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    Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association
    Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association
    Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association
    Ebook124 pages2 hours

    Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association

    By Luther Blissett

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    About this ebook

    In the summer of 1997, two Americans each received a lucrative offer to play for a Chinese team they had never heard of, in a league they knew nothing about and alongside a local superstar that was good enough to play in the NBA. What happened next was a season of drama, excitement and absurdity. This book is about the experiences of those two American players and their attempts to understand the colorful world they suddenly found themselves immersed within.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLuther Blissett
    Release dateDec 10, 2019
    ISBN9780463223918
    Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association

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      Book preview

      Alone In The Furnace; Two Americans, A Hometown Hero And A Year Inside The Chinese Basketball Association - Luther Blissett

      Alone in the Furnace

      TWO AMERICANS, ONE HOMETOWN HERO,

      AND A YEAR INSIDE THE CHINESE BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

      Luther Blissett

      Alone in the Furnace

      Blissett, Luther

      Copyright 2019

      First edition

      (License notes) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

      Alone

      in the

      Furnace

      LUTHER BLISSETT

      Chapter 1

      'A Phone Call From China'

      Despite the heavy jetlag, Charlie Mandt had quickly realized things were going to be different. Nineteen hours earlier, he was lugging bags onto a plane out of Atlanta, Georgia. Now he was in the arrivals section of Nanjing Lukou Airport, being stared at by curious locals. In the autumn of 1998, Nanjing was a historic city based in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu but it was not a common destination for foreigners. Eventually Mandt found his way to a desk where his passport was stamped and he walked down a corridor that led out into a new world. The airport was brand new, a reflection of China's sudden drive to modernize its cities after decades of underdevelopment. Mandt knew little of Nanjing's history or the sudden awakening of the Chinese financial juggernaut. Instead, the American was scanning the crowd, looking for anyone who looked like they worked for a basketball team. In time, someone approached him and spoke in blunt, accented English. 'Come with us, please'. It had not been hard for his minders to find Mandt. All they had done was to follow the trail of gawking children gathering around the baggage terminal.

      Two weeks earlier, Mandt had been sitting in his house, calmly waiting for the phone to ring. At twenty-six, the 67, 240lb power forward was a valuable commodity. When he graduated from Grand Valley State University in 1992, Mandt did so with a degree in Communications and a reputation for putting up points in a hurry. In his senior year, he averaged 18.0 points per game and became the first ever GVSU player to be voted Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year. Most of the previous winners had gone on to play professionally, and Mandt wanted to follow in their footsteps. In the summer after graduation, Mandt signed for his hometown Atlanta Eagles in the United States Basketball League. The USBL was a blip on the American basketball map but the Eagles roster was still deep. One of Mandt's teammates, Darrell Armstrong, would eventually play fourteen seasons in the NBA. Scouts regularly attended Eagles games looking for diamonds in the rough. Soon Mandt received his own brush with the NBA, when the Atlanta Hawks brought him in for a brief preseason try-out. The Hawks were intrigued by Mandt's build and midrange game. They were less enamored with his height. At 67, they felt he was a small forward, which was news to Mandt, who had only ever played under the rim. But this was the NBA; Mandt would do whatever it took to make a roster. So in his first practice, Mandt found himself matched up against nine-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer, Dominique Wilkins. Things did not go well. Wilkins was the purest athlete of his generation. Mandt, though fearless and strong as an ox, was not.

      After a week of getting dismantled by Wilkins, Mandt was told to go back to the USBL. It was a tough break although Mandt enjoyed the experience nevertheless. The facilities were slick and the locker rooms looked immaculate. Established players arrived in expensive cars and the training sessions dripped with urgency and expertise. Wilkins had even taken the young trialist to his house and gifted Mandt a pair of signature Reeboks to keep. This was a taste of primetime that Mandt would not forget. If he could get a tryout with the NBA straight out of college, maybe a couple of years playing overseas would help get an actual NBA contract further down the line.

      The opportunity to play abroad arrived sooner than expected. Within days of returning to the USBL, a scout tipped off a team in the British Basketball League, who soon signed him on a one-year deal. His accommodation would be taken care of and the team loaned him a company car. The team also needed to win now and wanted to run the offense through Mandt. As far as first jobs went, Mandt had gotten pretty lucky—but so had the team who signed him. Although he did not return to America with a British championship, Mandt proved himself to be a reliable scorer and rebounder. That stint in the UK led to a contract in France. Offers to play elsewhere in Europe followed twelve months later. Understandably, Mandt had a lot to be happy about. He was living in rent-free apartments, driving company cars and making decent money. But at the same time, Mandt had not forgotten about his time with the Hawks. He was convinced he could be an NBA player. Mandt's chances were helped by the fact that professional scouting was not what it would eventually become. Players routinely fell through the cracks. All-Stars at the time like Charles Oakley, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman had all come from Division II schools. Another NBA star, John Starks, was plucked from the World Basketball League, a backwater league best known for prohibiting players over 6"5.

      All those players had reached the NBA via unusual paths, and by the summer of 1997, Mandt, searching for his own breakthrough, was now in Los Angeles. Every year, the South California Pro League (SCPL) ran during July and was, at the time, the most prominent summer league in the country. It was also the best place for free agents to get onto the radar of NBA coaches. Some attendees had been in the NBA previously. Others, like Mandt, had gone abroad to make ends meet but still yearned for their own NBA opportunity. A number of freshly graduated college players were also in attendance, hoping to continue their own careers despite having gone undrafted. Amid the hullabaloo, many NBA teams would also give their recent draft picks a first taste of professional basketball.

      All the NBA teams had their own rosters that included recent draft picks and some personally selected players. The teams representing the NBA franchises all played in the afternoon, so in the mornings, groups of agents placed all their unattached players together and played games against other teams controlled by other groups of agents. The crowds were often made up of scouts, coaches and representatives of teams based in America but also overseas. There was always a reason to play hard. Sometimes, someone got moved from the morning slot and placed onto an NBA summer league roster so they could be better assessed. Other times, someone might try to sign them for a team in Europe or South America. Every game was a potential job interview and the intensity of each game often caught new attendees by surprise.

      Mandt had already played several morning games. He was running out of time to catch someone's eye but his upcoming contest was the most important one remaining. That day, Mandt's team were scheduled for the final morning slot before the NBA teams played. Scouts and general managers often arrived early to get good seats for the afternoon games. But as both free agent teams shifted onto the floor, Mandt spotted something he had not seen in previous visits to LA. Wearing the same uniform as Mandt was a tall player of Chinese descent. The latter spoke no English and carried himself with a calmness that contrasted sharply with the anxious American free agents. As everyone waited for the game to start, the stranger started high-fiving his teammates. Eventually, he reached Mandt, who decided to break the ice with a greeting, 'nihao ma' —or, what Mandt thought meant 'hello.' The Chinese player continued to high-five other teammates until he realized what had happened and turned to stare at Mandt. It was unclear whether the player was reacting to the imprecise grammar (Mandarin speakers almost never introduce themselves using the 'ma' in that context) or an earnest attempt to break the ice. Either way, Mandt had gotten his attention.

      Soon, the ball was up in the air and everyone realized that this stranger could play. He passed the ball better than most NBA point guards and knocked down shots from almost any spot on the court. In an attempt to draw attention back to them, his American teammates started hoarding the ball. Mandt, however, saw an opportunity. He set screens and dished out passes whenever the stranger got open. Mandt was experienced enough to know that he needed to be a team player who worked both sides of the floor. The game soon finished and the Chinese player vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. Mandt did not think too much about it. He had played a good game in front of a large crowd. Agents and team managers were literally coming down from the stands to speak with players. 'As I walked across the parking lot, there were two or three people offering me overseas contracts right there', he recalls. Mandt, however, was not going to sign anything. He wanted to believe he had done enough to catch the eye of someone from the NBA and finally get the chance he had always dreamed about. It made no sense signing anything that might hinder a potential path to the big time.

      A few days later, Mandt was back in Atlanta. The NBA had not called and neither had anyone else. He was starting to regret not taking the parking lot contracts seriously. A player of his caliber would inevitably get an offer somewhere, although the lack of certainty made his stomach

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