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ESPN Daily

The Legend of the Red Panda: NBA Halftime’s Can’t Miss Act (ENCORE)

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An NBA halftime lasts just 15 minutes. It’s a time for players to leave the court, fans to run to the bathroom or grab another beer, or, a break, for all intents and purposes. But for Rong Niu - it’s her time to shine. Rong, better known to audiences as the Red Panda, has been astounding NBA halftime audiences around the country for thirty years, with her 7-and-a-half-foot-tall unicycle, a stack of white bowls, and not much else. With the NBA All-Star this past weekend, we celebrate a star who has been at the top of her game for decades…and who we believe belongs in the Hall of Fame one day. Rong Niu, the Red Panda herself, joins the show today to tell us her story - and how she became an NBA legend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So NBA All-Star Weekend just wrapped up in Salt Lake City, and we'll have more NBA stuff for you this week.

0:08.4

But, hello, by the way, it's Pablo.

0:11.2

But it's important to note that All-Star isn't just a bunch of large, famous people getting together and going to parties.

0:19.2

Now, it is arguably largely that, but it is also a celebration of basketball culture in general.

0:27.6

And so something, someone, was conspicuously missing, I thought, from the weekend.

0:34.1

And I'm referring, of course, to the woman who single-handedly made half-time, a can't-miss cultural institution, a true event unto itself.

0:46.3

And so this is that episode, and it is Monday, February 20th.

0:51.9

And this is ESPN Daily.

1:01.6

Thank you. February 20th. And this is ESPN Daily. Could you explain for me what the Red Panda Act is?

1:06.5

The Red Panda Acrobat is a act described called unicycle bowl flipping.

1:18.9

You balance on the unicycle for one foot and then put the rice bowls on the other.

1:25.0

I want to introduce you to wrong you.

1:30.2

And you probably aren't familiar with your birth name. But if you're a fan of the NBA, you already know what it is that she does.

1:36.7

Roy's bows stock high up to my knee and flip into the air and catch off my head.

1:43.5

It's very matter of fact howfact how you describe it, Rogg, but it is truly absurd.

1:57.2

For the past 30 years, wrong is toured arenas all over the country and all around the world,

2:03.6

performing her act countless times.

2:06.1

But in the world of the NBA, she has legitimately become a legend,

2:10.8

thanks to an act that employs a 7.5 foot tall unicycle, a stack of white bowls, and not much else. And also, what kind of

2:21.0

shoes are you wearing? It's important to point this out. Oh, I worry a heel. That's funny. It's very

2:29.8

interesting. You mentioned that. I never had a bunch of people mention that.

2:35.3

I mean, it's ridiculous. Like, this is one of the most impressive things that will happen

...

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