Dez Wells Photo: Sina Weibo
Foreign player Dez Wells, who arrived in China on October 23 to play for Qingdao in the regular CBA season that started in mid-October, has stirred up quite a bit of turmoil by calling the food served during his quarantine in Shanghai "bullshit."
According to current regulations, when foreign players arrive in China from overseas, they are required to undergo a "14+7+7" quarantine. In brief, they will be put under medical observation for 14 days at a designated quarantine facility, then undergo another seven days of quarantine at home and finally another seven days of health monitoring conducted by community officials.
"They are required to follow the requirements because most of the time this is specified in their contract before they go to start to play in China," Wang Dazhao, a sports expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Wells got himself into "trouble" during the first 14 days staying in a quarantine hotel after he complained about the living environment and posted a photo on Twitter of one of his meals accompanied by the message "Day 2's Bullshit."
The basketball player's comment sparked the anger of netizens in China, many of which said he should recognize the difference between staying at a five star hotel and quarantine.
"You are under medical observation, not on holiday! It is already good that quarantines provide you three meals a day," posted one netizen on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
Some others said they couldn't see what was wrong with the meals as they seem like ordinary Chinese dishes, which makes his comment seem like an "insult" to Chinese food culture
"I'm feeling so disrespected. These dishes as what we eat every day. What if I use your word for burgers and chips," said a netizen.
The food in the photo was a Chinese dish that included tofu, pork ribs, cabbage and fish.
"It has good proteins from tofu and white meat, red meat for energy, and also fiber and vitamins in the vegetables, that really is what our bodies need," Gao Xing, a nutritionist, told the Global Times.
While most netizens said they found the athlete's attitude rude, others said they could understand why such a meal wouldn't be "enough" for an athlete.
"He has his own appetite that is relating to his culture. If I was asked to eat stone-hard bread for two weeks, I'll be as grumpy as he was," posted a netizen.
"The portion sizes though are ridiculous. I can eat two or three times that much. And also, a professional athlete will train every day even when they are in quarantine to maintain their physique and stamina. To be honest, quarantine is already a test for athletes before a game," Yao Wei, a former volleyball athlete, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Wells' post online has already been deleted.
This is not the first time that Wells has made such complaints. Last season, when he played for Jiangsu, he has also complained about the quarantine food and expressed that he was considering that he would "stop eating" and stick to drinking water instead.
