Over in China, there’s a league called the Dream Basketball League that imposes a maximum height of 1.88m (6′ 2″) for all players. Presumably, the “Dream” part of the league name refers to the players hopes that they will grow taller.

Of course, any time you have a limit like this, there’s bound to be controversy, and there’s bound to be people who try to get around the rules.

Huizhou Qiaoxing signed Hu Guang, a 3-time national slam dunk champion and Chinese Basketball Association player, who is listed at 1.95m according to his CBA profile.

Given this obvious discrepancy, Huizhou Qioxing’s next opponent, Shenzhen Kuruite, refused to take the court until Hu Guang was measured. League officials refused, and the team forfeited the game.

The league caved the next day and measured the player. According to one Shenzen player, “Hu bowed his shoulders and bent his neck back. The first result was 186.5cm, the second time was 187cm.”

League officials said they had “limited ability and technique in measuring,” and declared Hu eligible for the next game against Zheshang Bank. Hey, nobody said they had to measure him well, just to measure him.

The story doesn’t end here. As Huizhou Qioxing took on Zhesang Bank, fans from Shenzen also attended the game, shouting “Unfair, Too tall!” until the game was eventually stopped at halftime.

Fans from the other 2 teams were furious with the cancellation, so on the way out of the arena, they rioted and destroyed 5 cars with Shenzen license plates. This is why if you’re ever going to disrupt a sporting event, you should get a local rental car.

“Too tall” basketball player sparks fan violence [Reuters]

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