Our most recent English lesson with an NBA player is Channing Frye teaching the term “breakthrough.” I watched Channing play for the last few years when he was a Portland Trailblazer. And like most people in Portland, I liked him a lot. He fit the city really well–he did public service announcements for green issues and blogged about how much he liked the restaurants. Channing met his wife in Portland and has kept his apartment here after moving to the Phoenix Suns this season.

I remember when I first heard that Channing Frye had hit three threes in one game. I thought, “Good for him!” But then I heard the same thing about the next game. And the one after that. It appeared Channing had had a breakthrough!

Although he didn’t see much playing time during his tenure with Portland, when Frye and Suns came to Portland to play the Trailblazers last month, Channing had become a starter. Blazer fans usually boo when the visiting team’s starting lineup is announced, but when Channing’s name was called everyone cheered. He went on to make 5 three-pointers that night! Maybe doing this interview earlier in the day helped him get ready.

There is a 44% chance this shot went in. That’s more than 10% better than ever before in Channing’s professional career!

Channing on his balcony in Portland.

This week English, baby! is featuring a really fun English lesson with Shane Battier from the Houston Rockets. I came across this blog which determined that Shane is (or at least was, not sure what the current numbers are) the best at buzzer beating (specifically shot clock buzzers). So we asked him to teach “buzzer beater” and other last-second vocab.

After we approached Shane, we learned he knows a little Mandarin. He gets lessons every year before he goes to China for a couple of weeks to promote his Peak signature shoe. He was shy about sharing his full Mandarin vocabulary in the video, but he dropped a “ni hao” for his fans in China.

And boy, does Shane have fans in China. This Chinese news clip, from which I pulled the shot of the t-shirt above, shows the welcome he got while getting off a plane. The Chinese aren’t just big fans smart basketball and stellar defense, Shane’s profile is boosted by frequent airing of TV commercials he stars in (you can see most of them on Battier’s MogoTXT site). This blog post even has a quote from an NBA player who spent some time in China and got really tired of seeing Shane on TV!

I think it’s great that Shane is so well-known in China. He’s such a well-rounded an unselfish player, he makes a great ambassador for the US and basketball. He has a reputation for being a smart guy, and, in fact, he saved me when we were taping this interview. I started talking to him and then completely blanked out. I had to wait in the media room for a while because the team was late to their shoot around that day and I let my mind get sleepy! Anyway, when he saw I had blanked out, Shane said, “buzzer beater, man,” and reminded me what we were supposed to be talking about. It was clear he had thought about the definition of the term in advance. No wonder his is the best celebrity English lesson we’ve done so far!

When my Blazers and their Spanish Armada was defeated by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs, I started rooting for the Rockets to go all the way. Yao Ming is a great player who has never won a championship and how huge would it be for China if he won.

But did you know the Lakers have a Chinese player too? His name is Sun Yue. He hasn’t seen any post-season minutes, but he’s a rookie. Give him time!

In fact, in the final match up between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic, there are lots of foreign players. Pau Gasol is pretty famous for leading the Spanish Olympic team to a silver medal last summer in Beijing and he and Kobe make a great combination.

One of the Magic’s leading scorers in every game of playoffs has been Hedo Türkoglu of Turkey. Apparently, back home he’s known as “the Michael Jordan of Turkey” because he’s so versatile and unstoppable.

In game one of the finals day before yesterday, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, a center for the Lakers from Congo made an appearance in the final minutes of the game. He hasn’t seen much playing time lately, but when Andrew Bynum was injured earlier in the season, I remember seeing him a lot. He always looks confident to me when he gets in the game, which says a lot about him. It’s hard to come off the bench for a couple of minutes here and there and not be nervous.

How do I know so much about the Lakers? Because I’ve been watching them all year, rooting for Sasha “The Machine” Vujacic from Slovenia! You’d think he’s a starter for how much attention he gets. All the announcers know his nick-name and some fans made a special series of popular videos just for him! He’s also one of only 5 or so NBA players with a signature shoe in China and also sort of my close personal friend (sort of).

Rounding out the international players in the finals are Mickael Pietrus from France and Marcin Gortat from Poland. Both of these guys see significant minutes for the Magic and Pietrus in particular was deadly against the Cavaliers with his three-pointers earlier in the playoffs.

I can’t decide who to root for because I’ve got Sasha on the one side, but the Lakers are the Blazers’ rival and I also want to support my friends in Turkey by rooting for Türkoglu and his magic. Which team do you support? I better make up mind soon–game 2 is tomorrow!

Last week, thousands of people gathered in Pioneer Square in Portland at a rally for the Trail Blazers, who qualified for the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2003. Each player said a few words, and one of the most memorable speeches was from Rudy Fernandez, who shouted, “Let’s go to win the playoff!” The line appears in the first part of this video:

I immediately saw a lot of people twitter this line because it was so charming in its enthusiasm and less than perfect grammar. Though Nicolas Batum is the only foreign player in the starting lineup, Portland has two Spaniards on its bench. When Sergio Rodriguez connects with Rudy for an ally-oop, the sports commentators refer to it as “the Spanish Armada.”

In both Sergio and Rudy’s first playoff game last Saturday, the Blazers lost terribly to the Rockets. I heard Sergio on the radio afterward saying he hopes the team “runs more” in this game. His English was a little rough–he seemed confused about what it meant to be tight (good) as a team and loose (relaxed) in a game. But of all explanations I heard of what went wrong in that 30 point loss, I like Sergio’s the best. The team did need to run more. Maybe it’s that simple. We’ll find out in 10 minutes when the game starts. I’ll be watching the Spanish Armada in particular because I really like the spirit they bring to the team at this climax of the season.

Post game update: The Armada did it! The Blazers won a very close game, and Rudy scored the final points by making a pair of free throws. Who’s your favorite international player in the playoffs?