Via China News: "April 13, 2014, Pyongyang, DPRK, Kim Il-sung Stadium hosted the 27th annual Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon to commemorate the late Kim Il-sung, Great Leader of North Korea. According to the Associated Press, this year's race was the first time foreign travelers were allowed to participate."
After leading Beijing to its first Chinese Basketball Association championship two years ago, Stephon Marbury was given his own bronze statue. We wondered, after his second CBA title, how Beijing would honor its adopted Coney Island point guard, and now we know: by giving him a key to the city.
The Beijing Ducks won the CBA championship last night in Xinjiang, beating the Flying Tigers 98-88 in Game 6. Here are some photos and a video of the celebration. The top image, by the way, is now Stephon Marbury's profile pic on Sina Weibo:
Beijing is again king of Chinese basketball. The Ducks beat the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 98-88 tonight in Urumqi, clinching the CBA championship 4 games to 2. Stephon Marbury and Randolph Morris, who played so shockingly poorly in Game 5 in Beijing that I heard more than one person say they threw the game (14 points each, combined 7 for 38 from the field), redeemed themselves by scoring 28 and 30 points, respectively.
Believe it or not, a 37-year-old point guard from Coney Island, New York who played 13 years in the NBA is putting the city of Beijing on his back.
With one CBA championship on his resume -- and a statue outside MasterCard Center -- Stephon Marbury already is a Chinese basketball living legend. So what happens if he wins another, all while averaging 28 points per game this postseason on a bum knee?
The professional basketball team in Beijing is called the Ducks, but I don't see why. It should be the Beijing Stephon Marburies. There is no player more valuable to his team -- not Yi Jianlian for Guangdong, not Doug McDermott for Creighton, not even LeBron James for Miami -- than Marbury is to Beijing, and if you needed any proof, just fire up last night's decisive Game 5 of the CBA semifinals, which saw the Ducks beat the Guangdong Southern Tigers 110-102 in Dongguan.
Nick Bedard of Basketball Buddha is courtside on press row at MasterCard Center, aka Wukesong, for tonight's Game 4 clash between the Beijing Ducks (23-11 regular season, No. 4 in standings) and Guangdong Southern Tigers (30-4, No. 1). Thanks to an epic performance from Stephen Marbury on Saturday in an overtime win, Beijing currently has a 2 games to 1 lead in this best three-out-of-five series. We now join our regularly scheduled Bedard in progress.
Stephon Marbury may have turned in his finest CBA performance -- and it came against the best team in the league, the defending CBA champion Guangdong Southern Tigers. With his head bandaged for the last four minutes of the fourth quarter and through overtime -- the result of a gash sustained during one of his trademark drives to the basket -- the 37-year-old finished Saturday night with 43 points on 13-for-20 shooting (including 4-for-8 from behind the arc).
The first event of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia begins in about twelve hours, with the opening ceremony happening on Friday at 8 pm Sochi time (midnight for those in China). By now you've probably already decided to watch on the decent chance that it becomes a delightful disaster, but lost in all the stories about stray dogs, toilets, substandard facilities and Potemkin villages is the fact that sports will be on display.
After sitting out more than two months with an injury and missing 22 games, Beijing Ducks superstar point guard Stephon Marbury returned to the court last night against the Shandong Flaming Bulls in his team's first game of the new lunar year.
It was an eventful night, to say the very least.
In last year's Australian Open Final, Li Na repeatedly halted play for the eager crowd of tennis aficionados. Not that they minded. Alongside her game, she endeared herself to the tennis public following a couple of ankle rolls, a clutzy head bang, and her comical approach to a concussion test.
China, your girl is the crowd favourite.
The above was tweeted by Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim a couple of days ago. Take a look at that Rolex ad on the official website of the Australian Open, which reads, "Rolex congratulates Li Na on winning her first Australian Open and second Grand Slam title."
We hope Li Na doesn't believe in jinxes, because she plays this afternoon against Dominika Cibulkova for a chance to win her first Australian Open and second Grand Slam title. The game is at 4:30 pm local (China) time.
Last night, the Dongguan Leopards beat the Sichuan Blue Whales 137-135 in Wenjiang District Stadium in Chengdu, but to say "Dongguan" won is really to diminish the efforts of one individual, Bobby Brown, who took half of his team's 104 shots and made exactly half of them to finish with 74 points. He also led his team with 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Bobby Brown earned his post-game star.
The champs of Asia lost to the champs of South America on Saturday in the 3/4 game at the FIFA Club World Cup. It was fantastic from the get-go. Both Atletico Mineiro and Guangzhou Evergrande scored early (Atletico's Diego Tardelli, 2'; Guangzhou's Muriqui, 9') before Guangzhou took the lead on a 15th minute penalty. But then, in first-half extra time, Atletico's Ronaldinho -- the Ronaldinho, known as "Small Lo" in China (not to be confused with "Big Lo," i.e. [now-fat] Ronaldo, or "C Lo," who is Cristiano Ronaldo) -- did this:
European champs Bayern Munich made easy work of Guangzhou Evergrande yesterday in the semifinals of the FIFA Club World Cup, played in Morocco. Three goals within a seven-minute window (Franck Ribéry 40′, Mario Mandzukic 44′, Mario Götze 47) provided the final 3-0 margin.
The CBA is back, and thank goodness. As featured on Deadspin, here's Ivan Johnson, 29, doing a celebratory dance that in the NBA would have set him back 15 grand, because no one in corporate appreciates the Big Balls Dance.
This was ugly. The Sichuan Blue Whales, playing its first CBA game in 15 years, having just been promoted from the second-tier National Basketball League in September, lost by 53 points on Friday. The previous CBA record for most lopsided season-opener was a mere 40 points, nearly 25 percent less than Sichuan's deficit.
China are champions! Okay, no, it's Guangzhou Evergrande, but judging by some headlines, you'd think this country's united in its support of the new AFC Champions League winners. As if a Real Madrid fan would ever care about Barca in the UEFA Champions League. As if this country's soccer fans weren't, in actuality, cynical and parochial, likely more so than Philadelphia Eagles supporters.
