{"id":2099,"date":"2009-04-16T02:22:48","date_gmt":"2009-04-15T18:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asianramblings.com\/?p=2099"},"modified":"2009-04-16T02:22:48","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T18:22:48","slug":"basketball-china-stevos-headed-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/basketball-china-stevos-headed-nba\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball in China: Stevo’s headed to the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

China is crazy for basketball. I don’t know much about the sport. Michael at Expatriate Games has a wonderful post on b-ball, in China and otherwise<\/a>. I can’t hope to compare to those prose.<\/p>\n

I grew up in Canada. I played hockey and football as a lad. Basketball was not a big sport. There were no Canadian NBA teams during the stone-age that was my adolescence. Sports never interested me that much.<\/p>\n

I’ve been going to the gym for almost a year, quite seriously some weeks, rather reluctantly others. I (almost) weight the same as I did in college. I can walk up a flight of stairs and not get winded. I can bench press more than the weight of Mrs. Stevo. I’m trying to roll back the clock.<\/p>\n

My boss arranged a basketball game with her former school. She didn’t play. Four of us took part in the friendly match, Chinese against foreigner. We had an ace-in-the-hole, a teacher who used to play college ball. The ringer was outweighed by another player – your truly. I dragged like an anchor.<\/p>\n

Someone was kind enough to document the event. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a>
Before the game - I'm the guy in yellow shirt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"That's<\/a>
That's me, not sure what I'm doing. Who do I cover?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Walking<\/a>
Walking after a turnover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Where<\/a>
Where am i during all this action? Look very closely....<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Don't<\/a>
There I am! Miles from the play.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"At<\/a>
At least I'm running...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The End<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No points, maybe three shots, a steal, a rebound, and a block: I wasn’t totally useless. Playing with people half my age<\/span>, younger than I, I did alright. I kept up. We did win – 100 to 80, or close to that.<\/p>\n

All the hours I spent on the elliptical trainer watching the yoga instructor workout<\/span> have paid off. There’s talk of a rematch, I’ll start training now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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