You are currently browsing the daily archive for August 6th, 2008.
Led by a balanced offensive effort that saw Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat) pump in 22 points and three other U.S. team members score in double digits, the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team (5-0) fought off a determined Australian squad 87-76 Tuesday night in Shanghai in the team’s final warm-up game before opening Olympic play Aug. 10 in Beijing against host China.
Also aiding the USA cause were LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers), 16 points; Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers), 13 points; Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) recorded a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds; Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors) added nine points and Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) scored eight. (Source on Aug. 6th 2008)
—
This was as you probably can imagine an amazing night for me. The Roster of the USA Men’s National Team constisted of highly potential NBA All-Stars and Go-To Guys. Concerning the recap (please find above) I won’t go into further detail, as the Americans already did, so I decided just to source the official report from the USA Basketball Page.
Same night, different story – getting to the Qi Zhong Arena of Shanghai where the preparation games of the USA Men’s National Team mainly took place. Leaving work earlier as an exception (don’t tell Ernst, my boss^^) I got on the subway line 1 leading to the West from People’s Square. At the final station of line 1 I changed to line 5 going for three further stations. Arriving there some shuttle buses were supposed to take the visitors to the Arena. This wasn’t as easy as expected in the first place because they didn’t let me enter the bus… Why? because I didn’t posess a final ticket at that time due to an internet order. I only had the paper with me to proof the purchase over net. So, any alternatives? Fortunately at least someone was able to speak English there (on the internet there were English speaking guides promoted, who apparently managed to hide well there because I couldn’t find any of them) who showed me the way to a public bus where I didn’t need this final tickets. So somehow I managed to get there and locally changed the paper into a ticket.
Seems like such kind of sporting events enhance the business spirits and innovative skills of the vendors in the streets. I could have bought plenty of tickets, Kobe Bryant Posters, spyglasses, food, drinks even in the streets in front of the Arena, if I had wanted to.
Finally passing the security check I entered this impressive Stadium and got to my sector. It was amazing to see the NBA Stars altogether live for the first time. The chinese audience seems to be very loyal to both sides and showed plenty of sportsmanship as they cheered for both sides to pay tribute to the efforts even of the Australian Basketball National Team.
As far as I know nearly 13.000 seats are in the Arena, which means – traffic jam, confusion, chaos after the game. I fortunately managed to ask my way through somehow to get back to subway station by bus. I experienced that the chinese way of bus driving is quite a challenge. After passing liang kuai (= 2 RMB) to the conductor we made our way back somehow to the closest subway station. It nearly was 11 p.m. so the subway wasn’t operated anymore – bad luck. So I waved for a taxi, which of course was everybody’s intention at this time and therefore not too easy to get one. Actually I had a little conversation with the taxi driver in Chinese who apparently was a nice guy. In the traffic jam I showed him some videos of the game taken by my digital camera and he quite seemed to be delighted by that fact.
To conclude: Another exiting day in Shanghai passed by and I’m further getting familiar with the way of life here.
All the best, I’m pretty much looking forward to receiving comments of you guys!
再见，小麦
