Today was pretty mellow. We woke up and had breakfast then jumped on a bus to head to Liyang for our next game, that night. I mentioned that our first five games are against the Jiangsu Dragons, so they travel and stay in the same hotels that we do. The bus ride to Liyang was only about an hour so you’d think that wouldn’t be too bad. I don’t think I’ve honked my horn as much as our bus driver did during that brief hour ride my entire life! And it wasn’t just one honk each time; this guy was pounding on the horn the whole ride! I had to just laugh.
Once we got to the hotel, I was stoked on how nice it was. The hotel staff greeted us at the door and ‘ni hao’s’ were plentiful. We’ve all learned two saying thus far. ‘Ni hao’ and ‘she, she’…Hello and Thank You. One thing I’ve noticed is the Chinese aren’t huge on ventilation and consistent air-conditioning so when we pulled up this hotel, I was certain that AC in my room would provide me with some cool air for a day. Wrong. I turned it on full blast at the coldest Celsius on the thermostat, but I struck out.
The meals at this hotel were buffet style, and all the food was pretty good. I found a few Chinese pastries for desert and went to work on those. I am noticing that every time we go to a new place, there are tons of random, important looking people eating with us. I ask Robert about who each person is, and he always says they are all from the local sports committees. There were tons of waitresses at this hotel’s dining area that were like a bunch of giddy school girls the whole time. They were are very nice though, and each one of them would try to get enough courage to speak any each they knew to us, even if it was only a word or two.
After lunch, Big Mike, Jamal, Mike Sloan, Andres Sandoval and I all took cabs into the city. This city wasn’t as crazy as the previous one, it looked newer and had some nice, big buildings around. A few of them looked like government type offices. Every city has a KFC. A few of the guys grabbed some food and then we started walking around town. The vibe was pretty low key, and I didn’t think I’d find any cool things to buy, so we went into a big building that said “Spa” on it. It was a salon, and then a spa was upstairs. We spoke to the young ladies that were working there and found our the price for a massage. 100 Yuan for 45 minutes,. It wasn’t the deal I had the night before, but I went for it anyway. The other guys left and I stayed there solo. 45 minutes turned into what felt like about 2 hours. The whole time the girl was trying to ask me questions in very, very broken English. The massage was phenomenal and I gladly gave her the 100 Yuan and journeyed back to the hotel.
Game 2. I’ll cut to the chase. We lost by 2 in overtime, at the buzzer. The shot definitely went in after time buzzer, but after the raping the officials gave us the entire game, I wasn’t surprised they counted the basket. Having said all that, it’s hard to get too mad at the refs, when I was more upset at the guys. The first half mad me sick to even watch. I’ve never coached any of these guys prior to this trip, with the exception of one guy, Joe Darger. The lack of effort, and some bad body language in the first half was too much to bare. At halftime, I had to get on my soapbox about what it means to be a professional basketball player, and the traits that true pros carry. I’ve been fortunate enough to be around numerous NBA coaches, scouts, and executives and I tried to relate things I seen and heard in NBA circles to the guys I am with here in China.
In the defense of everyone that was in the locker room at halftime, they all came out with a lot better effort in the second half. We played hard and were able to put together a few runs to stretch a lead out to 8 or 10 at one point. Jiangsu fought back and it was neck and neck throughout the fourth quarter and overtime. At the end of regulation we stole the ball with 3 seconds left and Terry Martin’s 35 footer went in and out. He probably could have take another dribble or two and got a much easier shot, but I was just glad we stopped them. The OT went back and forth as I mentioned and the FIBA (FIBA is the governing body of international basketball) rules really costs us. In FIBA rules, players can’t call a timeout, and the coach has to signal to the table, not the refs, when he wants a timeout, which can only be granted at dead ball situations. I forgot about how much this rule pissed me off when I was coaching in Ireland. We were taking the ball out of bounds underneath their basket and one of our players tried to call a time out, but instead got a 5 second call, thus a turnover. They ended up getting to the foul line on the ensuing possession, and it just so happened it was a player from our team that I assigned to play with Jiangsu that game. The American pride in him made him subconsciously miss both free throws. Another questionable call followed, as the ref made a phantom out of bounds call on us, giving them the ball back and then non-buzzer beating buzzer beater happened.
The giddy waitresses were anxiously waiting our arrival after the game for dinner. They all wanted autographs and pictures. It was too funny. Check the pictures. We have an early morning ahead of us. Until next time….
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