by Tom Gallagher
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From the front page of The Washington Post:
A statement on the Georgetown team’s Web site said the two sides met Friday morning following “heated exchanges in an exhibition game Thursday evening.” The statement said Georgetown Coach John Thompson III and Bayi Coach Adi Jiang and their team members “shared a very cordial and friendly meeting.”
Thursday evening’s brawl, which included punches, kicks and several players and fans wielding chairs and throwing full water bottles, came as Vice President Biden was in Beijing on a mission to enhance cooperation between the United States and China. Biden attended an earlier game Wednesday evening, when Georgetown — here on a 10-day goodwill trip — played a different team.
“It was a game that the way it ended, the way play stopped, was not in any way, shape or form how anyone anticipated or hoped that any game, any sport would end, which is unfortunate,” Thompson said Friday. “More important than the ending, which will be the focal point of many articles and a lot of discussion, I’d like the events that led up to that, meaning how our team responded to a tough situation, a tough, difficult situation where calls weren’t going your way, where the play wasn’t how you wanted it to be.”
