The 25 Spurs fans were a huddled mass, traveling more than 7,000 miles through visa applications with the Chinese government, a series of layovers and some serious jet lag for this one moment at the AT&T Center:
The perfect selfie with Tony Parker.
This week, a group of Spurs fans from China has taken the ultimate spring break trip by spending a week in San Antonio. Most of them are in America for the first time, and they’ve come to attend three Spurs games.
The highlight of the 15,000-mile round trip came when Parker spent about 15 minutes taking photos with the group after the Spurs’ win against the Raptors.
"Xie Xie,” Parker said afterward. Mandarin for “Thank You.”
On Thursday, the group was all in attendance for the Spurs’ overtime loss against Cleveland, and they’ll see Sunday’s game against Minnesota before flying back.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Chen Zhenting, a 24-year-old student. “We watch every Spurs game in China, but it’s so different to see it live.”
The group has come from all parts of China, from Beijing to Guangzhou to Tianjin to Shenzhen, and many fans are meeting each other in-person for the first time this week. Spurs China began a year ago through a message board for fans, and evolved into a group with more than 14,000 members on social media.
Zhong Zheng of Beijing is the 26-year-old founder of the group. He said he’s planned the trip for three months, at a cost of about $4,000 per person. About half of those signed up didn’t get approved for tourist visas from China to San Antonio, but the 25 who made the trip received a full Spurs experience. They’re mostly students in their 20s who spend 82 mornings a year in front of a computer to watch the Spurs via streaming video.
Spurs China took a tour of AT&T Center on Tuesday, raiding the team Fan Shop afterward. One fan, Chang Lau, spent more than $1,000 at the shop, including six jerseys. All of them were for herself, giving Lau half the Spurs lineup on her back.
“I didn’t know what kind of response we’d get,” said Effie Jiang, a student at the University of Texas at Austin who is from Beijing. “If you’re from China and want to come to America to see Taylor Swift, maybe. But I didn’t know about Spurs fans coming all this way for Tim Duncan.”
The explosion of the NBA’s international popularity might be most apparent in China, a country of 1.4 billion that has more people who watch basketball (estimated 450 million) than America’s entire population of 320 million.
Parker has quickly become one of the more popular NBA players in China, thanks to a shoe endorsement with the Chinese company Peak. On Parker’s birthday, Peak and Spurs China helped coordinate birthday celebrations in 10 different cities in China. Parker has taken wildly popular trips to China in the offseason, but Chinese fans are stuck in a horde of thousands to meet Parker in Asia. The Spurs China fans who came to San Antonio were thrilled at the chance to see him up close.
After Tuesday’s game, they got autographs from Danny Green and Parker, as Parker took an individual photo with each group member after posing for a group selfie with the fans.
Zheng said Kobe Bryant may be the most popular NBA player in China, but players such as Parker are gaining ground.
“He was so nice to us, and everyone can go home having spent time with him,” Jiang said. “Really, all the Spurs fans have been so nice. People don’t say ‘hello’ to us, they say ‘Go Spurs Go.’”
Keeping with the Silver & Black theme, a trip to Duncan’s BlackJack Speed Shop is planned. The group also went to the River Walk and took a day trip to outlet malls in San Marcos, but Spurs activities rule the day.
One of the group’s first outings was to Wingstop, because Kawhi Leonard endorses the restaurant.
Their stomachs have struggled a little with food in San Antonio, especially Tex-Mex. Zhenting said most of the travelers, who arrived on Monday, were still jetlagged until Thursday’s night game against Cleveland as well. The late and wild game exhausted the group members to the point where time zones no longer mattered.
“Anyone can go to New York or LA,” Zhenting said. “But the memories we got at Spurs games will always last.”
Click here for more photos of the Spurs China group.