If you’ve been poking around the Interwebs today in China, you are likely aware that a supposed “goodwill” game between the traveling Georgetown Hoyas and the Bayi Rockets unraveled quickly last night. With the score tied at 64-64, a Bayi player was called for a foul on a Georgetown player. Then, the already heated match came to a full boil.

If you aren’t using a VPN, you can watch the video on Tudou here. Time does a nice little summary:

What’s clear from the video is that, at one point, a Chinese player is seen repeatedly punching one of the Georgetown players. The Chinese players wielded chairs, and one Georgetown player reportedly had one thrown at him. According to the Post, a Georgetown player walked on the court with a chair, but the team said he did so in self-defense. After Georgetown coach John Thompson III ordered his team to leave the floor with nine and a half minutes to go in the game, the crowd threw plastic bottles at the team.

But there’s also a picture of a Georgetown player making a fist where he could be trying to make peace. There’s one of another player clutching the face of a Chinese player.

The bottom line is that none of this looks good, for either side. Even if it’s determined that Georgetown was acting almost entirely in self-defense, being known as “that team that fought in China” to casual fans won’t help the school, or the team.

There are many angles to this story, one being that the brawl happened during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden to China (he was not at this game, but watched the previous Georgetown game in Beijing live). The second angle is this kind of thuggery is becoming all-too-common at Chinese sporting events (see here, here, and here). The third angle, if you poke around some stories online, you’ll find many believe two brawling basketball teams from China and the United States are symbolic of a much larger, much more complicated relationship between the two countries. But we don’t want to overstate it.

Despite the mess, Georgetown tweeted this morning that they are looking forward to their next match in Shanghai. One would expect both teams to be on their best behaviour.