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The King of the Underdogs Global 1v1 Basketball Tournament - Los Angeles division and the Chinese Elite Basketball League launched their five-week long Tournament in El Monte, California on Saturday with a moving and respectful show of support for China's effort to fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as all the competing players bowed their heads in a touching moment of silence.
Behind them, the hoop backboard read: "Stay Strong, Wuhan!"
At the Pisces Basketball Academy gymnasium in El Monte, a mixed crowd of local Angelenos and Chinese gathered to watch the tournament and cheer their favorites on. Hours of animated competition followed, in which each player faced off against one other player to show off their ballhandling skills, footwork finesse, offense and defense plays, and of course, scoring skills.
The Chinese Elite Basketball League (CEB) partnered with the King of the Underdogs to host the tournament. CEB was founded in Los Angeles by three friends, Sun Hao, Guo Xiaohan, and Xu Jinmao. They are co-sponsoring the tournament and overseeing the competition.
"70 to 80 players signed up and we picked the top 24 to compete against each other," explained Sun. "After playing the five games we will have five champions, one each week, and they will be invited back to China."
Another of the founders, Guo, who sports a crop of dreadlocks, has trained at international basketball camps and interned with Nick Ansom, co-founder of the famed VBL Venice Basketball League that invited China's top street ball team, King of the Underdogs to Venice Beach in Los Angeles last year to compete. King of the Underdogs scored a surprise win that boosted their street cred in China to even greater heights.
"Basketball brought me to LA from China and I will continue to train and push and try out for the CBA every year, even at age 28. Even if I don't make it, basketball is still my life," Guo told Xinhua. Which is why he decided to co-found the Chinese Elite Basketball League.
The players share a real passion for the game. Marvin Qu, who is majoring in Data Science at UC Berkley and has played basketball since he was young, told Xinhua, "King of the Underdogs are really big in China. You can become famous if you play well and 1-on-1 is an important game for me."
"I like to challenge myself and play as a team to fight toward common goal," Brian Chen from Shenzhen, China, told Xinhua. "I enjoy the process, that means more to me than just winning or losing."
"People in China can't go outside and play right now, but they'll be back on the courts soon," he predicted.
Yasu Kubota, visiting from Japan, was invited by one of his Chinese friends. "In high school, you can't really play 1-on-1 tournaments, so it's really fun to do. This is a good way to learn to excel."
Abraham Cutrar, a referee at the game told Xinhua that though he was there to make sure everyone plays by the rules and keeps an eye on safety, "But I'm really loving it. I enjoy the atmosphere," he shared.
The tournament will run for four more Saturdays until the five winners have triumphed. The champion gets 2,600 U.S. dollars and the runners-up each get 400 dollars in cash prizes plus an invitation to come to China to play an exhibition match with the Kings of the Underdogs.
"These guys are not beginners, they 'got game'," lead referee for the match, Reggie Ramirez, told Xinhua. "There are a couple of guys here who play on the Chinese national team. The only thing these guys might still need to learn is English," he grinned.
Sun, Guo, and Xu also co-founded the Pisces Basketball Academy for young beginners and intermediate teen players, named after the three's Pisces Zodiac birth sign. They established it to train local Chinese and Chinese American kids in areas like Alhambra, El Monte and Monterey Park who had no opportunity to participate in the sport of Basketball and to give them a leg up in developing their game skills.
"There was no really good basketball training for the kids here," Sun told Xinhua. "We just started about nine months ago and we already have 90 students, some starting as young as three years old. But the usual age is five to 16-years," he said.
When asked what he gets out of training kids, Guo explained, "Basketball is my whole life, it's my whole career. It's deep - it's what I love."
(By Julia Pierrepont III)
