Another update...

Day two in Zhongshan was a very relaxing day. I woke up and had breakfast then got a work out in at the modest hotel fitness center. Being that my room at the Seasons was so nice I lounged around in it, knowing that I would have plenty of time to see the city in the next two days. I mentioned earlier that before I came to China, Robert and I would Skype often to discuss the trip, conference call with agents, secure all the players information, and handled any issues that arose regarding the trip. One time Robert, out of the blue, asked me about mattresses. Yes, like mattresses for a bed. He would ask me what brands are good, and how much they cost and things of the like. I thought it was a bit odd at the time, but after lying on numerous beds the last week or so, I can see why he was asking. Even here at the luxurious, Seasons View Executive Hotel, the mattress is very stiff, and very thin. Maybe this is why massages are so affluent in the Orient.

A huge down pour came crashing down on Zhongshan that afternoon, fearing a tsunami (not really but it was raining really hard), I decided to just hang out until it was time for dinner and to head to the second game against the Tianjin Golden Lions (my mistake on shorting them on the Golden part in the previous post.) After dinner, both teams boarded the same bus, which was extremely uncomfortable, and headed to a different gym then we play in the night before. As a coach, I hate playing teams a second time after beaten them badly, especially the night before. The players tend to come out not playing hard and just think they can loaf around and win the game whenever they want. This mindset led to a dismal first quarter, and an earful from Robert on the bench. We pulled things together and took a five-point lead to halftime. The second half we regained our dominance with some good contributions from Drew Gibson, Terry Martin, Jamal Johnson, and Justin Billingslea. Tianjin just didn’t have the same discipline that Jiangsu possessed. We ended up winning by twenty plus and the photo shoots quickly followed. The highlight of the night was seeing the refs head for the scores table immediately after the game and seeing one of them light up a smoke right there on the court while one of the others stripped his officiating jersey on the spot. I had to capture a photo of that one.

After the game we all (both teams and some random cheerleader types) jumped back on the same bus and headed back to the hotel. The cheerleaders quickly found their way to some of the guy’s seats on the bus and started speaking all the English that they could. One girl, sat next to Terry Martin and it was like a bad episode of American Idol auditions. I heard that Lee won that by, the way. Lame. I was routing for Crystal. Anyways this girl was signing her heart out the entire ride back, all the while Terry was egging her on with every note. Where was Simon Cowell when I needed him? When we got back to the hotel, there was some food waiting for us. I just couldn’t do the Chinese cuisine anymore, and I took a cab to McDonald’s. Getting around anywhere is hard, because you have to get someone that speaks English to write down where you want to go, hope that it’s right, and give it to the cab driver. I hailed a cab, showed him my piece of paper and said “McDonalds”, he obliged and we took off. Ten minutes later he pulled up to a KFC. I was so frustrated! If there was anything other than Chinese food that I didn’t want, it was K-F-freaking-C! I repeated my demand for McDonald’s and I guess he finally got it and dropped me off at Micky D’s. When we pulled up, I noticed a guy preparing a pizza delivery-like oven bag that had McDonald’s logos all over it, and getting ready to hop on his moped. I immediately thought, thank the good lord that we don’t have McDonald’s delivery in the States. Can you imagine the catastrophic nightmare that would be? Obesity would quadruple and McDonalds rehab would become necessary. The Supersize Me campaigning aside, I ordered a nugget meal, a burger, and a chocolate fudge sundae for good measure. My stomach officially hates me. Goodnight.