Beijing, China | AFP | A Chinese basketball player will get a shot at the 2016 NBA draft for the first time in nine years, multiple media outlets reported, hoping to succeed former star Yao Ming, a fixture among Chinese basketball fans.
Zhou Qi, a center of 2.18 m and 95 kilos of weight, played until now in the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, of the Chinese basketball championship (CBA), in which he has been the player who has made the most blocks in the last two seasons .
Qi, 20, is averaging 15.8 points per game this season, and 9.8, according to the Chinese press agency Xinhua.
Zhou Qi has already completed the administrative formalities to present himself to the NBA draft, which will take place on June 23 in Brooklyn, where the American teams will choose the future stars.
The Chinese center is already trained in the United States, reveals the Chinese chain Tencent Sport.
Chinese fans hope that one of their own will participate in the NBA, a championship that they follow assiduously. Not surprisingly, China is the most profitable foreign market for the NBA.
Yao Ming, a former Chinese star of the Houston Rockets, present eight times in the All Star, retired in 2011, and since the departure of Yi Jianlian in 2012, China was left without representatives in the most prestigious basketball championship in the world.
Hou Wei, president of Xinjiang, was reluctant to leave his player. “We think it’s too soon (for him), but he wanted to try,” he told the Beijing Times newspaper.
Chinese fans show a different opinion, delighted with the idea of seeing a compatriot play in the NBA. “After ten years of waiting, finally new blood ready to meet the challenge of the NBA,” one commentator congratulated. “The wait has been too long,” added another.
Nine years later a Chinese player will be in the NBA draft
