Coaching basketball is like cooking a beef stew
By Wang Yajun Photos by Yao Fan

"在国外执教篮球就像做炖牛肉一样,只有合适的配料才能做出美味的菜肴,任何一种配料多了,都会破坏这道菜肴. 因此,一个国际教练必须非常谨慎认真. 他必须首先了解这个国家的文化,并且融入其中. " 理查德·马奎斯,这个来自洛杉矶的篮球教练最近正式接受了厦门大学的邀请,成为了中国大学篮球赛场上第一位外籍主帅.

Coaching basketball in foreign countries is like cooking up a great beef stew. Only the proper ingredients make the stew delicious, otherwise you spoil the stew with too much of one ingredient or another. Therefore, when an international coach is to coach in a foreign country, he has to be very careful. He must first learn how to fit into the culture and how to communicate with the people.

First foreign basketball coach in a Chinese university

At the beginning of the new semester, Xiamen University's basketball team invited a famous American basketball coach- Richard Marquis, a well-known name in the field of the international basketball world. This is the first time that a foreign basketball coach has been hired by a Chinese university.

In the afternoon of February 25th, quietly he arrived at Xiamen University without any grand welcoming ceremonies. The moment he arrived, he went straight to Xia Da's gymnasium to meet the university players, despite the long tiring flight from the USA. When he was asked why he did so, he answered, "That's my job, and my responsibility. I was eager to meet my new players and coach them".


Marquis coaching the basketball team of Xiamen University

A determined and aggressive coach

Born in 1940, Richard became a prizefighter in his early years under his family's influence and won the title of Golden Glove Boxer at the age of 16. Shortly after having the first of his five children, Marquis changed his interests and turned to his another favorite sport, basketball. As a player, his team excelled and won five national-level AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) National Championships. His love for basketball caused him to become a serious student of the game. This led Marquis to a natural transition into his current occupation of basketball coaching. He achieved the same success in the field of basketball as he did in boxing. As a coach he led his first high school team to win the championship four years in a row, with the record of 101 wins and two losses.

| In 1981, as a team leader and coach, Marquis led the US Men's National Team to compete in one of Europe's largest basketball tournaments, the Real Madrid Tournament, which was a forerunner to what is now known as the FIBA World Championships, His US Men's Team went on to beat Russia, and to go on and win the championship. Just after his team returned to the USA, he was asked to go and represent the US and compete in Brazil and to play in their South American Championships. By beating Cuba, Argentina, Panama, the Canary Islands and then Brazil, his US team again, went on to win this championship there as well.

There are three coaches in the USA who have the winning record of over 1,000 games, and two of them are no longer living; but the third one, Marquis, is still alive and thriving. "Whether in the field of boxing or basketball, I always lived by a famous saying that I read when I was very young, ‘to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.'I have always been very aggressive and determined as an athlete and now as a coach. I demand a lot out of my players and teams, and I always give more than I expect out of them, I guess that I am just not a very good loser."

It is his aggressiveness and determination that have been driving him from one success to another.



Coaching in foreign countries

Marquis is among the most experienced international basketball coaches in the USA. For over 40 years, he has been traveling all over the world coaching and teaching basketball. He has coached national teams in many countries. "Every time I came home from a foreign country, I felt guilty, since I learned and brought home much more knowledge from most countries than I have left them with. I have learned a lot from people all over the world, their culture, their understanding of how basketball should be played. After traveling so much, I found that my knowledge about basketball was not as advanced as I once believed.

"With so many years of traveling, my knowledge about the rest of the world's basketball programs is much richer. However, the way of playing basketball is different from country to country. This is because playing basketball is closely related to their ways of living and their ways of thinking, their culture and many other factors. So coaching basketball in foreign countries is like cooking up a great beef stew, only the proper ingredients make the stew delicious, otherwise you spoil the stew with too much of one ingredient or another. Therefore when an international coach is to coach in a foreign country, he has to be very careful. He must first learn how to fit into the culture and how to communicate with the people. If he just instills his knowledge into the team, the result may not be the best. As for my coaching plan in Xiamen University this time, first I will try to fit into Chinese customs and communicate with the university players and coaches. I have found that Xiamen University already has outstanding coaches and I am looking forward to working with them. A lot of progress has already been made and they are doing an outstanding job in the team's development. I will not make any big changes in this team at the beginning, not until I get more familiar with everything." This is Coach Marquis's philosophy of basketball that has made him a successful international basketball coach.

Marquis has been to China several times. In the summer of 1999, he was invited to China to train all the CBA players and coaches in Dongguan, Guangdong Province where he got to know Wang Zhizhi and many other Chinese players and coaches. Marquis said he likes China very much and enjoys coaching at the college basketball level the most.

When asked, if he felt any pressure for coaching Xiamen University's Basketball Team, he said frankly, "not at all, pressure is something self-inflicted. There is a famous American saying that goes like this: ‘All you can do, is all you can do', and I will try my best to do just that in helping Xia Da's team improve. Even though, this is a young program and an inexperienced team, there is much room for improvement. Coach He and I need time to train them into a stronger team. I do believe that this can happen in the very near future."

This is Coach Marquis, a determined and aggressive man, a famous and successful coach, a sincere friend of the Chinese people. We sincerely hope that things work out to keep Coach Marquis here at Xiamen University so he can help the university basketball team become successful in the new China Super College Basketball League.

Vocabulary
gymnasium 体育馆
prizefighter 职业拳击手
aggressive 敢做敢为的
ingredient 因素
instill 逐渐灌输
commentator 评论员
self-inflicted 自己施加的