It was pretty ugly.  

One of the things that struck me was that this was a professional Chinese team.  And they were being schooled by a US college team.  You would think their professional pride would have led them to simply play better, but I guess not…   Could you imagine the US analogue: an NBA team playing Georgetown?  Clearly, the NBA is quite literally in another league and the Hoyas would be at a serious disadvantage.  But if the going go rough, what would, say, the Timberwolves do?  Raise their game, because, mostly likely, they could raise their game.  Bayi, lagging behind, even with the advantage of friendly referees, had nowhere to go.  They couldn't play their way out, so they rumbled.  Yes, I am laying it at the feet of Bayi – and I may not be alone in that opinon.  

But let me add something from the classics.  They kind of aggressive competitiveness on display on Thursday night runs counter to the sensibilities of Confucianism and Daoism.  Confucius, in particular, understood sports, such as archery, as simply another means through which a civilized person expressed his or her humanity:

The Master said: "The noble-minded never contend.  It's true that archery is a kind of contention.  But even then, they bow and yield to each other when stepping up to the range.  And when they step down, they toast each other.  Even in contention, they retain their nobility." (3.7)

Indeed, the Chinese embrace of competitive athletics, symbolized most aptly by the 2008 Olympics, could be taken as a sign of the concomitant lack or weakness of Confucian cultural practice.  "The noble-minded never contend"….  somehow I think the Bayi players are not regular readers of The Analets.

Zhuangzi, in a somewhat similar vein, sees competitiveness as an expression of something problematic in human nature:

Games of skill and cleverness begin in a light mood, but they always end up dark and serious.  And if things go far enough, it's nothing but guile.  Drinking at ceremonies begins orderly enough, but it always ends up wild and chaotic.  And if things go far enough, it's nothing but debauchery.  All our human affairs seem to work like this.  However, sincerely they begin, they grow enormously complex before they're over. (55)

He would not be surprised at the fight.  That's what people tend to do when put in such circumstances.  It is, however, the circumstances that he would question: does such aggressive competitiveness distract us from Way?  Is it a vain and self-absorbed folly that keeps us from seeing and respecting the natural unfolding of things in Way?  Yeah, it probably is.  Zhuangzi would not play the game; he would not even be in the arena or watching on TV.  He would likely be watching the stars and moon….