The night of March 26 is worthy of being written in the history of Chinese basketball and Chinese sports.
No one would have thought that a small mountain village with a population of only 1,188 people could attract more than 20,000 people to watch the game because of a basketball game, and even gained the reputation of "village BA".
Village BA site.
On the evening of the 26th, the first "Beautiful Village" basketball league finals in Guizhou Province began in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture.
It's just an open-air court, and the players are only local villagers, and they don't even need to buy tickets to watch the game, but it has still become a hit in the Internet world.
Coincidentally, the Xiamen Phoenix Stadium, 1,331 kilometers away from Taipan Village, also hosted a basketball game tonight that gathered tens of thousands of spectators - the CBA All-Star Game.
Allen Guo participates in the All-Star Skills Challenge.
From the remote village of Taipan in Guizhou to the star-studded city of Xiamen, basketball crosses the distance of physical space, allowing grassroots and professional people to enjoy the purest happiness at the same moment.
On this night, Chinese basketball was intertwined.
Dawn culture
The surging news reporter once visited the village BA match site and came to the conclusion that there is only one condition for wanting to see the village BA, to find a location where you can see the stadium.
The seemingly simple requirements became extremely difficult at a scale of more than 20,000 people. So at three o'clock in the afternoon, four hours before the official start of the game, the stadium was already crowded.
When the game starts, there are more people - the front row is seated on the floor, the back row is sitting on the maza, then the back row is sitting on a plastic bench, followed by the standing crowd, then the spectators standing on the bench, and the last row belongs to the people who bought the village ladder empty.
The ladders in the village were all bought out. The Paper reporter Hu Jie Tu
Early arrivals will also bring a bowl of powder with them, and when they are hungry, they will take two mouthfuls to pad their stomachs; Those who come late can only find their own viewing angle through the gap in the back of their head.
Some people beat gongs, others play drums, and the simplest instruments are two iron basins - just clashing wildly, they can make a deafening sound. And the appearance of the pothole in the basin floor proves that its owner once exuded passion on the sidelines.
Zhang Shoushuang, secretary of the party branch of Taipan Village, once told The Paper: "In the past, basketball games were held every year, and it has always been this atmosphere. ”
Spectators standing on plastic benches. The Paper reporter Hu Jie Tu
How good is the atmosphere? Cen Jiangnong, president of the Taipan Village Basketball Association, gave an example to The Paper, "In 2017, we organized a basketball game, and the power suddenly went out at 7 p.m., and it was not repaired until 10 o'clock. As soon as the lights were turned on, the stands were still full of people. ”
10 p.m. is a pediatric spectator in Taipan Village, where games are played until the next morning. At that time, the audience on the stage was still full.
"In the past, we used to play until 5 a.m., and the longest time was until 7 o'clock, and the sun came out." Cen Jiangnong blurted out without even needing to recall, "From dark to dawn, we call this 'Tianliang culture'." ”
The reason for the "dawn culture" is that there are so many teams that have had to pile up the games.
"Most of the time 120 teams signed up, but the game had to be played in a few days, so the game could only be pushed back, and some teams even played four games a day until the final." In Cen Jiangnong's explanation, the original helplessness gradually became a feature.
A mother and child could not squeeze into the stands and chose to watch the live broadcast on the village committee's computer. The Paper reporter Hu Jie Tu
Foiling business cards
In addition to participating in many teams, the atmosphere also promotes the formation of "Tianliang culture", in which the stands have become a crucial part.
50 meters away from this court, is the old court in Taipan Village - a concrete floor between two houses, which is simply drawn on the court line, and the basketball hoop is made by the village carpenter.
Every game, the stadium is full of people, but 2,000 is already the limit.
So in 2016, a new stadium was built in the village, and a rare grandstand in the country stadium was planned around it, but at that time there were only four levels of stands. Later, it was found that there were not enough stands, so two years later, one of the stands was placed on the top of the slope behind it.
Villagers standing on a ladder watching the race. The Paper reporter Hu Jie Tu
After the title of village BA spread all over the Internet, Taipan Village built the grandstand behind the ball frame to the top of the slope, and added toilets, showers, stand handrails, etc...
Originally, the self-organized village BA was held during the local traditional festival Eat New Festival, which began on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month every year to celebrate the rice harvest. Today, the village BA has become a hot stamping business card in Taipan Village.
At first, the Taipan Village Stadium hosted only three games by four teams in Taijiang County, and the semifinals of Qiandongnan Prefecture were placed 28 kilometers away in Sankeshu Town, which has an indoor arena with better basketball facilities.
However, the popularity of the village BA on the Internet skyrocketed, and the matches of the 16 teams in Qiandongnan Prefecture were temporarily decided to be placed in Taipan Village two or three days before the game, and the TV station broadcast the whole process online.
This county-level competition was broadcast live simultaneously on 26 official accounts in Guizhou, with a cumulative number of more than 30 million viewers.
Spectators of the Village BA.
CBA promotes the development of basketball craze
At the same time, Xiamen, 1,331 kilometers from Taipan Village, also ushered in a basketball carnival - the CBA All-Star Weekend was held in Xiamen for the first time.
Star Sharp Competition, the second time that the college team defeated the Star Sharp team composed of professional players; In the dunk contest, "Domestic Gordon" Yang Hao once again raised people's expectations; And every time Allen Guo played terrier, the stadium burst into cheers.
The day before the All-Star event, a taxi driver chatted with the surging news reporter: "I saw the All-Star event in Xiamen, and I was ready to buy tickets, but tickets were too sought-after. ”
When asked how much he was willing to pay for a ticket, he gave the answer: "At that time, I was going to take my nephew to see it, and five or six hundred was acceptable, after all, Xiamen was the first time to hold it." ”
The CBA All-Star Game came to Xiamen.
In fact, Xiamen has a deep relationship with basketball.
In 1913, Chen Jiageng, a patriotic overseas Chinese, returned to his hometown and founded Jimei School and Xiamen University, and actively carried out school basketball - these two schools are still the forces of Chinese university basketball to be reckoned with.
It is worth mentioning that the famous Chinese modern sports educator Ma John is a native of Gulangyu, Xiamen, and his son-in-law Mou Zuoyun is one of the pioneers and founders of Chinese basketball - now the champion of the CBA league is called "Mou Zuoyun Cup".
At the first CBA Business Summit Forum, Liao Huasheng, vice mayor of Xiamen, also introduced: "Our mass base is very good, even in the most remote and backward villages, there is a vacant land in the village, as long as there is a basketball frame to start the game." ”
Zhang Zhenlin's dunk performance.
Perhaps it is this origin that makes Xiamen, which does not have a CBA team, so enthusiastically undertake to host the 2022-2023 CBA All-Star Game.
Liao Huasheng said: "This is just the beginning, we will study and introduce unique professional policies to support the development of basketball and industry, and promote the development of this sport in Xiamen." ”
"We also welcome people from all over the basketball industry at home and abroad to cooperate with us, which will provide the broadest platform for everyone."
On the one hand, it is a folk basketball tournament born from local culture, and on the other hand, it is a professional league that continues to expand its influence outward. On this night, the two areas did not intersect much because basketball intersected.
They are the future of Chinese basketball.