|
 According to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), 300 million
people play the sport in China and for a majority of them, five-time
NBA champion Bryant has become something of a cult figure.
For Zhang Weiping, a former basketball player and coach in China who
now works as a television analyst, Bryant's extraordinary popularity
in his homeland comes as no surprise.
"Lots of people around the world love Kobe and some people hate him
but in China most of the people, the fans, love him," Weiping, 65,
told Reuters after watching the 37-year-old Bryant play his final
NBA game, against the Utah Jazz in Los Angeles.
"They love him because of his character, his personality, his
basketball skill and also because no matter how difficult things
were, he always met the challenge.
"Michael Jordan is top in China for the older generation but for the
younger generation Kobe is number one. They love Kobe much more than
LeBron (James) in China."
 Asked where he would rank in popularity compared with China's
best-known player, eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming, the
ever-smiling Weiping replied: "Kobe first, then Yao Ming second."
Weiping, who was the second-highest scorer at the 1978 FIBA World
Championship as a slashing-dunking forward on the Chinese national
team, also pointed to Bryant's excellent marketing skills.
"He has learned a few words in Mandarin but it's much more than
that, he uses social media networking very well," said Weiping, who
has worked as a basketball commentator for China Central Television
for more then two decades.
"And even before social media, he was very popular in China because
of TV. We broadcast a lot of Lakers games and also Nike promoted him
so that helped make him the most popular NBA player in China."
Bryant, an 18-time All-Star who scored a season-high 60 points in
his final NBA game against the Jazz on Tuesday, has held several
training camps in China and also embarked on 'fan engagement' tours.
[to top of second column] |
SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING
He signed a deal with online shopping giant Alibaba to sell his
merchandise in China and when he announced last November his
decision to retire from the NBA, he shared that post with his 4
million followers on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Bryant's final NBA game was streamed live in China by Tencent, the
Asian nation's largest digital platform, with Weiping calling the
play-by-play.
Tencent says it was the company's most-viewed game of all time with
38.9 million video streams and 11 million live viewers. On Chinese
social media, the #ThankYouKobe and #Kobe hashtags generated 370
million impressions.
With Bryant finally ending a storied career that included scoring
titles, the third-most points in NBA history and a league MVP award
in 2008, Weiping will remember most the shooting guard's mental
strength and 'never-quit' attitude.
"As a player, you always want to meet the challenge, you want to
beat everybody and sometimes you have difficult times but Kobe never
gave up, even through injuries," Weiping said.
"Kobe also said when he was young that he wanted to be one of the
greatest players in the world and win several NBA championships. But
when he got older, he said he started to understand that there is no
destination, it's a journey.
"And it's a journey which continues from one generation to another
so, as a retired player, he wants to pass on his lessons to the next
generation, not just on basketball but life lessons. That is what
has impressed me most about Kobe."
(Editing by Andrew Both)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
