rock

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I just spoke to Matt Jung of W Hotel, better known as one of the best ballers in HK. I was speaking to him because I’m writing a feature, my first official one, on basketball in HK with an emphasis on the streetball subculture.

Anyway, during our talk he told me that in the 90s, two Chinese Canadians came to HK and started a basketball magazine named “Rock”. Rock was, in a sense, their attempt to instil sports culture in Hong Kong.

HK lacked it then and it’s still sorely missing now. Matt and I both agreed during our chat that the street games here not only lacks the basic fundamentals or proper streetball etiquettes, but cats just don’t care as much. The play-to-win, no-calling-weak-fouls, yell-at-teammates-if-they-slacking, trash-talking attitude is missing here. Everyone is sensitive. I can’t count how many times people have gotten annoyed/angry/scared at me because I scream a F word during a game. In LA, no one bats an eye. In HK, people are thinking “what the hell is wrong with this guy”.

So back to the two Canadian cats and their magazine Rock. It didn’t last too long because they couldn’t get advertisers or backers. It’s a shame because the idea of the magazine—to support local basketball culture and a look at NBA--is an admirable idea.

I dunno the two dudes but I wish I can meet them so I can shake their hands. They tried. They tried.