CBA Finals Get Nasty: “Slap Gate” Scandal

Home » basketball, In the News, Videos April 21, 2010 14 Comments

The Xinjiang Flying Tigers are currently taking part in the CBA Basketball Finals for the second year in a row against the Guangdong Southern Tigers, and the tiger tension erupted into a brawl during Game 2.

View this video in America on Youtube or in China on Youku

American player Charles Gaines, who plays for Xinjiang, landed a perfectly-placed, open-handed blow to the face of Guangdong Chinese player Du Feng who had moments earlier headbutted Gaines.

Trainers on the scene made the situation even worse by completely covering the semi-conscious Du Feng with a sheet,  leading many fans in the stadium to think that the American had actually killed the Chinese basketball player.

Chinese CBA star Du Feng hurt during Game 2

An official CBA website poll of 130,000 people  shows that a vast majority of Chinese fans (66.5%) believe that responsibility for this incident rests entirely on the shoulders of Charles Gaines, while only 16% believe that the referees never had good control of the game and therefore share some of the blame.  Interestingly, there was no option in the poll for “both Du and Gaines share blame”.

Gains Punches Du Feng during Game 2 of the CBA FinalsDu Feng, who is out of the hospital and expected to play in game three, laughed in surprise when he heard that Gaines wasn’t suspended.  “Next game, playing well is the only important thing” he told reporters.

Both Gaines and Du will be fined 50,000 RMB ($7,350USD) for their part in this incident some Chinese media has termed “Slap Gate”.   Gaines has made additional news by publicly announcing that he won’t be shaking Du Feng’s hand…but the two could be friends off the court, of course.

Some western sports bloggers have speculated that this might spark a “racially charged cultural moment” similar to what the NBA experienced with Kermit Washington 30 years ago.

So far that seems to be untrue, although it’s safe to say this has probably bumped CBA Finals viewership a little bit.

14 Comments

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  • Alexander said:
    April 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am

    Wow. Oxygen for a slap in the face. I’ve previously thought that only soccer players milked non-existent injuries for fouls and sympathy, but that performance was truly pathetic.

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  • kahraman said:
    April 21st, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    Looks like this was on the verge of becoming
    a riot. A fan came onto the court and somehow tried to challenge Gaines. The teams didn’t leave the locker room for an hour afterward and even then Gaines had a 100 police accompany him. Hopefully this doesn’t add a new dimension to ethnic tensions in Xinjiang. Ironically, it was violence against (visiting) Uyghurs in Guangdong that touched off the Urumqi riots last year.

    check out the photo gallery:

    http://cbachina.163.com/photoview/1RB60005/53270.html#p=1

    there’s even a special page devoted to the incident:

    http://cbachina.163.com/special/000531ES/cbafight0418.html

    How do you say “Malice at the Palace/ Basketbrawl” in Chinese/Uyghur?

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    Josh says: April 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Thanks for the comment and the great links! I didn’t even notice the fans in the video, and I wonder what their punishment will be. Like I said in the article, I don’t think the situation with the fans was helped along when everybody thought the Chinese player had died.

    As Alexander implied above, it sure does seem like Du was “flopping”.

    [Reply]

  • jg said:
    April 21st, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    What a total wuss dive by Du Feng. Milking a slap to the face as if he’s an Italian footballer. What a joke. Very bad acting, too.

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  • pal said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 1:07 am

    idk if you catched it, but the city where the game was played, Dongguan, is exactly where the Uighur-Han brawl got started that led to the riots in Urumqi last year.

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    pal says: April 22nd, 2010 at 1:13 am

    oops nvm, apparently that was in Shaoguan. In the neighborhood anyways.

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  • Kimo said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 4:27 am

    Was that a slap? It looked like a punch to me, but it was so quick.

    Man, here I am in the UK missing all of the follies that is provided by the CBA. Fortunately, I’ll be back in a few months. That’s if Eyjafjallajokull doesn’t delay anymore flights at that time.

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  • sascha said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    you know i have no sympathy for Du “I am a total wuss” Feng. I have played in pick up games here and had similar stuff happen. I get hit, i hit back, everyone gets on the laowai. Right and Wrong play no role in BS situations like this. Do any Chinese admit that a headbutt might be cause for retaliations and are any embarrassed that a slap would cause a 6’10 athlete to require hospitalization?

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  • sascha said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    btw. in the US not only is such a slap following a headbutt accepted (and encouraged) but it is known as a “bitch slap.” just thought i’d point out the obvious again.

    [Reply]

  • sascha said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    sorry i can’t edit my comments, but if you check out the polls, this one shows a majority believing that Du Feng got off light:

    http://vote.cbachina.163.com/vote/cba_result.jsp?voteid=45362

    and this one does not include a choice for Du as the responisble one, instead Charles, the fans, refs and everyone else but Du. Charles gets the vote here.

    http://vote.cbachina.163.com/vote/cba_result.jsp?voteid=45323

    so yeah, people around China seem to see what we all see and that kinda makes my day because only fools will hate either player for this while we “smartypants” types can go on making fun of flops and such ;)

    [Reply]

  • nulle said:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 4:10 pm

    Du deserved to get slapped across the face after head-butting Gaines…

    oh, yeah, great acting by Du and the staff on Xinjiang.

    the 50-cent idiots are at it again trying to skew public opinion

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  • WestCoast said:
    April 25th, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    As a former teammate of Du Feng’s.. he had it coming to him. with all the cheap shots and stupid trash talking this guy does, im glad somebody gave him a taste of his own medicine. what does he think would happen after headbutting a guy? damn fool. somehow the fans will make it all about Gaines tho.

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    Josh says: April 26th, 2010 at 3:51 am

    Had it coming, huh? Still, falling down with that slap was pretty stupid. Is he known for flopping?

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  • Hayden Fry's last recruiting class - HawkeyeNation Forum said:
    May 8th, 2010 at 5:44 am

    [...] Re: Hayden Fry's last recruiting class Please, try to refrain from the batch slaps. But if you do get batch slapped, don't let them cover you with a sheet. CBA Finals Get Nasty: “Slap Gate” Scandal | Xinjiang: Far West China [...]

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