Yeah, I questioned that too when I heard that a new
professional team had just started in Ho Chi Minh City. How tall do these people actually
come? And since when do they even
play basketball here?? But HCMC is
slowly becoming more of an international city and I suppose the sport was on
its way here at some point. The
“Saigon Heat” plays in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) with 7 other teams
from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. As for the dance team for the half time
show…bet you can’t guess the name?
Yeah, you got it…”The Hot Girls”.
Somehow the thought of little Vietnamese girls, whom I usually picture
in innocent white ao dais, in scandalous cut off tops and the shortest of shorts trying
their best to sex it up during the half time show just seems…wrong. But everything comes miniature here,
and so do the “Hot Girls”.
Last fall one of my patients who was involved with
organizing the team asked if I wanted to help them out-be something like the
team physio or whatever. Not
having any idea what I was agreeing to, I said, “sure, why not?” Within the week I was meeting the coach
and the team and being thrown into this VERY new sport to Vietnam. The league itself has rules about
import players, so though I am sure in your mind you are picturing Asians
running amok, its largely imports like Americans and Pilipinos battling it out
on the court. (Did you know that
basketball is the national sport in the Philippines?) The Saigon Heat has their max 5 imports with two very tall
Americans and 3 other Philippine passport holders making up the starting line
up. The rest are national
Vietnamese, some from HCMC and others from Hanoi who get a small amount of
playing time. Coincidentally, the
Head Coach is from Milwaukee, WI, coached for a guy I graduated high school
with (who now plays professionally for Japan), and is personally friends with the
basketball coach from Tosa East (my high school). Small world…
But he is pounding the good old Midwestern work ethic into these guys
and trying to mold them into a winning team best he can. Something I can relate to at least!
They guys loved it when I made them do yoga ;)
My role didn’t come with a job description, so as the season
went on, it morphed from physical therapist to trainer to Ho Chi Minh City advisor to “team
mom”…what? Yeah, I don’t know how
that happened either-but it turns that that no matter how old they are, guys
still need someone to take care of them ;) But my position with them also meant that I got the
opportunity to travel to the away games and see cities that I may otherwise not
have gotten the chance to see such as Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and
Singapore. More importantly, I got
the chance to try the local foods…which of course was my favorite part! In Manila, because a couple of the
players lived there, I got a chance to really see the city-touring safely
inside their cars. The Pilipino
players and their families graciously made huge efforts to show me the “local”
side of Manila…including taking me out for amazing seafood feasts and treating
me to homemade meals of pork, fish and beef local specialties.
Kristine (one of the player's fiancee's) and her mom with the awesome dinner they made in Manila!
The first home game that I attended with the team was
against the San Miguel Beermen from the Philippines…wonder who sponsors
them… The arena that they play in
in Ho Chi Minh City is a bit rough around its edges, but works anyway. The place holds enough seating for
2,000 and the game was sold out and jam packed! This was definitely an anomaly…a sport that is so rarely
played here that included with each ticket was a flyer explaining the rules of
the game and when to (or more importantly when NOT to) cheer had a sold out
game… was a shock to just about everyone.
My irritations and complaints with this country are endless, BUT the
pride that this country also has for its new 1st professional
basketball team is priceless. Made
me remember why this city is so special sometimes-the MAJORITY of the fans
attending the game literally had no idea what was going on, but were so
thrilled about this new sport in Vietnam that they came out in droves, complete
with huge signs to cheer on their new home team.
The start of the season was rocky to say the least…but the
fans continued to fill the stadium with each home game win or lose and
progressively got more and more lively.
They began creating giant posters with players names and numbers,
created huge cartoon figures with the player’s faces, painted themselves, learned to heckle the
opposing teams, and mauled the players after the games with requests for
autographs and pictures. The team
broke record after record for the league in game attendance and by the end of
the season nearly all of Ho Chi Minh City, expats and locals, were clambering
for tickets to the final game. To
say that I have never experienced something like this before is an understatement…the
games were true to American custom-Vietnamese style-with time out
entertainment, half time entertainment, t-shirts being catapulted into the
stands and music so loud my ears would ring all night. The shows were anything from
a flash mob to a popular Vietnamese singer performing live to a scandalous “Hot
Girls” dance routine.
The ridiculousness, absurdity or whatever you want to refer
to it as would not have been complete without an actual recorded “Saigon Heat”
theme song and “Hot Girls” music video…which I included here as a link because
they are extremely entertaining!! (Added bonus is that one of the Vietnamese basketball players debuts in the dance video!)
But working with the team has been really fun and I enjoyed
hauling my treatment table into the stadium every day and laying my elbow into
their aches and pains. It’s not
exactly typical for an Asian team to have a physio on staff because we tend to
be expensive, but luckily for them I was willing to help out for the experience
itself-chalk it up to career building and future investments-so it ended up
that I was affordable enough. Who
knows what the future holds for the Saigon Heat, but maybe I will get another
chance to sit aside the players during the games, travel again with the team
and lend my expertise in keeping the guys on their feet during the season!
Here is a little extra entertainment and a link to my 20 seconds of shame...I mean fame...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJLWaBwYKjM
And a few other bits & pieces of my contribution...
http://www.saigonheat.com/en/news/73/practice-yoga-and-flexibility-with-saigon-heat.html
http://www.saigonheat.com/en/coach/70/trainer-chantel-gorton.html
Here is a little extra entertainment and a link to my 20 seconds of shame...I mean fame...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJLWaBwYKjM
And a few other bits & pieces of my contribution...
http://www.saigonheat.com/en/news/73/practice-yoga-and-flexibility-with-saigon-heat.html
http://www.saigonheat.com/en/coach/70/trainer-chantel-gorton.html
