A series of farmer basketball games like NBA finals held in a village of central China's Henan Province from Feb. 10 to 12, which is called Chinese farmer's NBA.
The farmer basketball games lasted almost one year from preseason to finals, and all the players are farmers from all over Henan. Although the skills of these farmer players are not very good, they enjoyed themselves very much.
The finals held in a village named Daying located in the west part of Henan, and attracted thousands of farmers to see the games.
The Chinese farmer's NBA also has four sections, preseason, regular season, playoffs and finals. Preseason held in villages, and it's the most funny part in the whole season.
"I took part in the games since 2003. Almost all the playgrounds were made of soil at that time, and mud attached to skin and teeth after a game", said 33-year-old Li Hongwei, who is the coach of one team participating in the finals and lived in a little village in west part of Henan.
"Every game attracts lots of farmers to see. Sometimes they climb up trees and stand on the roof to see the match since there was not enough space to stand," said Li.
The games in villages also have commentators and sponsors. The sponsors are diverse such as a restaurant, shop or a little factory, which just provide dinner, beverage or the prize.
"Skills and results are not important because the farmers are having fun," said Li.
In regular season, the games played between counties and got the winners to qualify the playoffs between cities.
"The farmer basketball games were organized by themselves before 2003 in west part of Henan, and then the sports authority spread it to the whole province, and now about 300 thousand farmers took part in the games every year," said Shi Zhanxiang, an official of sports bureau of Henan province.
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