Shanghai gets its celebrities

You’ll never guess who was kneeling in front of the journalists’ table at the NBA pre-season game between the Cavaliers and the Magic Wednesday night in Shanghai. Kenny G.

“Is that Kenny G?” the Associated Press reporter next to me asked earlier in the evening, signaling to a man who looked like the shaggy-haired saxophonist.

Couldn’t be, I thought to myself. This is Shanghai, not Miami Beach.

“Is Kenny G famous in your country, too?” the Chinese reporter from Xinhua on the other side piped in, overhearing our conversation.

Wherever there are elevators and elevator music, Kenny G is famous, and there are plenty of elevators in China. Kenny G was soon urged to take a bow before the crowd at the arena.

I hadn’t seen an NBA game in half a decade or so, and I was looking forward to the one tonight. By the buzzer, only about half the seats in Qizhong Arena were occupied, perhaps because the beautiful facility is nearly an hour outside of Shanghai. The NBA did its best to make the game like one in the States or Canada. But I must say it was one with “Chinese characteristics.”

First off, there were hordes of scalpers outside the arena, running toward anyone looking like they might have cash. That was the first sign that the NBA may have fibbed that the arena was sold out. Scalpers were waving tickets in the air several hundred yards away. At the gates, throngs of scalpers were gathered. We had to push our way through them.

For people worried about getting tickets to Beijing Olympics events, this is good news. They’ll say the events are sold out but scalpers will have boxes of tickets and be out in force. If they can’t sell, the prices will drop fast.

I was a little astonished at how many people the NBA brought along for these three China games. They’ll be games Thursday and Saturday nights in Macau as well. It’s not only the teams and coaches. There are also cheerleading squads from each side, dozens of security personnel, scorekeepers, promoters and PR staff, as well as endless front office people.

Lastly, the stadium had inordinate numbers of Chinese security guards. One security guard made an effort to shoo me away as I took a short video of the Cavaliers’ bench.

Comments

[A B]

Were those celebrities 'Shanghaied'?

Did all the cheer leading squads, security personnel, scorekeepers, promoters, PR staff and front office people from each team form a united front?