China sees 'night of shame' with basketball brawl
BEIJING (Reuters) July 30--- A basketball game between China and visiting Puerto Rico deteriorated into a mass brawl that some state media termed the most shameful night of Chinese basketball and a bad example for the Olympic hosts.....
The bad feeling spilled into the stands where 3,000 home fans hurled insults and missiles, the China Daily reported on Saturday. Officials abandoned the game as the visitors fled to the locker room, one shielding his head with a plastic chair....
China's basketball association deplored the violence as setting a poor example just three years before Beijing hosts the summer Olympics and said it would adopt measures to prevent such violence from recurring.....
Victory in the Stankovic Cup game, abandoned with China ahead 91-80, was later awarded to the hosts. A basketball association official said China accepted the result but should apologize to fans....
in a story headlined "China suffers night of shame," China Daily said the melee "badly hurt the growing reputation of Chinese basketball."
....In August 2004, angry fans went on a rampage in the capital after the national team lost the Asian Cup final to Japan.
