First Chinese Player Since 2012 Set to Appear in the NBA

By Connor Frankhouser, July 3, 2017

NBA league sources report that Zhou Qi, the 2.18-meter-tall star for the CBA’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers has agreed in principle to a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets, the team that originally drafted him in the 2016 NBA draft.

Zhou will fill a huge void in the NBA, as China has had zero players from the mainland playing in the league since 2012 when Guangdong Southern Tigers ace Yi Jianlian left the Dallas Mavericks.

Yi signed a preseason contract with the Los Angeles Lakers for 2017, but departed for the greener pastures of the Chinese Basketball Association before regular season play in the NBA began.

Originally from Henan, Zhou will inevitably cultivate comparisons to countryman Yao Ming, a fellow 7-footer drafted by the Rockets 15 years ago.

Although both are Chinese and playing for the same Houston franchise that captured the hearts of Chinese fans nationwide by selecting Yao with the number one overall pick in 2002, their games are opposites.

The sweet-shooting Zhou plays with finesse and is a threat from outside the three-point line and projects to have a much lower developmental ceiling than Yao. Zhou will likely split time between Houston’s developmental team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and the big-ticket team Rockets until he packs on some size to play in the physical NBA.

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Zhou cultivated controversy when he was drafted by the Rockets in 2016 with some scouts believing his age had been manipulated by the state-run Chinese sporting machine, allegedly a once-common practice used to make older players appear younger.

Chinese basketball fans will also remember Zhou as a key cog in the roster of the 2017 CBA championship-winning Xinjiang Flying Tigers.

With a roster spot opening up in Xinjiang and Stephon Marbury splitting with Beijing and shopping for a new team, perhaps we will see Marbury trade in his Peking Duck for some tasty yangrou skewers in Xinjiang.

[Images via Twitter, Houston Chronicle, FIBA]