Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to teach trash talk in China hoops camp

Saw this amusing article over the weekend:

SHANGHAI, China -- Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is on a mission to teach trash talking in Shanghai.

The NBA's career scoring leader will lead a camp exploring cultural differences between American and Asian players. Along with teaching his famous skyhook, Abdul-Jabbar will touch on using language to intimidate opponents.

Chinese players Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Wang Zhizhi of the Miami Heat came from a basketball tradition that is less physical and more team-oriented, and needed some guidance to get used to the more individualistic, aggressive American style of play.

Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks and the Desmond Mason of the Milwaukee Bucks will join Abdul-Jabbar in the camp, which begins Saturday. Players, coaches and psychologists hope to use the experience of Yao to prepare Asian players for real-life situations. Campers will also learn about footwork, rebounding, nutrition and mental preparation.

Confucian commentary:

OK, whose idea was it to invite Kareem to teach trash talking to Chinese basketball players? More importantly, which Kareem do you think most people in China are familiar with; the one who led the Lakers to NBA championships or the one that left a footprint on Bruce Lee's chest in "Game of Death"?

Yao Ming played 2 seasons with Steve Francis. Do you think he might have learned any trash talk from him? Isn't Patrick Ewing Yao Ming's personal trash talk tutor? Poor Yao sure ain't getting any help from that geek they hired to be his interpreter.

I'm glad to see that Josh Smith and Desmond Mason were chosen to participate in the important skills training of China's basketball youth. We can at least expect to see a Chinese participant in a future NBA slam dunk contest.

Chinese players Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Wang Zhizhi of the Miami Heat came from a basketball tradition that is less physical and more team-oriented, and needed some guidance to get used to the more individualistic, aggressive American style of play.

I don't agree with this. At least from the basketball I've played in China (granted not in organized teams) ball-hoggism and lack of team play seems to be much worse than in the US. And to expand on that, I think people from individualistic cultures sometimes work more naturally in teams settings.

It is a bit odd that Kareem-the quiet, composed, intellectual- would be teaching "trash talking". I'd imagine him giving a historical lecture on the evolution of trash talking throughtout the 20th century or something pedantic. Actually, in all seriousness, I think he'd proabably be a good teacher because I'd bet that he'll quickly grasp the cross-cultural issues.

I think people from individualistic cultures sometimes work more naturally in teams settings.

Could you elaborate?

Well, I sometimes think that in collestivist cultures an individual's standing is determined a bit more by how other people in the group view him/her. For example, in basketball or soccer, I've noticed a fairly serious lack of selfless teamwork as everybody tries to copy moves on highlight reels. People seek individual glory to enhance their standing within the group. Or, in the classroom, students might be less apt to make mistakes for fearing of looking like a fool.

In individualistic countries, the individual and independence are stressed, of course. But paradoxically, people seek out and create more groups based on their own tastes or fashions. For example, the US is famous for its "civil society", ie. churches, the Boy Scouts, PETA, local baseball teams, knitting circles, book clubs, punk bands...etc. In individualistic countries, all of these are organizations one attends freely, and thus can leave at any time as well. In contrast, in a Chinese classroom, family,work unit, or the traditional village system, people didn't have the ability to leave the group as easily. One's standing was based in a large part on the evaluation of one's peers. Strong loyalties and even cliques seem to form easier in collectivist cultures, although the outward appearance my seem uniform to an outsider. This I think, at least in sports, can lead to people wanting to improve their own standing by getting glory, perhaps even at the expense of the group.

One interesting thing to me at least, also paradoxically, it sometimes seems that Chinese people have stronger and more developed senses of character or personality, perhaps because there are less outlets for superficial "individualism". In an American high school, everybody wants to be "himself" or not care what other people think, while at the same time they end up conforming to some mini-subculture (jock, punk, yuppie, cowboy, Valley girl...etc.)

In any case, what I just said is just my BS opinion and I don't have any evidence to support it, so don't take it seriously.

Back to the original topic: don't Chinese players already have at least some form of trash talk? I've never heard as many Chinese swear words in my life as playing just 10 minutes in Beijing.