Dragon Hoops

January 10, 2015, finds the Bishop O’Dowd Dragons playing against the Sacramento High Dragons. Mr. Yang notes that even O’Dowd’s “large gym” is actually quite small, which makes the gym feel especially crowded. He also notices a man in a wheelchair leaving at the end of the game, whom he identifies as the elderly Phelps when Coach Lou greets him affectionately. Mr. Yang depicts himself with a thought bubble—which contrasts with the more common speech bubbles or descriptive boxes—in which he thinks to himself “no point in taking notes […] I’m leaving him out of the story” (271).

Mr. Yang later goes with the team to Springfield, Missouri, where the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions attracts over 10,000 fans. The Bishop O’Dowd players joke about the preponderance of white people, and Jeevin taunts one player, Mikey, claiming that the Missourians are whiter than him. Mikey protests that, in fact, he goes “hunting and fishing and all that stuff” and, as a result, self-identifies as “redneck white” (272).

Mr. Yang cannot take notes when the team arrives at the arena because he receives a phone call from DC Comics announcing that they plan to reveal Superman’s identity in the comic that he is under contract to write. This upsets the author, who wonders to himself whether such a revelation could cause Superman to stop being Superman.

Meanwhile, Elijah forgot his shoes, but Austin Walker, an injured player, offers to loan him his sneakers. Although they try to escape detection, Coach Lou is suspicious and chides Elijah for not being prepared. An oversized speech bubble shows text such as “getting the spots,” “out-of-bounds guy,” “in-game adjustment,” and “basic two-three” (275) that runs into the margins and demonstrates Mr. Yang’s bewilderment at the fact that, although he understands the words, he does not understand what the coach means.

Mr. Yang hears the opposing fans call Jeevin an “f****** Arab” after he makes a shot. Arinze performs especially well at the game, but Alex Zhao struggles. Although they have only a three-point lead at halftime, the Dragons’ performance in the second half affords them a 53-39 victory. When the team watches the rest of the tournament, fans come up to ask players for their autographs. Alex dances comically to amuse his teammates while the marching band plays.

Back at home, Mr. Yang, as often, confides in his wife while they walk behind their kids—shown riding bicycles in front of them—that he has misgivings about revealing Superman’s identity. His wife is surprised to learn that he plans to accept the offer from DC Comics. Mr. Yang fears that his schedule will become very full. He surprises himself by catching a ball thrown by an apparition of a teenage Lou Richie, who appears in a panel in which he tells Yang that he has to “make tough choices, Yang-man” (281). This conversation with Coach Lou’s apparition is interrupted by his child, who prompts him to chase her down the road.

This chapter opens with a caption that explains the context of China’s “century of humiliation,” which began in the mid-1800s. China suffered severe economic and natural disasters that threatened the country’s prosperity. In 1895, Christian missionaries from the YMCA introduced Naismith’s burgeoning sport of basketball to China as a means of trying to strengthen the Chinese people, and, in turn, their country. Motivated by the West’s challenge to send a Chinese player and team to the Olympics, and eventually even host the Olympic Games, the Chinese worked hard at this new sport.

In 1949, Mao Zedong’s Communist Party expelled the YMCA from China but retained the sport of basketball, which developed in isolation until 1976, when his death allowed American basketball to be broadcast to a Chinese audience. The establishment of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) followed in 1995, and Chinese-born Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming were drafted in 2001 and 2002, respectively; however, the former disappointed expectations with his NBA performance. Ming, too, had a slow start, and, as a result, public opinion began to re-adopt the belief that the Chinese were ill-equipped to play sports. Even Shaquille O’Neal mocked Ming; however, when Ming became the first player to block Shaq’s shots, he gained popularity as his performance improved. By his retirement in 2011, Ming was a three-time NBA All-Star. He honored his country at home by carrying the Chinese flag when the nation hosted the 29th Olympic Games—the first Olympics hosted in China—in 2008.

In a private interview with Mr. Yang, back in the present time of the book, Alex explains that, while Ming was a great player, his retirement left a void that other Chinese players were hard-pressed to fill. Seeking better competition to improve his play, Alex (called “Qianjun” when his parents say a tearful goodbye) comes to America. Taking a fateful step—depicted in the author’s characteristic close-up comic panel—into the airplane, Alex first attends a championship team in Rhode Island, but, when he plays against Ivan, he realizes that he seeks still greater competition in a bigger state. When he transferred to O’Dowd, a league restriction placed him as a junior on the JV team, but Alex explains that being challenged by Arinze, who was also a junior, enhanced his game. The chapter closes as Alex nonchalantly admits that in a 2014-2015 game (his only year on the varsity team), his teeth were knocked out, requiring dental surgery. The final page of the comic panel shows Alex reassuring his mom in a flashback and joking in the present with Mr. Yang, to whom he proudly demonstrates his fake teeth, saying, “[I]t’s only teeth” (318).