - I think it is just something that naturally takes place in English class though. If you ask them what they like, or what they're interested in, or what they do - naturally this is what they are going to say.
Basketball is also a very economic sport - all ya need is a court and a ball. You don't need to suit up a team with equipment. Although I heard there's some (American) football team in Beijing that a nice guy on this website set up. 
RandallFlagg:
Having never been to or lived in the US, i am also baffled by basketball's popularity there, although at least it's a sport that is native to your country and there are other popular sports like baseball etc. And while it may be a cheap sport to play, football (soccer) is cheaper - all you need is an open space, a ball, and something to mark a goal. There is no more working-class sport in existence. So i thought the Chinese would prefer it over basketball. But they don't.
jetfire9000:
Actually... the popularity of soccer is huge here too. On any given day in a university, the soccer field and the basketball court will be completely full. Turn on CCTV at any time and you're likely to see a documentary about Messi. For what the Lakers and Kobe are in basketball to China, Messi and Madrid are the same status in soccer. There are tons of fans for a powerhouse galore - you're not too likely to see much diversity in fanfare. Another reason I think basketball may be slightly more popular is mostly because the NBA has seen the likes of Yao Ming, whereas the Chinese soccer team has always just been a punching bag.
Another thing is, it's easy to put two basketball courts together side by side than it is for two entire soccer fields. I believe that basketball can meet a lot of "sports demand" simply because the courts don't take up too much space. Finally... even Mao liked basketball!
Have you seen university boys play basketball on the courts here? To me it looks like a pack of puppies at feeding time. No organization or team work. There is usually one boy who hogs the ball and doesn't pass the ball to the open player. The obsession here I think is wanting to one up others on how well they know the players but not the game itself. By the way, I don't know Kobe and no I didn't go to school with any NBA players.
RandallFlagg:
Yes, i noticed that. It's laughable. They never work together and never play a proper game by any kind of rules. Usually the ones playing it are the lazy non-academic types who somehow got into college (they wouldn't have where i come from) and want to get girls, although i have to wonder what type of girl would be attracted to some fool who's trying really hard to show off how well he can throw a ball when he should be learning some skill to help his future career.
the Atlantic's got a good article on it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/from-mao-zedong...
Apparently it was brought here by missionaries from the YMCA, I'm not kidding, and became popular in the Red Army during the war and remained so until China opened up to the west.
Cos their football sucks, and most of them can't swim (let alone dive), or run fast.
mattsm84:
I can see how that would be a problem. As I understand it being able to properly take a dive is an invaluable asset in soccer.
mattsm84:
What's that old saying again? Soccer is 90 minutes of pretending to be hurt, rugby is 80 minutes of pretending you aren't.
It's popular because of Yao Ming. He gave the Chinese people face, that they could play with the best. They've had a few other NBAers-Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue, and a few I can't remember.
Also, don't underestimate the marketing that the NBA does here. During Spring Festival they'll have a game on every morning with the teams wearing warmups with Chinese characters on them. Another advantage, over say football, is the time difference which allows more people to watch live games in the morning rather than the middle of the night.
RandallFlagg:
So basically they like it because they have a few players who actually aren't sh*t at it.
wagon:
Of course. When Jeremy Lin, Taiwanese-American born and raised, is doing well they take great pride. Not that he ever learned or developed any of his basketball skills in China. He's just an American kid, but the Chinese think it gives them face somehow. These things boggle us.
Eorthisio:
Randall -> Yes, racially speaking Chinese men are still in a mindset of "us VS them", if something happens that somehow proves that the Chinese race is higher than other races they will take pride from it.
For e.g. Chinese men getting women from other races. When they see a "foreign" man hand in hand with a Chinese girl it hurts their ego, but when they see another successfull Chinese man (that they don't know) with a "foreign" girl it boosts their own ego, even though they are probably still virgin and no girl ever looked at them.
Why? Don't ask why, this is China.
Don't know. Probably because it's shoved down their throats by that bloody CCTV5. Along with European soccer.
I tell ya...for someone who comes from a country that has great sporting diversity I'm buggered if I can understand how these two boring sports can find their way to the fore.
If your problem is insomnia, no matter....just tune into a game of soccer or basketball.
Because it's FAN Tastic!
Seriously, it is fun to play, and fun to watch. Maybe you should attend a pro game sometime. No, I mean in the U S of A.
I think chinese not only are crazy about NBA but also about the USA as a country. Many people wearing USA flag, wants to emigrate to the USA, they even think talking about USA give face.
I think chinese not only are crazy about NBA but also about the USA as a country. Many people wearing USA flag, wants to emigrate to the USA, they even think talking about USA give face.
Too much organising, planning, coordination of efforts in an American Football game?? I do not know anything about basketball but it seems to embrace the sorta confusion, chaos and randomness that makes China China.
Basketball is relatively easy to play in terms of what's needed. You need a ball, and at least one hoop. That's about it. Baseball would require balls, gloves, bats, bases, etc. American football has a huge requirement of equipment, and even more for hockey (field or ice). Football-football still requires a net, large team, and huge field. A single person can practice dribbling and shooting, and all it takes is two people to start a game. If you wanted to play rugby, baseball, or whatever else, you'd need to find quite a few people who all are interested, and have free time.
I'm guessing it's similar to why badminton is so popular (relatively low financial investment in equipment, no need for large teams, and not a huge space needed).
It's much easier to establish basketball in a foreign country than most other sports, and in crowded China, it works well since you don't need much space. I've seen a single court accommodating several informal games.
Truth is few Asians would make it to the nba. Blacks are better at it, have better strength and agility. White players are getting rarer. Now if the took up football seriously maybe from a population of 1.3 billion they might get a couple of messi s. Should play at something they ve got a chance of doing well in. You d need like of three of them on each other's shoulders to dunk
It's the result of a promotional program to introduce US sports to the rest of the world. "Whiter" sports like Baseball, American Football and Ice Hockey are also being promoted in Europe, with some limited popularity. It might be the result of racism that the promoters wanted Basketball to become more popular in non-white countries, but a positive side effect is that bigotry towards blacks has been reduced in places like China. It comes with typical Asian idol worship, but given time, a sense of racial equality and acceptance of differences may flow from it.
My baby son is absolutely fixated by basketballs. A continually looped filler-advert starring Pippen may have had something to do with it. The balls are very recognizable, and he drops everything when he sees one. Which is often.
A basketball score, shot, 3 pointer, hook shot or dunk looks so good every 2 minutes, but in Football or soccer and or whatever you wanna call it takes forever for anything to happen, I can't stand watching soccer . Now if we were talking about the NFL, sign me up in China anytime.
Actually, it is part of the Yao Ming experience. BUT, BUT, BUT, there is another strong factor that made the influence strong, even before Yao Ming.
I forget the Chinese entrepeneur's name, but he began selling NBA basketball gear. He got exclusive rights to it here in China. And, through his marketing, he developed basketball narvana here in China. He signs contracts with many big name NBA players that require them to come to China and do marketing for his company. It is a great success story, I think.
Also, with space being limited in the cities, soccer fields have been taken aways. Basketball courts are more advantageus to the smaller land available. So, basketball courts have sprug up around cities.
Another big factor is the migrant worker situation in the cities. People from all over China would merge into a city. Since they are not really a socail kind of people outside of their network of school bussies and workmates, many migrant workers were having issues with the loniness and unattachment fromt he firends at home. So, companies, trying to please their employees began developing basketball leagues and tournaments. These basketball leagues and touraments have become so successful in helping the migrant workers come together, that communities were building basketball arenas to host the games. It rought communities together for one common goal.
Finally, as my sudents remind me all the time when asked why they like basketball. "Because is is good for my health". Ha Ha
