On December 29, Beijing time, the Australian NBL League officially announced the latest edition of the team strength list. The well-known Phoenix team pushed the Wildcats and Melbourne United to rank first in the league, and Zhou Qi also became the cover of this issue of the strength list, full of cards. The Phoenix team can achieve such results, which naturally has a lot to do with Zhou Qi's joining. After joining the Phoenix this season, Zhou Qi used his strength to conquer Australian fans and media, in the past 4 games, Zhou Qi was able to deliver 13.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 4.3 blocks per game, of which 4.3 blocks were also the highest in the league, and he helped the team play a record of 3 wins and 1 loss.
In the third game of the regular season, the Phoenix team met defending champions Melbourne United, and Zhou Qi played the best game of his NBL career so far. In that game, Zhou Qi played nearly 30 minutes, he shot 10 of 13, slashed 22 points, 10 rebounds, 7 blocks and 2 steals, and was very dominant at both ends of the attack and defense. It is also this game that makes Zhou Qi attract the attention of many scouts, including the NBA's Lakers. According to media reports, the Lakers have been in contact with Zhou Qi's team and presented him with a short contract of 10 days. However, Zhou Qi wanted to sign a formal contract, so he declined the Lakers' invitation.
Zhou Qi was selected by the Rockets with the 13th pick in the second round in 2016 and landed in the NBA in the 2017-18 season. However, due to Zhou Qi's thin body at that time, coupled with language and cultural differences, he failed to integrate into the team, so he did not achieve any decent results in the two seasons of the NBA, and could only play at garbage time. In the 2018-19 season, Zhou Qi left the NBA to return to the CBA after playing one game for the Rockets. Later, at the 2019 Basketball World Cup, due to Zhou Qi's service mistake, the Chinese men's basketball team was tragically defeated by the Polish final and lost the qualification to directly enter the Tokyo Olympic Games. Since then, Zhou Qi has been criticized by fans across the country. Fortunately, Zhou Qi has withstood all the criticism from the outside world, practiced his skills in adversity, and improved his confrontation ability.
Now Zhou Qi has become the leader of the Chinese men's basketball team, in the men's basketball World Cup qualifier held at the end of last month, in the first game with Japan, Zhou Qi slashed 24 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks of the explosion data, so that he completely won back the trust of the fans, officially announced the return of the king of the big devil. Zhou Qi's current confrontation ability and competitive state are far more than two years ago, and his mind is more mature. Now Zhou Qi has all the conditions to return to the NBA, but he is not in a hurry to return to the NBA now, because for him, his primary purpose now is to help the Phoenix achieve excellent results or even win championships. As long as Zhou Qi continues to play well in the Australian League, I believe that there will be more NBA teams to invite him soon, let's wait and see!