这年头，NBA里面有头有脸的人物总爱扎堆儿往中国跑，教个课，站个台，炫个技，代个言……这背后支撑的乃是我大天朝自“灌篮高手”伊始，热捧篮球多年衍生的庞大商业市场，更不用说去年底国家模仿当年“乒乓外交”搞的一连串篮球国际合作的大动作了。篮球玩儿的转，你开心，祖国也开心。

By Simina Mistreanu

One recent evening, I met a man at a restaurant in my neighborhood. He was American – from Wichita, Kansas, where I used to live – and a basketball player. He had come to China to work with a basketball club in Zhejiang Province training elementary and middle school children. He said basketball is becoming hugely popular in China.

这天晚上，在我家附近的餐馆里碰到一个美国人，来自我曾经住过的堪萨斯城的威奇托。他是一名篮球球员，在浙江的一个体育基础培训学校执教。聊天中，他说篮球在中国已经非常流行了。

I became curious and looked up some information about basketball in China. What I found was enough to make me want to write a story.

Basketball is indeed hugely popular in China, where it has been played since it was introduced by YMCA missionaries in the late 19th century. China is in fact the NBA’s second-largest market after the U.S. What’s even more interesting is that last October, the NBA and China’s Ministry of Education announced a partnership to develop basketball curricula in elementary, middle schools and high schools around the country.

篮球在中国的火爆程度不言自明。自从十九世纪晚期被基督教青年会的传教士引入中国以后，篮球运动就在中国不断发酵，到现在，中国实际上已经是NBA除美国之外最大的市场了。更有趣的是，去年十月，NBA和中国教育部宣布了一项合作计划，在中国的中小学推广篮球课程。

Earlier in 2014, NBA and Yao Ming launched the NBA Yao Basketball Club, which offers after-school and weekend training for children of all skill levels. Smaller independent basketball clubs have sprouted all across the country in the past decade.

去年早些时候，NBA和姚明联手创立了NBA姚明篮球俱乐部，给各个水平的儿童提供课后及假期篮球训练。不仅如此，过去的十年里，小规模的独立篮球俱乐部在全国范围内雨后春笋般的冒了出来。

The main reason for this newfound interest in basketball education for children is the rise in Chinese living standards.

儿童篮球教育兴盛的背后是中国公民整体生活水平的提升。

“People have more money to do extra things such as sports,” said Jet Su, founder of Beyond the Dream Basketball Club in Zhejiang province.

“手里有闲钱了，自然就会在一些附加生活项目比如运动上投资。”

Coaches also see a slight change in culture: Whereas students were traditionally required to dedicate all of their time to studying for the National College Entrance Exams, now parents are starting to see the value in offering their children recreational opportunities through team sports, said Shaan Price, teaching director at NBA Yao Basketball Club.

而篮球教练则看到了中国社会文化的些微变化。过去，学生总是被迫把所有的时间投入到备战高考；而现在，父母们开始意识到引导孩子参加集体性运动的必要性。

For the Chinese government, the partnership with the NBA is partly a diplomatic move. Vice-premier Liu Yandong compared it with the “ping pong diplomacy” that helped China and the U.S. resume their formal relationship 37 years ago.

对中国政府来说，和NBA的合作从某一方面也是一项外交举措。副总理刘延东就曾经把这次合作跟37年前为中美关系破冰的“乒乓外交”类比。

I’m not a fan of team sports. I have no interest in playing them or reading about them, and I don’t like to watch them on TV. (OK, maybe except for football during the World Cup.)

我不是特别热衷团体性运动，我不玩这些运动，也不想了解它们，甚至看电视的时候也不会瞄一眼（好吧，除了世界杯期间）。

But I’m passionate about everything that’s collateral to sports – stories that illuminate social, economic and cultural issues, as they relate to sports.

不过我倒是对运动的兴盛带来的衍生话题十分热衷，比如运动影响下的社会、经济和文化等等。

In this case, the story about basketball education reveals something about the Chinese economy – people have more disposable income for sports; its politics – the Chinese governments sees its partnership with the NBA as a tool to improve Sino-U.S. relations; and its culture – Chinese students used to cram math, science, reading and English lessons to the exclusion of everything else, whereas now some parents allow them to make time for physical activities.

回到篮球运动，中国的篮球教育揭示了社会各方面的脉象。经济上——人们有更多可支配收入用于运动；政治上——以中美篮球教育合作促中美经济合作；文化上——学生从填鸭式教育走出来，有了球场这片用武之地。

Some writers do a good job illuminating larger issues through sports stories.

My favorite is Wright Thompson, a writer for ESPN The Magazine. In his story “Ghosts of Mississippi,” he writes about the remarkable 1962 season for the American football team Ole Miss of the University of Mississippi, which coincided with riots sparked by the admittance of the first black student into the university. His story is about sports, that’s right, but it’s also about the unpleasant truth of racial hatred in the American South.

ESPN杂志曾刊登Wright Thompson的一篇文章，“密西西比的鬼魂”。他写到1962年美国密西西比大学足球赛季和同时期发生的第一个黑人学生走进大学造成的当时社会动荡的史实。故事本身是关于运动的，却也揭示了当时美国南部种族仇恨这一不愉快的事实。

In “Shadowed by the Hand of God,” Thompson illustrates the divides in the Argentinian culture, as illustrated by the supporters of football player Lionel Messi and his famous predecessor Diego Maradona. And in “When the Beautiful Game Turns Ugly,” he shows the racism that permeates the Italian society and affects the players of color in Italian football teams.

在另一篇文章“上帝‘只手遮天’”，他阐述了由阿根廷球星梅西的支持者和他的前辈球星马拉多纳对立而导致的阿根廷文化的分化。在“当漂亮的比赛变得丑陋”，他展现了种族主义笼罩下的意大利社会，以及它如何影响了意大利足球队的整体士气。

Another great sports writer is Gary Smith, of Sports Illustrated. He is known for his empathetic storytelling that sheds light on the human character. His story “Sports Illustrated” documents the Crow Indians’ prowess at basketball, but also their inability to use it to escape the reservation because many of them become parents and alcoholics before they finish high school.It’s basically a story about the problems facing Native Indian communities, but told through the prism of high school basketball.

另一个著名的体育写手是《体育画报》的Gary Smith。他擅长以善解人意的叙事口吻勾勒出故事里的复杂人性。“一个国家的阴影”同时记录了克劳印第安人（北美大平原印第安人，美洲土著居民）在篮球场上的英勇和在生活中的无能为力，因为他们中的大多数在高中毕业前就已经开始酗酒或有了小孩。这是土著印第安人群体共同面临的问题，然而通过高中篮球教育这一棱镜被折射出来。

Add some of these stories to your holiday reading list, and then take a ball out and play.

十一长假，不妨读一读这篇文章，然后拿出篮球，开始炫技吧！