Unit 6 The Spirit of Sports
Lesson 21
Exercise 1.3
Do you know that China's history of basketball
is almost as long as America's?
Americans who came to China in the 1890s
introduced the sport.
This makes China the second oldest basketball-
playing country,after the United States.
Many people in China love the game:
about 210 million Chinese play basketball,
teach it,or are involved with activities
related to the sport.
The number of basketball players,games,
and leagues keep growing：
and as the number of games grow,
so do the number of fans.
But many people believe that basketball started
to become more popular in China
when NBA games began to be shown on TV
in the 1990s.
Today basketball is played by Chinese school
children all over the country.
Nearly every school has a basketball team,
and there are many matches at different levels.
2.1
I'm here with Clyde Drexler at the Beijing
Worker's Stadium at half-time.
His team of NBA ALL Stars is up
against China's men's national team.
The All Stars are leading 53-47.
Clyde, what do you think of basketball
playing in China?
I find many people love this game in China
and you've got great players.
Could you tell us what has impressed you most?
I'm really impressed with the height of
some of the players.
A few are over 7 feet tall.
And what about their skills?
They've got really good moves,
but they need to build more strength.
They need to start working out
in the weight room and building up muscles
if they want to play in the NBA one day.
NBA players are stronger,
but these guys have got great skills.
And have you worked with any young players
in China?
Yeah, I talked and played with some children
here in Beijing.
These kids' basic skills were really amazing.
Their levels were similar to the kids
in the States.
Could you tell us
whether you'll come to China again?
Sure. The fans here are great and you can tell
that they love basketball very much.
Yao Ming and other Chinese players have already
made it big in the NBA
and I'm sure there are more good players
in China now.
And my last question:
do you think you'll win tonight's game?
We hope we can win,
but it's very hard to say.
We'll do our best.
Thank you!