Shanghai

Today’s post is going to be a little bit different than others in that this post is from one of my readers. It’s always great seeing other people stumble upon my blog and get inspired to play basketball around the world and share their experience. Today’s blog is brought to you by Tim.

FYI – I encouraged Tim to take pictures of the courts but he did not…fail…

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This was actually my 4th time playing basketball in Shanghai, but first time by myself. There were a lot of courts I knew about but for this instance, I played at Yuanshen Stadium and Jingan Sculpture Park.

Finding and getting to the court (Yuanshen 7, Jingan 7)

Yuanshen Stadium is a multipurpose stadium with its own subway stop (Line 6) but you may need to walk around the perimeter of the stadium to get to the courts, which are on Zhangyang Rd.

The Jingan Sculpture Park is near the Natural History Museum stop (Line 13) and is located on the northeast corner of the park, which is not that big.

The Basketball Court (Yuanshen 9, Jingan 6)

There are 9 well-maintained full courts with glass backboards, plus several half court hoops at Yuanshen Stadium.

The court at Jingan Sculpture Park is one single fenced court but playable. Balls seemed to bounce off the backboard oddly.

The Players (Yuanshen 6, Jingan 2)

With basketball being a newer yet very popular sport in China, there are many players who have very awkward playing motions and also do not really understand team play. Some players might actually finish some awkward moves with surprising regularity, but on average the level of play is fairly poor. The average height is probably around 5’8″, and at 6’0″ I played center in about half my games.

I gave Yuanshen a 6 because of the large number of courts/players, there’s usually at least one court where the level of play is fairly high. On my previous two trips I played in some competitive games at Yuanshen where the average height was probably close to 6’0″, though this time more than half the courts were empty (it had also recently rained). Each time I went on a weekday late afternoon.

The Game (competitive games 7, other games 2)

The standard for pickup games in China appears to be 4-on-4 half court to 5 pts by 1’s, so games can be very short. If there is no one waiting, sometimes people just play on without keeping score, which makes games even less competitive than they usually are.

Getting into a game is relatively easy. Oddly enough Chinese people are pretty civil when it comes to pickup basketball (compared to anywhere else in China), generally all you have to do is just find out who is next or look like you’re ready to play next.

As mentioned team play is nonexistent in most games, with most players preferring 1 on 1 moves rather than screens. Defense is also very lacking, particularly off-ball awareness. With most players lacking the range to shoot 3s or long 2s, the middle of the court is typically overcrowded. Many possessions end in a horrible contested mid-range jumper or a wide open layup on a defensive lapse. Foul calls are also generally very soft, with almost any sort of contact frequently leading to a foul call. The defense stopped the game themselves when they committed a (ticky-tack, in my opinion) foul on a few occasions.

The competitive games I played were more similar to games in the US, with more physicality, more ball movement, and more spacing.

Conclusion

Overall, the pickup basketball culture is much more friendly, and there is almost nothing resembling trash talking. With all the courts in Shanghai, this can make it easy for someone just looking to join a game to get some shots up, but frustrating for someone looking for a more competitive game. An area with lots of courts like Yuanshen Stadium would be my recommendation (see link for other options), as with the sheer number of players there is likely to be a wide range of abilities and options for games to join.