Sunday, January 20, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
Jerry Brewer
Rocky start in China's rudimentary basketball league
Seattle Times staff columnist
![]() |
Displaced in China, 5,000 miles from basketball civilization, Tom Newell listened as a Pancake told him he was fired.
Newell hadn't even coached a game as the first American to lead a Chinese Basketball Association team, and here was Pancake, the 4-foot-8 translator whom Newell preferred to call Short Stack, giving him the strangest news ever.
The mother of all rich-man whimsies felled Newell, a former Sonics assistant and basketball lifer. The owner of the Jilin Northeast Tigers abruptly fired his general manager, Chinese basketball legend Sun Jun, and then rehired a former coach to replace Newell. A day later, Pancake was sent to tell Newell the team still wanted him to lead practice.
"WHAT?!?!" Newell asked.
"Coach, this is China," Pancake explained. "We do things differently here."
Do they ever. Beat that, George Steinbrenner.
As interest grows in Chinese sports, especially basketball, Newell offers a fresh account of the current landscape. The Olympics are coming to Beijing in eight months. The NBA just formed NBA China, an entity that should help promote better basketball in Yao Ming's home country. But while change is coming, don't expect China to morph into a basketball superpower overnight.
"It's so rudimentary," Newell said of the current system here. "It's like a time warp."
Despite the inauspicious start, Newell has spent the past four months in China. He remained on the Tigers coaching staff as an assistant because the new coach, Gao Shumin, requested his help. He survived the entire season, watching the team struggle through a 10-20 record.
Newell remembers the owner interrupting a practice to take team photos. The Tigers play in an airplane hangar built in the 1950s with asbestos covering the ceiling. At most of the league's arenas, which were largely empty during games, the floors are so hard that Newell figured they were "nothing more than hardwood on concrete."
It is cold inside the gyms, so cold. A morning shoot-around might find the players battling 35-degree temperatures to practice.
"And let's talk about the weather outside," Newell said, speaking by phone from Changchun, which he calls Coldchun. "You tell me the difference between zero and 20 below zero. My nose would wiggle at zero. At 20 below zero, my septum raises up, telling me, 'OK, fool, if you don't go back inside, you're going to lose your nose.'
![]()
"PETA would come here and say, 'We're going to have to step out of party lines and wear some fur because we can't take this.' "
But none of the obstacles stopped Newell from having a good time. He thought he helped some of his Chinese players develop. He also watched the Tigers' best player, an American named DaJuan Tate, turn into "a bona fide pro."
Tate, who began playing basketball at 16 and went to Mountain State College in West Virginia, scored 68 points in a game and had a chance to break Sun Jun's CBA record for points in a game but relented. For his gesture, Tate gained the respect of Chinese fans.
"It's an act that will forever be remembered," Newell said. "From that point on, even if we were at another arena, every time DaJuan scored, they'd cheer for him."
And then there were the other Americans playing in China.
"I'm so embarrassed by their boorish behavior and lack of respect for the officials," said Newell, a hoops purist like his father, Pete. "They denigrate the game of basketball. They just act like fools."
In the next few weeks, Newell will meet with Tim Chen, the CEO of the new NBA China, to discuss his thoughts on improving the professionalism of basketball in China. Newell plans to highlight the poor conduct of American players and encourage a referee-training program, among other things.
As a basketball market, China is as unpolished as it is intriguing. The nation of 1.3 billion people now has Yao and Yi Jianlian to whet its hoops appetite, and with the NBA sensing the opportunity for growth, perhaps it can help China create a more appropriate basketball infrastructure.
If so, then Newell will be a pioneer, of sorts, a man who left the comforts of the Puget Sound area to lead a team he never really got to lead. It was a wacky journey. It was a rewarding one, too.
The season ended nearly two weeks ago, and the team held a party. During the celebration, all bad feelings were forgotten. Newell even talked at length — through Pancake — with the coach who replaced him. Newell always thought the coach was resisting his suggestions. Not so.
"I know you have a great passion for the game, and you think I didn't listen," coach Gao told him. "I did listen — but I just didn't understand what you were saying."
Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Jerry Brewer: Sounders find voice: Kevin Calabro
Jerry Brewer: UW crew's Cold War win is still worth a toast
Jerry Brewer: What's left to follow in Mariners' lost season?
Jerry Brewer: Best approach for M's GM: Don't try to do too much
Jerry Brewer: Sparks' Parker does it all, with substance and flash

Finding your work/life balance
Author Michelle Goodman serves up fresh tips & trends in the NWjobs.com Nine to Thrive blog.
Shared leave: Donating paid days off to coworkers in need Posted 7/24
Equal opportunity layoffs and wage woes for women Posted 7/23
Questioning and then debunking the so-called opt-out revolution Posted 7/21
Is work/life balance dead, or is it just being redefined by technology? Posted 7/16
- Grand Coulee Dam's immensity dominates Columbia River Basin | Only in Washington
- Some scented household products contain chemicals classified as toxic, UW study finds
- Private-school principal charged with rape of girl, 14
- Peak tolls on 520 bridge could be as high as $6.85
- Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line
- Seattle trucking-firm owner convicted in Rolls-Royce theft
- Toll on new 520 bridge could be $6.85 round trip, state study says
- Search suspended for young girl distress caller
- California QB Keith Price pledges to Huskies for 2009
- Alaska Air plans job cuts, fare hikes
- Some scented household products contain chemicals classified as toxic, UW study finds
- Grand Coulee Dam's immensity dominates Columbia River Basin | Only in Washington
- Making the most of your produce
- Alaska Air plans job cuts, fare hikes
- Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line
- Gates Foundation breaks ground
- U.S. home-sales slump continues; King County off 27% in June from year ago
- Council panel OKs bag fees
- Look to legumes for protein that's affordable and delicious
- What's cooking close to home? Culinary getaways




