Meaning:

    “打” means to “strike,” and “铁” means “iron.” Literally, this term refers to the job of a traditional blacksmith — working iron. However, Chinese sport fans have used the term creatively to refer to the situation where a basketballer misses a shot and the ball hits the rim of the basket before bouncing away. This became a buzzword when Lakers star Kobe Bryant asked Chinese netizens from his Weibo account, “What does ‘datie’ mean?” A netizen replied, “Bro, you are the best Iron Man in NBA history.”

    Example:

    A: 我玩微博也有一阵子了，我看到了一些新的网络词

    汇，你们能教我一些吗？打铁是什么意思？

    Wǒ wán wēibó yě yǒu yīzhènzi le, wǒ kàndào le yīxiē xīn de wǎngluò cíhuì, nǐmen néng jiāo wǒ yīxiē ma? Dǎtiě shì shénme yìsī?

    It’s been a while since I’ve been on Weibo. I see there’s some new web lingo. Can you teach me some? What does “datie” mean?

    B: 篮球比赛中，投篮投不准，总是投在篮筐上，篮球和篮筐相撞的声音和打铁声类似，故也被称为“打铁”。也就是投丢的代名词。

    Lánqíu bǐsài zhōng, tóulán tóu bù zhǔn, zǒngshì tóu zài lánkuāng shàng, lánqíu hé lánkuāng xiāngzhàng de shēngyīn hé dǎtiě shēng lèisì, gù yě bèi chēngwéi “dǎtiě”。Yě jìushì tóu dīu de dàimíngcí。

    In a basketball game, when your shot is not good enough and the ball hits the rim of the basket, it makes a sound similar to that of a blacksmith working on iron. Therefore, this is another term for “missing the shot.”