This weekend has not been good to Tracy McGrady. On Friday he suffered the indignity of having to run off the court because of diarrhea — to say nothing of the indignity of a 10-point performance in a 30-point home loss. Yesterday in Beijing, against the defending champs, he was involved in what could have been... Read more »
Perhaps it's safe to say the excitement surrounding Tracy McGrady's arrival to Qingdao and the CBA's Double Star Eagles has worn off. In his debut, T-Mac got stripped clean with 10 seconds to go in a tie game, then watched Sundiata Gaines drill a buzzer-beater on the other end. Less than a week later, his team entered the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead against Bayi, only to lose it and then watch China's resident old-timer, Wang Zhizhi, hit a game-winning five-footer (controversy notwithstanding, as the game clock started late and probably gave Wang the extra half-second he needed to get the shot off).
The haute urban fad that is White Collar Boxing spread to China earlier this year, culminating in bouts that doubled as a black-tie charity event (November 17 in Beijing, December 1 in Shanghai). The highlight video for the Beijing event, "Brawl on the Wall," was just released to YouTube yesterday. More than 500 people reportedly attended to watch eight fights by amateur boxers who had spent the previous three months training.
The Guangzhou Marathon on November 18 attracted more than 20,000 runners, the vast majority of whom ran without health complications. Two young men, however, died. The first, Chen Jie, was a 19-year-old student at Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College from Maoming, Guangdong province (he was initially identified as 21 years old). Shortly after finishing his 10-kilometer... Read more »
The script couldn’t have been more perfect. Making his Chinese Basketball Association debut on national television, Tracy McGrady had the ball in his hands with only a three-second difference between the game and shot clock. His visiting Qingdao Double Star Eagles had erased a double-digit deficit and were all knotted at 92 with the Fujian... Read more »
Xiong Chaozhong (his name is rendered as Xiong Chao Zhong in many media outlets) won his country its first pro boxing title on Saturday night when he beat Mexico's Javier Martinez Resendez in a unanimous 12-round decision (119-110, 116-112, 116-114) to capture the vacant WBC minimumweight title (105 lbs/48 kg). A Yunnan native -- ethnic Miao, to be precise -- the 4-foot-10-and-a-half-inch (1.49-meter) Xiong was fighting on his home province in Kunming at the Kunming Municipal Gymnasium.
Saturday night’s CBA season opener brought out the stars. The world’s best badminton player, Lin Dan, and probably best female diver, Wu Minxia, were in attendance. Li Ning threw the ceremonial jump ball. Shanghai Sharks owner Yao Ming was in the stands. But the biggest attraction was on the floor, in the form of former Dream Teamers Stephon Marbury and Gilbert Arenas — two of only three Team USA Basketball players to compete in the CBA — who were expected to duel deep into the game.
This year’s Beijing Marathon had its share of hiccups. During registration, Japanese runners were initially barred, leading people to call for the race to lose its “Gold Label” accreditation from the International Association of Athletics Federations. Then, just this week, anxiety loomed over air quality, which hovered between “very unhealthy” and “hazardous.” But when the race... Read more »
Before Beijing and Shanghai tipped off the 2012-13 Chinese Basketball Association season last night, there was a 30-minute pre-game ceremony in which players and coaches from last year’s championship-winning team — that would be the Beijing Ducks, if you’re just joining in — received medals, awards, and a championship banner. All that was normal. Then... Read more »
Qingdao had its final preseason tune-up on Tuesday away from its home court in Binzhou, Shandong province in a contest that probably wouldn't have filled half the arena if Tracy McGrady weren't in the house.
McGrady scored five points in 2 minutes against a team of foreigners -- 98 seconds, to be exact -- then took a seat on the bench. He sat for the next 46 minutes, until the final buzzer. As Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall -- a site that, even in preseason, never takes a seat -- reports:
