16 April 2006

SBL

Last night Tim and I hit the town to do something I had never done....we went to watch the SBL live. What's the SBL? The Super Basketball League...Taiwan's pro basketball. I'll admit that the reason I haven't been is because it plays on TV almost every day and the level of basketball is not so impressive. But when you're actually there it takes on a whole new life. I wasn't sure where we needed to go but I assumed that they played in this brand new stadium here in Taipei...but when I asked around I found out that they play at this old run down stadium beside the new one cuz they can't afford to rent the new one. Weird...why build it if your pro teams can't have games in there.Me and Tim
Here's my top 5 highlights from a night at the SBL:
1) The cheerleaders: We saw two games and three sets of cheerleaders. In the first game there was these cheerleaders for the green team that looked like they had been snatched right out of a strip bar. They had some weak choreography and when they didn't know what to do they would resort to sexy dancing. I can't imagine what it would've been like if there would've been a pole on the court. The next game had two dance groups that were a lot less sexual however there was one routine that involved whips. I'm not sure where the Taiwanese get the idea that cheerleaders have to be so dirty but it added humor to the night for us.The mid-range sexy cheerleaders

2) The mascot: The yellow team (sorry I don't know the team names...they're in Chinese and I didn't figure them out) had this deer/antelope/goat type mascot who was quite funny. He danced around, did some breakdance stuff, mocked the other dance group, stood by the ref and even did a backflip. Most of it was standard mascot stuff but the breakdancing was quite impressive...check out this little video clip.

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3) The fans/heckling: We were able to get our hands on these air stick that you can bash together to make noise. It was fun cuz we were a part of the crowd. We were sitting in the yellow team's cheeering section so we banged our sticks and booed the purple team. The fans were really into it but they weren't very creative...they would say "Jai Yo" a lot...which is like saying "Go, Go !" in English. They would yell..."so and so Jai-Yo", "yellow team Jai-Yo", "Jai-yo, Jai-Yo, Jai-yo"...so we started saying things in English that ended in Jai-Yo...like "hey lazy guy Jai-Yo", "hey guy with the mullet Jai-Yo". It was also fun being the only North Americans there. We were much more vocal than the locals...Asians are still a little reserved and we made sure we made a scene. One thing that I thought was funny...there was this girl sitting in front of me and every so often I would purposely bang my noise sticks quite close to here head... she had mentioned something about needed more cowbell. Lastly there was this old man there who was practically sleeping the whole time. He was wearing these conservative old man clothes and holding an umbrella as he sat back and slept through most of the action. the fans

4) The food situation: They didn't sell any food at the venue so people would go outside to the different street vendors, the 7-11 or the nearby McDonalds to buy food and then bring it in. That would never fly in a N. American arena. Tim just made a good point...they would bring in outside food even if they did sell some there.

5) The Games: During the first game there were two guys that stood out. The first was this small guy who looked like he was 15 years old. He was lightening fast and fearless when going up against the big guys. He knocked down some 3s, got some steals and dished out tons of assists. He was at least a full foot shorter than anyone else on the court but was an awesome player. The second was this guy who scored 45 points...it was an impressive performance...he must've scored about 10 3-pointers. He was draining them from all over the court. The second game (purple vs. yellow) was ok. The highlight was this lazy guy who played for the purple team...he didn't run, didn't jump, didn't play defense, set weak screens, shot the ball whenever he got it...etc. We noticed him right away in the warm-ups...he goofed around the whole time and never did anything seriously. I would be so cheesed if I was on his team. Anyways we made fun of him the whole time and pointed out all of his "great" skills. The game was close and yellow came out on top. I have to admit that it was a really fun night out. I have seen the games on TV and always thought that the ball was crappy and it was boring to watch but seeing it live was way different and I will definitely go again.
One of the only good plays by the lazy guytaking it to the rack
sweet move

1 comment:

SarahJ said...

Skanky cheerleaders?? Are there any other kind? haha.

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