An American player in the Chinese Basketball Association has issued a public apology after being a prick to staff while in isolation at a quarantine hotel.
Joe Young played for the Indiana Pacers in the NBA for three seasons before heading off to China and finding a home with the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the CBA.
With the CBA season scheduled to resume in April, Young has returned to China and is currently in 14-day quarantine at a hotel, like most other international arrivals.
However, Young doesn’t appear to be enjoying his time there, judging by a viral series of screenshots showing him and a friend demanding that staff bring them up a late-night food order at 3:30 am or otherwise they will break quarantine and come down to get it themselves.
“You have 5 minutes or we will come down and get it,” threatens Young’s friend during the argument over WeChat.
“I don’t think you want to get on Joe Young’s bad side,” he adds. “It won’t be nice.”
Later, when one worker tells the two men to be respectful to staff and explains that it’s not their responsibility to provide service at 3 am, Young responds, simply, “Shut up.”
After the screenshots went viral, Young posted an apology video to his Weibo page on Monday.
“Me and my friend are sincerely sorry and apologize to the staff for asking them about a delivery, late night, which affected people’s sleep,” he says.
“In the future, we strictly abide the Chinese epidemic prevention regulation rule and we will improve our words and our deeds,” he continues. “We will not cause any trouble with the people around us and not cause any misunderstandings. I love China, I love Nanjing, and this is the truth.”
The apology hasn’t exactly gone over well on Weibo with netizens accusing Young of saying sorry for the wrong reasons and wanting him kicked out of the country.
“You don’t know what I say? Get out of CHINA! What you love is money!” writes one netizen.
“If you want to make money in China, don’t cross the line, don’t make fucking trouble,” adds another.
The Monkey Kings have also issued a statement, blaming the incident on Young being tired from the long flight over and missing his family back in the US.
While he may now be hated in China, Young is getting some good press back in the United States after donating 50,000 masks and 300 body suits for hospital workers in his home city of Houston.
Donating 50k masks to the city of Houston!! 🙏🏽
— Joe Young (@JoeyBuckets3) March 29, 2020
I will also donate 300 body suites to the Houston hospitals employees!! pic.twitter.com/QCndVFuaHP
— Joe Young (@JoeyBuckets3) March 30, 2020
This whole saga comes after the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks fired their British MC for comparing the quarantine hotel he was staying in to a prison, writing “I wonder if I’ve mistakenly flown to North Korea.”
