[00:01.38]Unit 6 The Spirit of Sports
[00:05.34]Lesson 21
[00:10.28]Exercise 1.3
[00:12.81]Do you know that China's history of basketball
[00:15.98]is almost as long as America's?
[00:18.97]Americans who came to China in the 1890s
[00:22.51]introduced the sport.
[00:24.51]This makes China the second oldest basketball-
[00:27.21]playing country,after the United States.
[00:30.62]Many people in China love the game:
[00:33.21]about 210 million Chinese play basketball,
[00:37.42]teach it,or are involved with activities
[00:39.88]related to the sport.
[00:41.84]The number of basketball players,games,
[00:44.29]and leagues keep growing：
[00:46.56]and as the number of games grow,
[00:48.64]so do the number of fans.
[00:50.70]But many people believe that basketball started
[00:53.27]to become more popular in China
[00:55.84]when NBA games began to be shown on TV
[00:59.28]in the 1990s.
[01:01.29]Today basketball is played by Chinese school
[01:04.48]children all over the country.
[01:07.08]Nearly every school has a basketball team,
[01:10.19]and there are many matches at different levels.
[01:18.41]2.1
[01:20.77]I'm here with Clyde Drexler at the Beijing
[01:23.60]Worker's Stadium at half-time.
[01:26.35]His team of NBA ALL Stars is up
[01:29.04]against China's men's national team.
[01:32.14]The All Stars are leading 53-47.
[01:36.22]Clyde, what do you think of basketball
[01:38.47]playing in China?
[01:40.46]I find many people love this game in China
[01:43.13]and you've got great players.
[01:45.31]Could you tell us what has impressed you most?
[01:48.27]I'm really impressed with the height of
[01:50.20]some of the players.
[01:51.33]A few are over 7 feet tall.
[01:53.82]And what about their skills?
[01:56.14]They've got really good moves,
[01:58.05]but they need to build more strength.
[02:00.36]They need to start working out
[02:01.83]in the weight room and building up muscles
[02:04.18]if they want to play in the NBA one day.
[02:06.18]NBA players are stronger,
[02:08.26]but these guys have got great skills.
[02:10.50]And have you worked with any young players
[02:12.78]in China?
[02:13.95]Yeah, I talked and played with some children
[02:16.18]here in Beijing.
[02:17.27]These kids' basic skills were really amazing.
[02:20.36]Their levels were similar to the kids
[02:22.17]in the States.
[02:23.26]Could you tell us
[02:24.15]whether you'll come to China again?
[02:26.69]Sure. The fans here are great and you can tell
[02:29.67]that they love basketball very much.
[02:31.84]Yao Ming and other Chinese players have already
[02:34.55]made it big in the NBA
[02:35.67]and I'm sure there are more good players
[02:37.54]in China now.
[02:39.13]And my last question:
[02:40.91]do you think you'll win tonight's game?
[02:43.92]We hope we can win,
[02:45.07]but it's very hard to say.
[02:46.38]We'll do our best.
[02:48.07]Thank you!
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