Street Basketball in China
8th Wonder Prepares for Battle
A few weekends ago American Streetball came to China. A group of American players made the long journey over here to be ambassadors of streetball. The tour (organized by Crossover Sports and Shemgod) actually started back in the spring as event organizers hosted grassroot events in five Chinese cities as a sort of tryout for Street China, the team to oppose the American SKY team. Think of Street China as the Washington Generals, of Harlem Globetrotters fame… but not really. Once Street China had chosen its 12 players they were ready to take on team SKY in a three city exhibition tour. Luckily this included a stop in Wuhan at the Huazhong Institute of Science and Technology, just a few bus stops from my apartment. Each tour setup is basically a standard four-quarter game with music, dancers, referees (who were not really in on the entertainment value and made way too many traveling calls), SWAG (t-shirts and sweat bands) for fans, photographers (me), M.C. and short halftime skills program. Before opening tip the Wuhan crowd grew to over 4,000 in the 5,000+ stadium, so the house was fairly full. The fans cheered when the SKY dunked and Street China scored but remained relatively quiet yet entertained. Despite being a little frustrated by the consistent grabbing and reaching defensive tactics of the Chinese throughout the game (play a pickup game in China and you will understand their frustration), both sides found their momentum in the final quarter and ended a flurry of buckets and cheers from the crowd. Final score SKY 106 and China Street 53. It seemed closer but defense wins championships… and the Chinese have a little work to do in that category. The tour will continue on to Shanghai (and has already stopped in Beijing) to wrap up the month long experiment. Once the live basketball is finished CCTV will produce an eight episode reality television to be shown nationally. Unfortunately my CCTV 5 comes in fuzzy and is of course in Mandarin.
I was able to talk to a few of the players before the game and at halftime. Good guys who have a good life traveling and playing basketball in front of decent sized crowds. I did a little digging and found some info on Team SKY.
” Mr. 720″ Taurian Fontenette: from Hitchcock, Texas and former player at UTEP and Richland College (yep, the same one where I took photography and language courses while living in Dallas). Check out his dunk videos HERE.
“Spyda” Dennis Chism: from Atlanta, Georgia has traveled the world playing ball for the likes of AND 1, SKY and the ABA.
“Helicopter” John Humphrey: From Atlantic Beach, North Carolina has been a longtime teammate of Spyda on the streetball hoops tours. He played high school ball at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and finished his college career at Middle Tennessee State University.
“Pat the Roc” Pat Robinson: from Prince Fredrick, Maryland area has been featured on advertising campaigns from Under Armor to the NCAA. Due to his fancy dribbling skills and dunking ability he has been added to a number or international basketball entertainment tours.
“8th Wonder” Antwan Scott: from New Bern, North Carolina was the big man (6′8″ and 215 lbs) in the paint all night. A force and a talent who played high school ball at the Oak Hill Academy and college (from 1998-2002) at Wake Forest.
“Big Swoal” James Rhodes: from Wilmington, North Carolina does the dirty work, rebounding and setting picks for so the flashy players have clear lanes to the basket.
“AO” Aaron Owens: from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a quick and crafty (6′3″ 165 lbs) player who has spent many season with AND 1 and the Ball4Real World Tour. In high school he played with Rasheed Wallace and Aaron McKie, spent his college days at Henderson State University, where he earned Division II All-American accolades) and has a few NBAD games on his resume.
“Space Invader” Guy Dupuy: the only player not from the States, he calls Paris, France and any court in the world his home. Mostly know for jumping over cars, people, horses, miniature cities, large cakes, and just about anything else on his way to the basket.
Guy Dupuy entertaining the crowd during halftime in Wuhan.
Timeout. Team SKY in the foreground and Street China in red.
Street China bucket presented by our sponsor VOIT. Not to be confused with actor John Voight (see it's spelled differently).
