One man’s ball handling skills may have not earned him recognition on the courts, but instead has made him a viral sensation in his car repair shop, as well as Chinese social media.
A man has learned how to dribble a car tire just like a basketball, and has shared his videos online, according to Chinese online news media outlet The Beijing News.
Zeng Wei, who is now in his 20’s, started practicing his art of bouncing tires in 2016, according to the Aug 22. report.
“I never would have guessed that after recording this, so many people would like it,” Zeng told The Beijing Times.
The videos show Zeng inside the mechanic’s shop in an undisclosed location in China, where he puts on two types of displays. One is simply bouncing around a tire on his own, where he is able to control it by leaning the bouncing tire side-to-side at angles. The other is imitating a basketball game, where co-workers appear to defend him.
One such video even has another co-worker appearing to act as a referee, while Zeng and the co-worker move about the open green floor.
He’s been repairing cars now for about five years, the report said. Zeng started learning how to dribble the tires about three years prior. He got this idea from annual sports events held by the car repair company he works at.
“Since our company has an activity every year, including playing soccer and basketball, I just had the idea to bounce around one of the scrap tires,” Zeng told The Beijing News.
He further explained that he doesn’t use tires that will go back onto customer’s cars. “The tires that I dribble with ... are from my own or from my co-worker’s car,” Zeng told The Beijing News.
He also mentioned the weight of the tires. “Some of (the tires) are 88 lbs (40 kg), most of them are 44 lbs (20 kg),” Zeng told The Beijing News. He does play basketball as well, but not often.
He said that he feels this is a form of exercise for him. “When I dribble the tires like this, it’s always a way to work out.”
