The popular halftime performer known as “Red Panda” finished her signature seven-minute performance, looked at a crowd of fans chanting her name and flashed a smile before dismounting.
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The cameras went up instantly. A Hurricanes band member shouted “I love you, Red Panda!” A security guard shook his head in disbelief when a nearby fan asked loudly, “How does he do that?” Members of the Hurricanes dance team lined up to take photos with her before she came out.
Niu has become somewhat accustomed to the fanfare over decades performing at NBA, WNBA and college basketball games; Her first halftime show was a Los Angeles Clippers game in 1993. Still, even after sports fans rallied around her after a terrifying fall during a WNBA game last July, she can barely put into words what the support means to her.
“I feel a lot of support,” Niu said after performing at Miami’s home game against Stanford on Wednesday. “It’s beyond support, I don’t know. I don’t have a better word to describe that feeling. That was beyond appreciation.”
Niu comes from a family of acrobats. She’s been doing it since she was 7, when her father discovered her talent by helping her balance bowls and bricks on her head at their home in China’s Shanxi province.
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Her act consists of her riding a custom-made unicycle, which extends about 8 feet above the court, and balancing custom-made bowls on the bottom of her leg before throwing them over her head.
During halftime of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx, Niu fell off her unicycle and crashed on the court one minute into her performance. She remained lying down for several minutes, was finally helped out in a wheelchair, and was then diagnosed with a fracture in her left wrist.
“I realize now that I was disoriented. It wasn’t just pain here,” Niu said Wednesday, pointing to her left wrist, which she remembered being swollen and in immense pain. “I wasn’t very clear about it because of the impact. They told me, ‘Can you walk?’ I said “Yes” and then tried to get up and walk. And then I think I was fainting.”
She spent 11 hours in a Minneapolis hospital, with a couple of Lynx employees there with her the entire time. As he lay in the hospital bed, he wondered what could have gone wrong during the act he had performed so many times.
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“I’m not saying it’s that good or anything,” he said. “I generally don’t fall. Bowls fall, because they go in the air and sometimes I’m not able to control them. But riding a unicycle… it shouldn’t be out of control.”
Niu returned to the arena after being discharged from the hospital. His unicycle was in the same place where he had left it in his dressing room.
He began to inspect it, checking the rotation of the wheel, looking at the handle. He then noticed that one of his pedals was slightly bent. You usually wrap your equipment very carefully when traveling, but somehow it was damaged during transportation; Whether during security checks or on the plane, she is not sure.
“Normally I would set up the unicycle. I’ll test it. I test it like this,” he said, spinning his wheel as he demonstrated his equipment check process. “I tried it. But I didn’t try (the pedal).”
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Niu still shudders remembering the fall, which required surgery and about four months of recovery, but she received an outpouring of support on social media, including from Fever star Caitlin Clark, as well as cards and gifts.
He returned to action on October 23 for an Amazon Prime event, then returned to the NBA court on November 1 for a game between Chicago and Philadelphia.
Returning to the field has not been easy.
“I still have those thoughts,” he said. “I still have those thoughts when I start pedaling.”
But as fans chant her name, forgoing halftime trips to concession stands and bathrooms to watch her perform, Niu is filled with gratitude and motivation.
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“I want to prove that I can do this,” he said. “But (when) I couldn’t do it, they still sang for me. I feel like I owe them something. I feel very grateful. I don’t have the best words to describe that feeling, but it’s a great support. It goes in my heart.”
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports