I finally got to see Wei Jian dunk (yes, he’s Singaporean)

By Les Tan

Finally, after four games, I got to see what I wanted to see: home boy Hong Wei Jian with a two-handed dunk in a competitive game for the Singapore Slingers.

Ah, that was good.

Wei Jian intercepted an inbound pass to the Brunei Barracudas point guard, broke for the basket and finished off with a two-handed dunk. It was the second of the night but the first was not as resounding as this one was.

The 24-year-old turned and celebrated with arms outstretched and a look of acknowledgment to the crowd, some of whom stood to their feet to cheer the effort.

He deserved the applause. After all, folks came to be entertained and he delivered it.

Sure, the Barracudas’ Mike Pilgrim had a monster dunk and Kyle Jeffers also had one for the Slingers, but hey, those guys are over 2m. It was that much sweeter to see a 1.8m, fellow Singaporean do it.

“I’ve been waiting for this chance since day one of the season, and I finally got it last night,” said Wei Jian. “Even during the Barracudas inbound play at the opposite side, I was already telling myself [that] if I manage to intercept the ball, I’m going for a dunk for sure, and it really happened.

“I have to admit that I felt really high right after the dunk, opening my arms to celebrate as if we got some celebration time like soccer. Come to think of it, luckily the player I was guarding didn’t counter with a fastbreak on me, otherwise both coaches will be jumping on me.”

Pity about the crowd, though. Only 1,100 (official ABL figure) saw Wei Jian’s dunks, leading one Red Sports reader to lament:

“I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing that can be done to get Singaporeans to come down to the stadium. Over the past few seasons everyone used to say that there is a lack of marketing for the Slingers.

“Well, this pre-season, there is an article every day in the Today paper, there has been a half hour show on TV, Red Sports has been covering the heck out of the Slingers and still only 1000 people show up. Even in the second season of the NBL around 2500 people used to show up with lots of Aussie expats,” said a reader who goes by the nickname Moh.

A lot of folks still think the Slingers are a foreign team because in the first three years, they played with an Australian-dominated team. The first two years, they played in the Australian National Basketball League, a competition that few Singaporeans cared for. Last year, they played a series of friendly games after pulling out of the league but their roster was still dominated by Caucasians.

It’s a bit of a thrill now to see Wei Jian, Pathman, Michael Wong, Lim Wai Sian, Desmond Oh, Wong Wei Long and Steven Khoo take to the court regularly. The new structure – two internationals and three ASEAN players – demands it.

The Barracudas fell apart partly because once their starting five of two Americans and three Filipinos started getting into foul trouble or just plain got exhausted, they had to go to their bench of Bruneian players. Because the Barracudas pre-season training was insufficient, the team could not gel and they fell to the Slingers.

The same for the Slingers. There are no bit roles for the seven Singaporeans. They have to chip in or the the whole team won’t last the remaining 14 games and the post-season playoffs if the Singaporeans don’t stand up to be counted.

To help our student readers out, we at Red Sports arranged with the Singapore Slingers management to give readers the cheapest ticket in town (Get the cheapest Slinger ticket in town with Red Sports).

Yesterday was just the first game and there are seven more home games but Singaporeans don’t tend to go out for sports events, if our poll (see below) is any indication. What’s more, this is a sports site and yet so few go watch live games.

However, we think the Singapore player is worth supporting, don’t you?

Check out the Weijian dunk by Slinger fan Gabriel Chia
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoqTwnZJh4

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