Thursday, May 10 6:11 PM SGT

US basketball team pelted with bottles by angry Chinese crowd

BEIJING, May 10 (AFP) -

A basketball game between Chinese and US players turned ugly when the Chinese crowd pelted the US team with bottles following a collision between two players, a US coach said Thursday.

"There were many, many water bottles flying around, so we got the team off the court as soon as we could, but we were followed by some of the Chinese players to the locker room which made us feel very unsafe," US coach Mike Frink told AFP.

The game between the Chinese national team and a team made up of players from the US International Basketball League was played Monday night in the central city of Changsha in Hunan province.

Frink declined to say if the incident was brought on by anti-American sentiment provoked by the April 1 collision between a US EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet that destroyed the Chinese plane and killed the pilot.

"We've been aware of this spy plane incident and we knew that this was a very sensitive issue, but we are a basketball team and we have nothing to do with politics," Frink said after arriving in Beijing Thursday.

A spokesman for the Chinese Basketball Association refused comment on the crowd incident as did Wang Fei, head coach of China's national team.

News of the incident emerged as former US president Bill Clinton hailed the NBA debut of Chinese star Wang Zhizhi during a speech in Hong Kong in which he suggested basketball diplomacy could help heal fractured Sino-US ties.

Frink felt the Chinese players helped incite the crowd by leaving their bench area and encircling the US bench after a US player fouled one of the Chinese side as he was attacking the basket.

"All of a sudden a lot of these Chinese players are around our bench, and we're not a full team, we've only got nine players, so it got a little bit threatening there," said Frink, who coaches the IBL's Cincinnati Slam.

Hunan Satellite Television broadcast the game live to parts of the country, but pulled the plug after the crowd became unruly, leaving millions of viewers in the dark as to the outcome of the brawl and the game.

The incident occurred with China leading 85 to 72 with eight minutes left. It was eventually resumed with China winning 109 to 87.

"They pulled the plug just as I was watching a Chinese player chasing an American player around the court with a clenched fist," said an American businessman who watched the game from his Beijing home.

Said the online Xinkuai news, "It only took a minute, but the American team appeared to recognize that this wasn't the EP-3 incident and all nine players went to hide in the locker room."

Frink had nothing but praise for his Chinese hosts and said he hoped that basketball exchanges could further promote ties between the two countries.

China won the first game of the three game series 88 to 85, while losing the last game played Wednesday night in Xian 120 to 103.

The Chinese team is preparing for the upcoming Asian Basketball Championships in Japan this summer.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2001

Answers

that is very disturbing news, Old Git.

i'm sure the leadership will come forward and issue an appropriate apology. or is the PRC military also in charge of basketball?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001