LeBron James In Beijing, Featuring A Red Throne And Two-Handed Reverse Dunk

LeBron James in Beijing with his throne
LeBron James arrived in Beijing yesterday to kick off his four-day promotional tour through China, and there’s a video after his jump of his rather… theatrical first public appearance. The activity was FindYourGreatness, sponsored by Nike, held in Chaoyang Gymnasium. Fast-forward past the acrobats to the 2:30 mark to watch LeBron make his exalted entrance, barely noticing... Read more »

Kobe Bryant Did A Few Ridiculous Things In China Over The Weekend

Via The Basketball Jones First, the picture, taken on Thursday in Wuhan as part of Kobe Bryant’s annual Nike tour: it is ridiculous. Reports the LA Times: This is the seventh summer in a row that Bryant has visited China, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On this trip, according to published accounts, Bryant has hosted training clinics... Read more »

If You Build A Basketball Court In An Ethnic Miao Village, They Will Come

Basketball Court In An Ethnic Miao Village Jordan featured image
The Jordan brand is producing a series of mini-documentaries about basketball around the world, with the inspirational hashtag #RISEABOVE. Of course they had to go to China, and of course they had to borrow the narrative from Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: lone traveler finds himself in remote part of the world; traveler is injured, healed by "shaman"; traveler returns to isolated village to build something Western -- a basketball court, in this case. But don't let the fact that this is essentially an infomercial to sell shoes discourage you too much. It's a nicely produced video, and check out the moves on some of these kids.

China’s Latest Basketball Brawl Illustrates The Sad Difference Between The CBA And Its Second-Tier League

NBL brawl featured image
The National Basketball League (NBL) is a semi-pro basketball league managed by the same suits who control the top-tier Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The NBL's playoffs are currently happening, but they're not happening very well. As Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall reports, "I invite you to keep an eye on the NBL playoffs, where not one, but two all-out brawls went down inside of three days last Friday and Sunday."

Veritable NBA All-Stars Plus Yi Jianlian To Appear In A Chinese Movie

Amazing 1
I’m ashamed to admit that I missed this Shanghai Daily article from Saturday announcing a partnership between the NBA and Shanghai Film Group to produce Amazing. It “tells the story of a fictional world known as ‘The Sixth Sense.’ It uses basketball imagery to combine the visual elements of a video game with a movie, akin to... Read more »