Vintage Flashback: Living Dangerously 🇨🇳

2019 · Shanghai, China

Final whistle.

Age 54.

Last paycheck cashed.

That’s how my professional playing career ended—deep inside the underground Wildball circuit of China.

What. A. Ride.

For three of the eight years I lived in the Middle Kingdom, I wasn’t just coaching—I was a hired gun.

Any organization willing to pay to bring in a “black foreigner” for grimy, no-rules, cash-only showdowns?

I was available.

Some of the places this game dragged me to were straight out of a fever dream.

No tourism.

No translators.

No safety net.

Just basketball… and adrenaline.

Yes, playing Wildball in massive arenas inside China’s mega-cities was electric.

But the real stories?

They lived in the second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities—places most people never see, never hear about, never forget if they survive them.

One trip deep into the Chinese mountains still rattles around in my bones.

Picture this:

Probably the only Black man within a 3,000-mile radius.

Entire villages seeing a Black person for the first time ever.

And yet—

No fear.

Not once.

Because basketball is the great equalizer.

The Chinese have a deep, almost spiritual reverence for the game. Once the ball went up, everything else disappeared. Every step I took. Every game I played. I was protected—every single time.

That’s why I stayed.

Eight years.

In the photo below, at 54 years old, I’m playing against the Chinese military’s professional team—the BiYi Rockets, who compete in the Chinese Basketball Association.

That same journey led to a relationship with one of BiYi’s most celebrated players—an Olympic national treasure—which opened the door for me to be hired as a skills and strength coach for the 2018 Chinese National Team, preparing for the World Cup on home soil.

And yes…

Being the only Black man living inside the Chinese Olympic Village among their world class athletes, was a vibe.

That story deserves its own chapter

Some lives are lived in straight lines.

Mine ran full-court… overseas.

Michael Kennedy

@hoopstheoryx @athleticentrepreneur