Former NBA star Stephon Marbury has issued a video appeal for fans of the Beijing Ducks to behave better, as he seeks to lead the Chinese club to its first ever league title.
The Beijing Ducks are one win away from clinching the Chinese Basketball Association championship after beating defending titleholder, the Guangdong Tigers, on Wednesday to lead 3-1 in the best-of-seven finals.
But the club was fined 110,000-yuan ($15,854) when unruly home fans threw litter onto the court and repeatedly swore at Guangdong Tigers players in an earlier game against the team last week.
Organisers threatened to hold future games out of Beijing if the fans did not stop chanting swear words, and a video that was played repeatedly at Wednesday night's game showed Marbury urging fans to show more respect.
"I just want to say thank you to all the fans who have been supporting us throughout the whole year," Marbury said in the video.
"We hope that you guys refrain from speaking bad language during the game, we want to keep it clean, we want you guys to have a great time and show respect to the visiting team."
Marbury has reinvented himself since arriving in China in 2009 following a tumultuous NBA career that saw supreme talent on the court, but often poor off-court behaviour and various spats with coaches and team-mates.
In China, the multi-millionaire has led by example, taking his gritty, muscular game and infecting a roster of young Beijing players with fight and tenacity.
The player writes a column for state-run newspaper China Daily and often speaks of his love for China and the domestic game. He is learning the language and has a tattoo of his Chinese name "Mabuli" across his forearm.