On this episode, feedback from last week’s interview with Rudi Ying (0:50), ESPN’s detailed look at Nets owner Joe Tsai (1:34), the NBA’s (very) rocky road back to televised games in China (2:53), why — perhaps — the Clippers were shown on China’s national broadcaster first (4:38), why the Sixers and Celtics drew longer bans than the rest (6:00), an absence of new material in the ESPN article (6:52), and Lebron James raging at other players about then-Rockets GM Daryl Morey (8:23).
Our guest this week is Greg Squires, a “heritage” ice hockey player — i.e. a North American of Chinese descent —who started the season with China’s Kunlun Red Star (KRS) but is now back in the U.S. (9:46). Squires explains how he first got scouted by KRS (11:14), after wondering how the team even knew about his Chinese roots (12:00). He was recalled to the side in 2021 with the promise of an Olympic spot (13:48) but ended up being cut alongside four other players (14:31).
Squires offers his opinions on the best mix of homegrown and heritage players for China and reveals whether the local players were ready to play pro hockey (16:03). He says political priorities were more important than performance (19:09) and describes the divisions between the heritage and local players (21:03). Chinese hockey authorities, he says, tried to stop players on the men’s team from discussing their contract situations with those on the women’s team (23:34), adding that there was a sense of relief by the time his KRS contract was terminated (26:09).
Squires also reveals what was it like to watch his former teammates play at the Olympics (27:20), scrapes the barrels in his search for positives about the direction of the game in China (27:54), and laments the fact that KRS failed to do any marketing or fan outreach in China (29:30). He offers his thoughts on why the women’s team has seen more success than the men’s (31:57), shares some of the wildest things that happened with the team on the road (35:30), including one story involving legendary coach Mike Keenan (37:24), gives an update on the rest of his season in Sweden and his future plans (38:54), and reveals one thing he would love to change about Chinese hockey (40:27).
