BEIJING, CHINA — Mike Krzyzewski and his team are used to being noticed. Even as their travel schedule takes them all over the U.S., they are recognized everywhere. They might have hoped for a respite as they traveled to another continent for the Friendship Games. But no such luck: In a country with more than 300 million people who play basketball, the Blue Devils aren’t any safer from adoring fans in China.
Since landing in China Aug. 17, the Blue Devils have attracted an impressive following. Chinese hoops fans remember Krzyzewski for leading the U.S. national team to Olympic gold medal three years ago in Beijing, and crowds of NBA fans gathered around former Duke standouts Nolan Smith and Grant Hill, as well as Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers—whose son, Austin, is one of five freshman on the Duke squad.
The current Blue Devil players, who tower over masses of people wearing Duke gear from head to toe, have drawn the attention of their hosts as well. When the team finally arrived at the Shanghai airport the morning before its first game, on-duty police officers pulled out cameras to take pictures of the players. Even the team’s student managers, in their Duke apparel, were asked to pose for photos and sign autographs.
“I think the first time that it really hit me was in Shanghai,” Director of Athletics Kevin White said. “[It was] just how they were engulfed, a number of them, at the arena. Every time they moved some place there was a sea of people.”
Because of a partnership with ESPN, the Friendship Games aired in as many as 195 countries and have the potential to reach more than 275 million households worldwide, according to a release by the athletics program. Mike Cragg, the University’s senior associate athletic director, who spearheaded the planning of the team’s tour, said this number far exceeds the reach of Duke’s typical games televised by ESPN.
Spotted in the streets
If anyone on the team would be expected to draw instant stares, the most likely candidates would be three brothers, all standing 6-foot-10 or taller. During a trip to the markets in Shanghai, passersby stopped and gazed upward at Miles, Mason, and Marshall Plumlee standing head and shoulders above the crowded streets. Miles Plumlee said he suspects that some of the Chinese have never seen anyone as tall as him before.
“The funniest thing is every time we take a team photo… [people] think it’s their opportunity to jump in,” the eldest Plumlee said. “All of a sudden you’ll spot someone in the picture that shouldn’t be there.”
The players said they do not mind the attention, pictures or autographs. For faster travel, though, the team sometimes takes special measures, White said. After eating a Peking duck dinner the first night in Beijing, the players boarded the team bus for a trip back to the hotel. The Duke staff and passengers traveling with the program walked, given that the restaurant was no farther than the distance between a dorm at Duke and the dining hall.
“It would take forever to get [them] from the restaurant back here, and it’s literally only about four blocks,” White said. “They would have been stopped about every 15 feet.”
‘A larger scale’
As far as collegiate international tours go, Duke’s trip is an exception to the rule, said Jim O’Connor, one of the travel agents accompanying the team.
O’Connor serves as vice president for collegiate travel at Anthony Travel, a company that focuses on university and athletics trips. Anthony Travel previously organized the Villanova University basketball team’s trip to Paris and Amsterdam and the University of Notre Dame team’s trip to Ireland. In October, the company will bring Stanford, coached by former Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins, to Spain to play against the professional team FC Barcelona.
The Duke trip, O’Connor said, sets a new standard in terms of reaching a global audience. Previously, the media coverage of trips has been local rather than national, or even international. The unprecedented exposure of the Friendship Games, combined with the size of the Blue Devil party and the arenas in which the team has played, has made this tour different.
“Everything we’ve done here is [on] a larger scale,” O’Connor said. “We’ve been traveling around with 200 people…. If you only have one bus and 45 people, that’s a lot easier than five buses.”
As the trip has progressed, the team has become increasingly visible. O’Connor characterized the attention in terms of the increased security required at the stadiums where the team has played.
“The Duke brand is pretty powerful,” White said. “It’s pretty global, and it’s becoming more global.”
The rookie Rivers seems to have enjoyed being part of such a global brand. After a practice at the MasterCard Arena, Rivers said simply: “That’s why I love China.”
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