Jay Chou and Kobe Bryant in Basketball Face Off!
Renowned for his passion in basketball, Jay Chou (周杰伦) will be leading a celebrity team against NBA star, Kobe Bryant! The charity basketball match will take place on August 18th at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.
In the fundraising match for disadvantaged children, Jay will take over the reins as captain and lead his basketball team lineup, consisting of Blackie Chan (陳建州), Will Liu (劉畊宏), Alan Ko (柯有伦), Cindy Yen (袁咏琳), Jane Zhang (张靓颖) and Aaron Yan (炎亚纶).
Currently playing for Team USA in the London 2012 Olympics, Kobe Bryant will lead JJ Lin (林俊傑), Wu Chun (吴尊), Jason Tang (唐志中) and Chinese basketball player, Chen Jianhua (陈江华) in the exciting showdown.
Kobe Bryant Issues Challenge to Jay Chou
This is not the first time Kobe and Jay pitted against each other at the basketball court. Last year, Kobe was initially invited as a guest-of-honor at a charity basketball match led by Jay and Wu Chun. Not willing to being confined at the spectator seat, Kobe headed straight into the basketball court and flaunted his basketball skills for 8 minutes. It was a dream come true for Jay to play against his NBA idol!
At an earlier press conference this year, Kobe issued a challenge to Jay through a video clip, “Jay Chou, let’s wait and see! This time is for real!”
Not intimidated by Kobe’s statement, Jay confidently took up the challenge and replied, “I like spirited young people, and it will be a courageous breakthrough for those that are on my team. Playing together with them, I am confident to win the match!” Jay was ready to out play the NBA star!
Jay Chou Gears Up for Showdown with Kobe Bryant
Heading into the charity match as the underdogs, Jay Chou and his team are not taking the charity basketball game lightly. Jay has been training rigorously with his team mates and ready to take down the 6 feet 6 inch NBA star! After playing against Kobe last year, Jay had picked up many basketball playing tips from him.
Learning from past experience, Jay had learnt not to go head-to-head with Kobe in terms of speed. Already formulating his game strategy for the coming match, Jay said, “It’s impossible to compete with Kobe in terms of height and speed! But in terms of shooting accuracy, it’s worth to give it a try!”
Kobe Wants to Spar Against Jay in Music Battle
Travelling with an entourage of more than 20 people, Kobe’s Shanghai itinerary will be kept under strict confidentiality. He will have his private body guards and stay at a five-star luxury hotel.
Last year, Kobe sang a song together with Jay, titled World Battle <天地一鬥>, where he rapped in the upbeat R&B song in a commercial for Sprite. In the Sprite commercial, Jay and Kobe dueled their basketball skills on court. The NBA star and Taiwanese pop prince’s collaboration received positive reviews from their fans.
In the upcoming basketball match on August 18th, Kobe also hoped to challenge Jay in the music arena. Fans will be in for a treat to a spectacular show of a basketball and music battle between the two superstars!
Jay Chou and Kobe Bryant in Last Year’s Sprite Ad!
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This article is written by Stella for JayneStars.com.
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Excited to see Jay and Kobe’s basketball faceoff! Will Jay and team members be able to do any damage control against Kobe? 🙂
But what happened to Jeremy Lin? He was not invited to play in this charity event?
Yes I’m really surprised to see Jeremy’s name off the list considering he made such a huge name for himself over the past year. Furthermore, he’s also Asian so he would fit in perfectly in this charity event. He should play for Jay’s team.
Gar,
Maybe the charity organizers wanted the event to focus on Jay and Kobe more, in which news headlines are calling it as matchup between Jay and Kobe.
Adding Jeremy Lin into the basketball game would become more of a Jeremy versus Kobe event. Since this is charity event and not NBA All Star game, maybe organizers decided it is best to leave out Jeremy.
Yes, I think you’re right Jayne. If Jeremy participated in this event then some of the spotlight would be taken off of Jay. Maybe the organizers should have marketed it as Jay vs. Jeremy instead???
Maybe Linsanity is still rehabing his knee.
Also, many of kobe’s appearances are sponsored by Nike. Don’t know which brand Lin has contracted w/.
Jeremy is contracted with nike. His knee is supposedly healed already, but if jeremy was invited, everyone will hype up the match and say jeremy vs kobe, a rematch of the knicks vs lakers a couple months ago in which jeremy lighted the lakers up. Jay will be neglected and organizers dont want thay…
this looks fun to watch. please keep me posted if any site has video clips after the game. thx.
TorTor,
Will mark calendar for August 18th! There should be plenty of Youtube clips then!
Thanks Jayne! I love your site btw. I check it day and night. 🙂
looks fun.. wish could be there watch it in person
I don’t know about the credentials of the other celebs. But, I know Wu Chun was once a national basketball player.
Kidd,
” I know Wu Chun was once a national basketball player.”
That’s impressive! So Wu Chun could have been a professional basketball player? He will be on Team Kobe… I’m eager to see the game match. It’s nice to see how the celebrities will interact with each other, which is why I like to watch variety game shows.