Making friends
Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:48 am
BEIJING: As US Vice-President Joe Biden built trust with China in Beijing's corridors of power, goodwill between the two nations unravelled on a nearby basketball court, where players beat each other up and chairs and water bottles were thrown in a wild, all-in brawl.
A "friendship" game between Washington's Georgetown Hoyas and Chinese professional side the Bayi Military Rockets erupted into a brawl as the match wound down at Beijing's Olympic Stadium.
It was believed to have started when Bayi forward Hu Ke committed a hard foul on Georgetown's Jason Clark, who retaliated with a shove, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
Players then traded blows, someone in the crowd flung a chair and fans tossed full water bottles at the Hoyas players and coaches as they headed to the locker room, writing off the rest of the game.
In China, state media did not report on the incident and microblogs were mostly silent as censors worked quickly to delete any references to the fight.
"Even the news about the fight between the Chinese and US basketball teams needs to be cut," said a microblogger named Yinnu.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/ ... z1VRllSla7
