The Language of the Game

Amid the steady drum of bouncing basketballs and the squeak of rubber soles, a voice calls out to players on a court. Pausing briefly, the players listen and nod, their muscles tensed and ready for the next play. Suddenly, they spring back into motion. The melee continues.

This scenario unfolds daily at basketball camps around the world. Young players, in the hope of improving their skills, learn from coaches about the fundamentals of the game. Yet, on this court the coach is Kevin Owens ’19, players attend the CBA Dongguan Basketball School in southern China, and all instructions are  in Mandarin Chinese.

From mid-May to late June, Owens served as an intern at the school, a collaboration between NBA China and the owners of the CBA Dongguan Leopard Professional Basketball Team. The school enrolls approximately 170 boys in grades 7-12 and develops elite youth talent in China. Owens drew on his experience as a center for Trinity Men’s Basketball as he coached athletes, led practices, acted as a referee, wrote game film sessions, and helped organize a coach’s clinic.

“This experience allowed me to improve my Chinese, to gain leadership skills as a coach, and to understand the business side of the school,” Owens says. “I compared differences in basketball between the U.S. and China in the style of play, the approach to practices, and game structure.”

As an intern, Owens lived in the school dormitories and worked under mentor and basketball technical director Bruce Palmer, as well as a number of other coaches. He primarily coached the 15U team, or the 14 to 15-year-old players. On Mondays and Thursdays, the practices focused on player development, where Owens coached individual skills. Tuesdays and Fridays were team concept days, where players would work on plays and teamwork. Wednesdays and Saturdays were game days where players faced inter-school teams, Chinese teams, or international high schools, clubs, or collegiate squads.

Originally from Austin, Texas, Owens is an aspiring Chinese and international business double major. He studied Chinese all throughout high school and will be taking Intermediate II at Trinity in the fall. Although Owens was rarely without a translator in Dongguan, he made a purposeful effort to use Chinese, striking up conversations with players and even with strangers in the city. He preferred to address players himself, as speaking through a translator could take too long when offering constructive criticism on a play.

“Occasionally there was some confusion with translation, but multiple times I coached teams all on my own,” Owens says. “While there were differences in style and approach, the core of the game was the same and basketball became a common language for me while in China.”

In addition to coaching, Owens was also able to travel from Dongguan to Hong Kong to watch the annual dragon boat festival. While there, he also visited Man Mo Temple, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum, and Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island. Traveling to Hong Kong allowed Owens to compare the former British colony to his summer home. Owens returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on basketball and an eagerness for his own season to begin.

“Living in Dongguan, I was able to make new friends, learn new things, and grow in my own skills,” Owens says. “While there are differences, I found that basketball is universal and, like all sports, it can bring people together around the world.”