When I had first heard that the Chinese national basketball team had a brawl with an American college basketball team, I feared my alma mater for graduate school Duke was involved. Fortunately, not. The Duke men’s college basketball team is also currently touring China as part of a good will tour and help promote Duke and Duke’s new campus outside of Shanghai that is under construction.
During half-time in Duke’s last game in Shanghai, basketball team Coach Mike Krzyzewski, (“Coach K”) honored Yao Ming with a Duke jersey. Coach K has been to China before, previously coaching the U.S. basketball 2008 Beijing Olympic team, so he’s been a great ambassador for the U.S. to China and for Duke! I would have loved to have seen an Asian or Asian American Yao Ming playing for Duke during my tenure there. Hopefully Coach K was able to scout some perspective recruits during his stay in China.
If you’re Yao Ming fan and haven’t watched The Year of the Yao documentary, I’d highly recommend it. The documentary chronicles Yao Ming’s first year during the NBA and trying to live up to expectations of his country and his fans.
