MOST MEMORABLE
Flying over the Arctic Circle at sunset. Simply breathtaking. The team charter flew over the top of the world on the way to China. Enormous mountains, glaciers, no sign of humans for hours, frozen rivers with cliff faces hundreds of feet high. For a fanatical lover of the great outdoors, it was a scene I'll never forget.
BEST MOMENT
When a Chinese journalist said, "All Americans look alike."
BRUSH WITH COMMUNISM
The military's presense in Beijing is a little outrageous, to say the least. A Chinese friend told me that elections were about to start, so there was heightened security. I was like, "Elections? What the?" Anyway, I tried to take my picture with this guy and almost got arrested, or something like that. He didn't want me on his little box. Go fig...
BEST MEAL
Tofu on the left, sweet and sour shrimp in the middle and "assorted" fried rice on the right. The restaurant was located just outside of the Forbidden City in Beijing. A sign in English read: "High sanitation rating." Best Chinese I've ever eaten.
NBA BEER
David Stern's best idea in years.
Pretty sure these girls aren't old enough to actually drink this NBA beer, but whatever.
THE BUS DRIVER
See this nice guy. Looks pretty sweet, right. He was the Heat's bus driver in Beijing and he was an absolute maniac. He tried to run people down with his bus.
LEBRON WINS AT EVERYTHING
So, LeBron had a few promotional appearances in China and I attended one of them in Shanghai. LeBron sells doughnuts and ice cream in China. OK, whatever. During the event, LeBron had a chopsticks contest against some kids. Put the doughnut nuggets (or whatever you call them) on the crown like jewels. LeBron won. He wins at everything. Even chopsticks contests against the Chinese!
TRASH
There's no trash in Beijing (apparently the penalty for littering is pretty severe) so the sanitation workers sweep up leaves. If only the Chinese were this concerned about air quality.
SILK MARKET
That's me in the "silk market" in Shanghai. Players and Heat staff members loved the markets in both Shanghai and Beijing. You could haggle for stuff like knockoff headphones, watches and handbags. I didn't buy anything. I did, however, rock the Wyoming state flag on my T-shirt.
TIANANMEN SQUARE
Pretty big place. The street between the temple and the square is 20-lanes wide -- big enough to land military aircraft in times of war (or so I was told). There seemed to be about a million Chinese tourists in the square the day I visited it. Great experience but the National Mall is about 1,000 times cooler. Hey, call me biased.
THE GREAT WALL
A wedding party was taking photos on the Wall the day we visited. I was like, "Congratulations. This Wall is like one big metaphor for the rest of your life."
MIKE MILLER...
Flew with the team to China but he didn't "let it fly" once he got there. Miller didn't play in either game against the Clippers. He did, however, have a good time.
HUANGPU RIVER
In Shanghai, this river never sleeps.
SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING
In China, this guy never slept.
THE SUBWAY
I braved the subway in Beijing. Good times.
ODDEST QUOTE
So, there's a section in Shanghai called The Bund. It's a pretty famous place and a popular nightlife locale for internationals. So, I'm walking down the street in The Bund and this guy walks up to me and says in broken English: "Sexy lady message? Sexy lady message? Girl? Boy?" China...yeah.
This blog post has zero comments and rightfully so.
Posted by: Some guy | Monday, October 15, 2012 at 04:25 PM
And your wife was worried you wouldn't be able to get the "Chinese experience" while traveling with the team...Ha!! Glad you enjoyed yourself, looking forward to hearing more stories.
Posted by: Emily | Monday, October 15, 2012 at 04:50 PM
Very insightful look into the team with this drivel. Glad you got a free vacation out of your limited time at this gig, Goodman.
Posted by: Richie | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 12:22 AM
Richie, wow. Lighten up, my friend. I was off yesterday and put up a few pics. Sheesh.
Posted by: Joe | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 08:37 AM
You're a sweet kid, Joe
Posted by: Richie | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Really people?
There is only so much basketball that can be dissected in mid-October. The Heat took a trip to China, so Joe reports on it. If he wouldn't written anything, some bored blogger would be in his face about 'not even posting pictures from the trip'.
Some people are either jealous, bored, or always angry about their lives and it shows.
This Championship caliber team will give us plenty to debate about in the next 8 months, but I guess we need to start the arrow slinging now, and Joe is our only target.
Maybe it's jealousy. If I was single with no family, I'ld love to have Joe's job. What, follow the Heat around and report on it? I think I would give it a go for a couple of months. (Sorry Joe, I'm sure I've simplified your job, and not accounting for the travel, long hours, and other commitments that come with this job that we, the public, are not aware of).
Thanks for the pics padre!
Looking forward to the season getting rolling.
Posted by: greggembe | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 01:34 PM
How was the massage?
Posted by: Bob Greasy | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 02:07 PM
Greg...I think Joeseph is a married man...to a woman. But hey, aim high my man.
Posted by: Richie | Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 12:53 AM