It was hard for fans not to notice the two US college basketball prospects of Taiwanese-American heritage commanding the court for Taiwan’s Team B at the William Jones Cup invitational in Taipei this month.
The Hinton brothers, 20-year-old Adam and 17-year-old Robert, on Wednesday combined for 30 of the team’s points in their 117-59 drubbing against NCAA Division I outfit the UC Irvine Anteaters, making them the only two players on the second-string national team to reach double digits.
Another highlight came in Thursday’s game against Qatar, when Robert Hinton — a four-star standout ranked top 100 among high-school students in the US — threw a tomahawk dunk on a fast break launched by his steal.
Photo: CNA
However, it is something bigger than basketball that brings the brothers back to their “second home,” Taiwan.
Born to an African-American father, Robert Hinton Sr, and a Taiwanese mother, Tsang Chen-cho, the brothers used to visit their grandmother in Taipei once or twice every year until seven years ago.
“Every time coming back there’s so much nostalgia, especially that seven-year gap of not being able to come back. We’ve changed so much, but it’s like some parts of Taiwan, like going back to our grandma’s home especially, are still the same,” Adam Hinton, a sophomore at NCAA Division I Cornell University in New York, told reporters on Thursday.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao
Those previous stays, usually lasting from a week to 10 days, took Adam and Robert Hinton to sights such as the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and night markets, which the brothers said helped them build a strong connection with Taiwanese culture.
“My mom has definitely helped me and my brother embrace our Taiwanese side. And we love everything about the culture, especially the food,” Adam Hinton said.
Chicken heart, stinky tofu and rice rolls are among the brothers’ favorites, with Robert Hinton saying that he ate xiaolongbao (steamed buns) for breakfast for two weeks during his stay in Taiwan this year, as the hotel kept offering them.
Adam and Robert Hinton said that they are blessed to have “two amazing parents” who allowed them to thrive in a diverse community free from discrimination.
“The thing that [my parents] have always stressed with us was character, so I feel like we have very strong senses of identity,” Adam Hinton said.
The seven-year gap, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was quickly bridged after the Hintons touched down in Taiwan in the middle of last month.
With Adam Hinton already turning out in US college basketball’s top division and Robert Hinton having announced his intention to follow in Jeremy Lin’s footsteps and attend NCAA Division I Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the brothers have been tipped as future stars for Taiwan’s national team.
Both of them would be able to represent Taiwan without occupying spots for naturalized players because they acquired Taiwanese IDs before they turned 16, thanks to the national basketball association notifying the Hintons in 2018.
Their first experience playing in front of a home crowd in Taiwan has been “amazing,” the brothers said, with one highlight being a fan who gifted them figurines from the animes One Piece and Naruto.
In unison, the brothers said they “don’t want to leave” Taiwan and are looking forward to coming back next year.
While the NBA is their top priority as basketball players, Robert and Adam Hinton said that they have dreams outside the sport.
Making it to the NBA is still a dream, but given the uncertainties the future holds and their experience of playing in Taiwan, Robert Hinton said that he would keep his options open.
Adam Hinton, who has ambitions to become a doctor, said that academic success and success in the sport do not inhibit each other, but “can actually build off of each other.”
As for Robert Hinton, who wants to make an instant impact on the court for Harvard, becoming a lawyer would also be a dream come true.
Taiwan B yesterday lost to South Korea’s Anyang KGC 99-97 at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium, putting them sixth on the table with a 2-5 record.
Anyang were third with a 6-1 record.
Taiwan A (second, 6-1) lost to the Anteaters (first, 7-0) 95-80.
In yesterday’s other games, Iran B (2-5, eighth) defeated the United Arab Emirates (3-5, fifth) 96-75 and Rain or Shine Pilipinas (2-5, seventh) downed Japan Under-22 116-91 (1-6, ninth).
Qatar (3-4, fourth) did not take the court, but are scheduled to play their eighth game on the final day of the competition today.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS