Georgetown-Chinese Basketball Team Brawl: 5 Things We Learned

In 1978 the People’s Republic of China sent its first national basketball team to the United States to play a series of exhibition games.  The first game was against the Georgetown Hoyas, and in the spirit of sportsmanship the game was ended in a tie.

On Thursday, Georgetown sought to continue its efforts to repay the gesture with an exhibition game against the People’s Liberation Army-affiliated Bayi Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association.  This spirited game, part of a goodwill tour also ended in a tie, but sportsmanship was the furthest thing on anyone’s mind as a benches-clearing brawl forced the suspension of the game.

There are many tough questions which remain to be asked in the wake of the ugly incident.  Whatever the cause, it is undeniable that the combined effect of three ugly bench-clearing brawls in the span of two years—two of which involved international teams—serves to cast a very negative light on Chinese basketball.  In light of this incident here are a handful of lessons which may prove helpful as we move forward.

“The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men Oft go Awry”—Robert Burns

One of the key issues which immediately came out of Thursday’s melee is the importance of contingency planning.  This is true in any endeavor, but particularly so where international travel is concerned. 

I’m not sure that the Georgetown contingent made allowances for a fight-marred disruption to the schedule in their planning, but I imagine that somewhere between the march from the court to the team buses, one of the main considerations going through John Thompson III’s mind was whether to continue on this tour, or whether the remaining agenda should be scrapped. 

My initial outrage at seeing several GU players being assaulted by Bayi players led me to conclude that the nation of China should be embarrassed, and to underscore the element of shame, that the team should cancel the rest of its agenda and return home. 

To its credit, Georgetown has decided to salvage whatever is left of the “goodwill” tour, and this seems appropriate in light of the condemnation of the Rockets by their fellow countrymen.  Indeed, it would be unfair to punish the remaining host teams for the misbehavior of one team, certainly a sentiment with which no reasonable person could disagree.

“[It] is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”—William Shakespeare

I have refrained from framing this incident in terms of “America” versus “China,” but admittedly this is not only difficult, but perhaps foolhardy as well.  It would be disingenuous to not recognize that there are greater forces behind the animosity that we saw spill over onto the court on Thursday.

The Chinese, if nothing else, are consumed by excellence in athletics as a means of asserting cultural and political relevance in a world so dominated by Western democracies.  On a very visceral level it is impossible to look at the participants in that incident and not see the races involved, or to not consider the contrasting socio-political ideologies framing the larger dispute at the game’s periphery. 

In this regard the court becomes the global stage where the game is transformed from mere exhibition to careful orchestration (possibly involving the officiating) of an opportunity for China to yet again show that she is no longer content to stand in the shadow of the West, represented here by "America."

We must nonetheless refrain from assigning too much global significance to an eruption of fisticuffs between athletes. Anyone who has played sport or has engaged in some competitive endeavor understands that the emotions which drive us to succeed, also often carry us over the top, threatening to consume us should we not guard against it.

At its most fundamental level this is about two groups of very competitive athletes converging on one singular objective, yet attainable by only one.  In the process some of the players took leave of their senses and let their emotions get the better of them.  Many of us can relate, I am sure.

Fortunately, better sense has prevailed and today ESPN reports that members from both teams met to discuss the situation, apologize and exchange gifts… presumably, aspirin and Tiger Balm included.

"What We've Got Here Is a Failure to Communicate"—Luke Jackson (Paul Newman)

This incident brings into focus the need for clear communication and greater understanding of the cultural dynamics inherent to international competition.  It is unlikely that the kids from Georgetown were prepared for the physical play of the Bayi Rockets, nor is it likely that they sufficiently appreciated how much victory meant for the hosts. 

Maggie Mauch, editor of the China Sports Today blog observes:

“I find it very easy to believe the referees were taking home-team favoritism to an extreme. Bayi is the army team, and enjoys a special status among CBA teams, and I am sure there were lots of people who didn't want to see Bayi lose to a college team in Beijing.”

Can you imagine the shame then, not only to Chinese basketball, but to the Maoist regime if a team of skinny American teenagers were to defeat its military jewel?  Factor in the feeling by some in China that Chinese basketball is too soft to compete with the elites, and that greater physicality was needed in the domestic game. 

This escalation in physical play has led to more on-court confrontations as touched on in the beginning, culminating in a confrontation between the Guangdong Tigers and the Shandong Gold of the Chinese Basketball Association.  More worrisome, and embarrassing, was first the melee with Brazil last December, and now on Thursday with Georgetown.

Players must understand not only the greater dynamics at play, but also their own roles and how one may influence the other.  They must prevent nationalistic fervor from infecting a "friendly" game, or conversely, to prevent personal passion from erupting into an all-out conflagration which, worst-case scenario, might serve to inflame international relations.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.”—Helen Keller

Security, if no superstition, certainly was a fiction during this melee.  At pain of belaboring the obvious, it is an indictment of the negligence of the organizers of this event for failing to account for contingencies in planning.  I shudder to think what the outcome might have been had more spectators joined in the fracas. 

The security personnel present were impotent to control the situation.  In fact, there is good reason to believe that the police officers on hand were reticent to get too involved given the fact that one of the teams happened to be Chinese military. 

For the duration of this two-week tour Georgetown needs to be satisfied for themselves that proper security measures are in place not only for the team, but also for the contingent of family, fans and supporters accompanying the team on the tour.  This condition should be non-negotiable, and indeed must be adopted by future teams travelling abroad. 

No one is suggesting a police motorcade to and from the team hotel, but having more security (who are actually willing to act) at the arena would go a very long way to at least deterring spectator involvement.  In retrospect we should be very grateful that the water bottles were plastic.

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it will contract."—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Perhaps the most disheartening of all the developments to arise from this situation are the ugly comments making the rounds, and directed at both teams.  As (presumably) mature and intelligent individuals we need to keep this incident in its proper context and not let racism, xenophobia and other forms of prejudice rule the day.  As a supporter and alumnus of Georgetown, I will freely admit my bias towards the Hoyas, but that would not prevent me from bristling at distasteful racist comments being directed at the Bayi players.

More distasteful to me, however, are the comments being directed at the Georgetown players, including the N-word and its euphemistically employed counterpart, “thug.” Of course there’s nothing at all thuggish about the Georgetown kids, unless one considers their baggy shorts and skin color inherently thuggish. 

None of them sport teardrop tattoos… or any visible tattoos that we know of for that matter, nor gold-capped teeth—all innocent accouterments in themselves, but representative, some would have you believe, of the thug aesthete.  In fact, while not choirboys, the GU kids tend to be uniformly clean-cut on and off the court. 

Unlike the “Hoya Paranoia” teams of a generation ago, today’s Hoyas don’t rely on intimidation as part of their game (which itself is cause for debate within Hoya Nation), and haven’t been involved in a benches-clearing brawl in 17 years, if memory serves correct.

All of this is beside the point however, these are college students.  Of the roughly 13 players on the roster, two are seniors and three are juniors.  This means that at least eight players are underclassmen, and likely teenagers at that.  The sight of professional soldiers attacking college students is apparently repugnant to even some Chinese bloggers, and rightly so.

Fortunately, responsible voices have stepped forth to help diffuse the tension and JT III was a study in diplomacy in a university press release.  "Tonight two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred."  Kudos to the Hoyas for pressing on with their purpose of establishing cultural and sporting ties across the divide.

In the most cynical of interpretation they may yet win some new fans and sell a few merchandise, but we ought not discount the significance of the gesture to the Chinese people.  In the classic sporting sense, the host nation is being given a mulligan, so as to demonstrate to the world that the actions of a boorish few are not representative of the nation as a whole.  We should all take a page from this book in moving forward.