Georgetown’s Chinese Goodwill Trip Turns Ugly With Basketball Brawl

And you were worried that Joe Biden was going to be the one making headlines for all the wrong reasons during his trip to China.

Nope, that dubious honor has fallen to the Georgetown University men’s basketball team, which engaged in a bench-clearing brawl during an exhibition game in Beijing Thursday. (Although, judging from the early reports it is unclear which team deserves the most blame for the outbreak of violence.)

The Hoyas, which are in China on a goodwill tour, were facing off with the Bayi Rockets with the score knotted at 64 when a hard foul by one of the Rockets sent what had already been a physical game over the edge. During the ensuing melee "players exchanged blows, chairs were thrown and spectators tossed full water bottles as Hoyas players and coaches headed to the locker room at Olympic Sports Center Stadium," the Washington Post reports.

Georgetown coach John Thompson III, who pulled his team from the floor after the brawl, released the following statement after the game: “Tonight two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred.”

The Associated Press reports that Biden had been on hand for a Hoya game Wednesday against a different Chinese team, but was not in the stands for Thursday’s clash. Nonetheless, the AP notes, the fight has “marred the orchestrated harmony” of his visit to China.

You can check out the fight below: