One of the well-liked acts in halftime leisure sustained an harm Tuesday night time in Minneapolis as Rong “Krystal” Niu, higher identified underneath her stage identify of “Purple Panda,” wanted to be assisted off the courtroom after falling throughout halftime of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship recreation between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx.
Niu has delighted basketball followers in quite a few NBA, faculty basketball and WNBA venues since her debut in 1993. The “Purple Panda” rides a seven-foot-tall unicycle whereas catching and balancing numerous steel bowls on her head throughout her act.
Reporters for MinnPost and ESPN confirmed that Niu took a tough spill, falling from her unicycle throughout Tuesday’s efficiency. The favored performer laid nonetheless for a while, cradling her left wrist earlier than being taken off the courtroom in a wheelchair.
As soon as referred to as “the most effective halftime act in basketball” by Dime Journal, Niu retired in 2013 to assist her father whereas he battled most cancers. She practiced sometimes throughout this timeframe and suffered her first wrist harm.
After she mourned her father’s dying on account of esophageal most cancers and helped her mom cope with an sickness, Niu made her return in 2015 as she revealed in a “Sports activities on Earth” interview that she could not keep away.
“I missed it,” Niu stated. “The gang. The power. The problem. From my coronary heart, I really feel like this is part of my house. Though I misplaced my father, I nonetheless have this a part of my life with me, identical to earlier than.”
