Isaac
Last year

Ben Simmons donates basketball court to Chinese town

In today's random news:

Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons has donated a basketball court to Machang Town of Gui'an New Area in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

"I'm very excited and happy to announce the court donation. Deep thanks to Ambassador Huang Ping and Guizhou government. I first visited China to play basketball when I was 16 years old, and then again as an NBA player. I always enjoyed visiting the people, and the fans are always so welcoming, and the love for basketball there is incredible. My wish is to bring the joy of basketball to more people, so I wanted to donate a court to help places where people love the game and can benefit from new facilities. I hear people in Guizhou have amazing local basketball tournaments, and they just had this year's final. I wish the people of Guizhou all the best, and hopefully will get to see them soon in the future."

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Even saying "The jokes write themselves" seems too low-hanging.

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twenty four
Last year

Nah stuff it.

Are we really supposed to believe Ben didn't have enough bricks lying around to donate a building too?

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ME (he/kangaroo)
Last year

So... it's basically official - Ben Simmons has signed with the Shanghai Sharks.

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Isaac
Last year

I was trying to work out how this might come about over, say, a donated court in a traditionally disadvantaged part of a major Australian city, or indigenous community.

Australian basketball tours in China are often to fairly random towns looking for investment/clout (one I spectated was in Ningbo), but his statement talked fairly distantly about Guizhou itself so I'm assuming he didn't play in that specific area.

I wondered if it was something to do with Joseph Tsai, but going by Wikipedia, his philanthropical interests have been largely centred in the US. Likewise with his sports ownership. Is it likely that his profile has been scrubbed a bit to hide Chinese influence?

Might've been pitched by a Chinese entity as an investment of some sort? Or PR move? Thing with any Simmons PR moves is that realistically until he starts playing committed basketball, they're probably fairly pointless. And why pitch Simmons when there are countless other players with stronger brands?

Or perhaps he is just generous and his donations are whatever seems worthwhile to him rather than through any strategy. Does he have interests in some future venture in China, and is laying groundwork? (Besides the signing in China jokes, etc.)

Reply #915729 | Report this post

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Ben Simmons donates basketball court to Chinese town

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