First B-ball with the Asians

Walking nearby the street where NTU’s sport courts are, I decided to stop for a minute and see what I will encounter on the court. The view did not terrify me.

The average basketball player is about 180 cm high, and someone above 190 is immediately considered a center. Still, some of them could jump quite high, what was impressive. As I was explained, basketball and baseball (the latter in particular) are extremely popular in Taiwan. This is due to enormous influence American culture has on the country. Soccer, which is probably the most common sport around the globe, has not that many supporters in Taiwan.

Anyway, let’s get back to the game. The court was cool, the surface was quite soft and sticky, so it seemed as a perfect solution. As it occurred, it had another cool feature – it was getting dry very quickly. During 2h game it rained 4 times, just for a few minutes, but still… But on the other hand the forced breaks gave a chance to cool out in the rain and catch the second breath.

Still, I would not be myself if I was not looking for some serious competition. This time – the competition found me.

A group of oldboys, in their late 40s and early 50s, came to the court. I guess that this is their weekly outing. Obviously ex professionals or guys who trained for some time, they suggested a full-court game. Hey, why not?

I admit without hesitation – they were better than my partners. But it was not the skills of my teammates what made me furious, but the behavior of older “Sirs”.

Knowing the rules better, they used them so that the score was always on their side. They were mocking my players, being annoying, “booing” while I was shooting… I do not remember when I met people acting like that on the court! Instead of being true players, they acted like children in kindergarten. One of them, the smallest one (why is it always the smallest one?...) had so many comments, that it was getting boring.

I am emotional, so I exploded. I knew that they understood English, so loud “bullshit!” gave my opinion about their acting pretty precisely. And then it all started.

The little guy took it VERY personally. He stated shouting, jumping at me, others came in to support him, they all started shouting in Chinese… Just imagine a scene from American movie, where black people are about to start a brawl. I had something like that, only Chinese edition.

Shocked and amazed how furious they got, I tried to ease the conflict and started repeating “I’m sorry” to everyone. Somehow, it ended, but I said that I am not going to play with them anymore if they are acting like that. That made them angry once again, but I was not listening any more.

One of the NTU students, who I was playing with, explained me the situation. Apparently, they try not to show their emotions. All of them were pissed off, but I was the only one who exploded. Why? First of all, due to the fact, that one should always control his emotions. That is a little bit hypocritical, because young guys were doing it great, while the oldboys did not follow that rule at all. Secondly – there is always respect for the elder people. Well, this makes sense, but not on a basketball court! On the court everyone is equal, and you should treat each other with respect. And if someone does not treat me how he should – why should I?

When I presented these views to Dennis (NTU student), he admitted, that I was right, but it does not work that way in Asia. Well, I saw that.

I will have to adjust, non them, right?

Anyway, it started raining hard, and everyone had to go off the court. On my way out, I met my ex-opponents, we all shook hands, said sorry, no harm.

Oh yeah – everyone, except the small guy… I wonder, if he is a professor at NTU?...