Marbury's MVP a step forward for CBA
- By Mitchell Blatt
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, March 26, 2015
The next year, the CBA also introduced a regular season MVP award for foreigners, which Marbury won in 2012-13 and Liaoning's Lester Hudson won in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. Yi Jianlian, who played four years in the NBA, was named the most valuable of the Chinese players during the past two seasons.
Yi was the highest-scoring Chinese player in 2014-15, averaging 27.6 points per game, yet 15 foreign players scored more than him. Lester Hudson led in total scoring and finished eighth in average scoring (Yi Jianlian also beat Hudson in rebounds, finishing fifth in total rebounds). From this perspective, it is understandable why the CBA is reluctant to have foreigners and Chinese compete together for all awards.
In sports, there may be a tendency for some fans to gravitate toward athletes with backgrounds or ethnic profiles that are similar to their own. This has been the case in America. In 1908, black boxer Jack Johnson's victory in the Heavyweight Championship caused a great deal of controversy, and white 1899 champion Jim Jeffries was recruited to come out of retirement to fight Johnson. Jack London wrote at the time, "Jim Jeffries must now emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove that golden smile from Jack Johnson's face. Jeff, it's up to you. The White Man must be rescued." Jeffries lost.
The same thing has happened in basketball. The NBA had no black players in its first few years, but now 80 percent of the league's players are black. From time to time, the issue of race still comes up in media coverage. In 2005, Larry Bird, who was the "Great White Hope" in his time, was asked by ESPN if the NBA needed more white players. He responded, "I think it's good for a fan base because, as we all know, the majority of fans are white America. And if you had just a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited."
If the CBA ended the segregation of MVP awards, would they be looking for a "Great Chinese Hope?"
In the United States, foreign players came in to save the misguided cause of racial sports identity in basketball. White players won the MVP award for three straight seasons from 2004-05 to 2006-07, but the players came from Canada (Steve Nash, twice) and Germany (Dirk Nowitzki).
More than anything else, the success of foreign players in the CBA is representative of China's opening to the world. China closed itself off after a "century of humiliation" at the hands of foreign countries and their semi-colonization of port cities. Now China is standing up in the world, competing with foreigners on the world stage and on the basketball court.
Globalization is affecting the NBA, too. In 2014-15, the NBA season opened with a record 101 international players from 37 countries and territories. Five Chinese players have played in the NBA so far.
In fact, the NBA is even more popular on Sina Weibo than the CBA, with almost 33 million fans. The real dream isn't for Chinese players to keep the CBA Finals MVP. It is for a Chinese player to win the NBA MVP.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)