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National team cannot afford to continue losing its cool

By Yang Xinwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-14 07:58

Confucius says: To host friends from afar is fun.

Not necessarily!

Not after the warm-up match between China and Brazil in Xuchang, Henan province, which turned into an ugly brawl after less than a minute as players exchanged kicks and punches.

Brazil withdrew from the match after the fight, which left several players from both sides hurt.

China's Zhang Qingpeng hit the ground head first after a strong challenge. He was then sent to hospital and diagnosed with a concussion.

The match eventually turned into an in-house training session for the host team. The spectators asked for refund for their tickets, which the organizers promised.

China's coach, Bob Donewald Jr, was quoted as saying on sina.com: "We really didn't want to pick a fight, but we had to protect ourselves. One of our players was sent to the hospital with a concussion. The Brazilian behavior was unprofessional. This is not a national side, only a club team."

It is not the first time a Chinese national team has been involved in an international brawl.

The team fought visiting US all-star teams twice, in 2001 and 2003, and the Lebanon national team at the 2001 Asian Basketball Championships. At the Stankovic Cup in 2005, China received a fine totaling $176,000 for 16 players in an ugly melee with Puerto Rico.

Different sides can argue who is to blame. But one thing is sure: this is a very bad influence on China's basketball.

Now the question must be asked: Who will come to play in China in the future? It's really a shame!

Basketball features a lot of physical contact. Confrontation and power moves are frequent. As professionals, the players should know this and remain calm enough to avoid unnecessary anger. Yet it appears they are not capable, mentally, of dealing with it and lose control of their behavior.

Coach Donewald should take responsibility for the players' behavior. He is always howling on court, either at the players or the referees. He is a coach full of passion, but his incessant roaring must have influenced the players.

Maybe Donewald believes this is the way to raise the performance of the players. But if they lack proper guidance, it might lead to errors.

It's two sides of a coin. Passion is good, fighting spirit and morale are needed for winning. But when it is too much, players might get into a hot-headed state and lose their cool. We all know you can't win without a balanced mentality.

The brawl, especially Donewald's outburst, has put the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in a tough situation. The Chinese players easily lose their temper, but as coach, Donewald is the one who is supposed to contain the players, not to provoke them into a fight. The players had been pretty much normal until the coach's outburst. It is a discredit to the team and Donewald could be in big trouble.

The CBA promised to punish the people involved in the fight, as it has always done. But the fact the brawl happened when China's sports is facing a troubled era because of corruption in soccer, more losing of face is hard to accept.

The good thing is that the team will have three more friendly matches with Lithuania, if it is brave enough to come. If FIBA, the sport's governing body, hands out penalties fast enough - and no more than three-match suspensions - it won't affect China's hopes of winning gold at the Asian Games next month.

The author is China Daily's chief sports commentator, who has been following China's sports over the past 26 years. He can be reached at yangxinwei@chinadaily.com.cn.