Zeng Fanbo, who traveled alone in the United States, just spent his 19th birthday in a foreign country.
Born in 2003, the leader of the Beijing Shougang men's basketball team Eagle Program, and the most likely player to be selected at the NBA Draft, Zeng Fanbo went to Wanli for the basketball dream in his heart and went alone in the NBA Development League. This is his dream journey, but also the story that countless Chinese fans are looking forward to, and someone must always prove that it is feasible to walk on the lone peak.
From Wang Zhizhi to Zhou Qi, from Yao Yiduo to the championship rings of Monk Battle and Sun Yue, the NBA journey of Chinese players has long been a familiar story, but the development of the league under the cover of NBA aura and glory, the footprints left by dreamers in the G League are not remembered.
In 2004, Battle became the first Chinese player to play for the NBDL.
Joining the Denver Nuggets in the 01-02 season, the bus became the first Chinese player to have an NBA championship at the San Antonio Spurs in the 02-03 season, but before the start of the 04-05 season, he was abandoned by the New York Knicks and faced no ball to play.
At that time, the G League was also called NBDL, and it was only 3 seasons old, and there were only 6 teams in that season. It is completely different from today's prosperous scene as an NBA league and belonging to various NBA teams, and at that time, it also imitated the way the NBA draft selected people. Battle, on November 5, 2004, was selected by huntsville Flyers with the 4th pick in the 3rd round, becoming the first Chinese player to be selected by the NBDL.
The Huntsville Flyers are the predecessor of today's Cleveland Stormtroopers, and 29-year-old Battle has come to the town to prepare for a return to the NBA. He averaged 14.3 points, 6 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.7 blocks in the first 6 games, and even became the best candidate of the month, and although his outstanding performance won a lot of applause, it did not allow Battle to return to the NBA smoothly.
The level of the development league was indeed not so high, and Battle was still at the peak, playing in 24 games for the Flyers, averaging 12 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. Of those, he played 26.5 minutes per game, shooting 53.8 percent from the field, 2.3 offensive rebounds per game, and of course, his 3.9 fouls.
In February 2005, the bus that had been in the United States for three years decided to end the development league journey and returned to the CBA's Beijing team. Six months later, he was called by the Cleveland Cavaliers to play a preseason game for him, and his entire career in the United States officially came to an end.
After the bus, Sun Yue is the 2nd person.
In the 08-09 season, Sun Yue won the second NBA championship ring for a Chinese player with the Los Angeles Lakers, but as a newcomer to the team at that time, he was not in the main rotation. The first Chinese guard to enter the NBA, Sun Yue's talent is beyond doubt, but he was 23 years old when he joined the Lakers, and the technical stereotype was a key to his adaptation to the NBA, and after playing 10 games for the Lakers, he was sent to the development league in March 2009.
The Los Angeles Defenders, which is now the Lakers' subordinate team, the South Bay Lakers, were previously named. Sun Yue got a lot of opportunities here, debuted in 44 minutes, 11 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks on 4 of 15, he played as an absolute main player in 4 games, scored in double figures in 3 games, and then was recalled by the Lakers.
In the end, Sun Yue won the opportunity to stay in the Lakers with his performance in the development league, which won the championship. After being sent down for the second time, he played two more games for a total of six games, averaging 9.8 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.3 blocks in 33.6 minutes.
What's more interesting is that Sun Yue had a teammate named Earl Baron at that time, he was a famous tramp in the NBA, and won the championship with Dwyane Wade in the 05-06 season, and as early as the 04-05 season, he and Battle were also teammates in the development league. In the NBA and development leagues, there are only a few who have been teammates with two Chinese players.
Dirk Nowitzki, who just retired his jersey a few days ago, has also become teammates with two Chinese players.
The Dallas Mavericks are a team with deep roots in Chinese basketball, and almost every step of Chinese players entering the NBA has a Maverick element in it. Wang Zhizhi made a historic debut here, and the last season of Yi Jianlian's NBA career also ended here, and many years later, they also sent their teammates' blessings when they retired from the Nowitzki jersey.
The UAE was sent to the Texas Legends in January 2012 when the head coach was former Chinese men's basketball coach Del Harris. And the teacher continued the leading edge, wearing the No. 50 Yi Jianlian was full of spirit, the Legends debut cut 17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 assist, but the shooting rate of 6 of 19 was a bit poor, but at that time, the team's shooting rate was less than 40%, but it was normal.
In the second game, he switched to the starting No. 4 position, teamed up with his teammates to dominate the inside line, shooting 12 of 19, and bombed 29 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Those two games were the whole story of the UAE league in the development league, and then he was recalled by the Mavericks, and a few months later, he completed the first playoff game of his career against the Thunder, but that was also the last game of his NBA regular game.
The fourth Chinese player to appear in the development league was a bit of a surprise, with 19-year-old Tang Zihao joining the Iowa Energy team in November 2015. The little-known Tang Zihao, from Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, had briefly played at the University of California, Riverside, and the 191cm tall Chinese defender could appear in the NBA's ecosystem, which really caused a huge sensation at the time.
Tang Zihao was once called "the next Jeremy Lin".
In the winter of 2015, the "Lin Madness" of a few years ago has long been a well-known good story in the world basketball world, and as the ceiling of the Chinese defender, Jeremy Lin is often mentioned. But years later, Tang Zihao quickly disappeared from the waves of professional leagues, not to mention the NBA, and even the CBA he did not understand.
The reason why Tang Zihao was in the development league, in addition to his seemingly good talent at the time and the NCAA resume, the most important reason was the manager of the Iowa Energy team, the former Head Coach of the Chinese Men's Basketball Team, Bob Deng Huade. While coaching Tang Zihao, he also announced his plan to return to the CBA, but since then, Tang Zihao has averaged less than 2 points per game in 9 games, and the beautiful vision of the master and apprentice has fallen into the mud from the sky.
The fall of geniuses in the basketball world is nothing new, not to mention that Tang Zihao has not been very talented before. One of his teammates on the Energy team, andrew Harrison, was once one of the nation's strongest high school students, a talented teenager in Kentucky, who fell all the way to the north control last season and was also considered a foreign aid worthy of the name.
Chinese defenders are extremely difficult to survive in the NBA basketball circle, and the real chance is still the big man.
In 2017, after Zhou Qi won the CBA championship for Xinjiang, he left for Houston. Considered the most talented player of the new generation of the Chinese men's basketball team, Zhou Qi's NBA journey was quite bumpy, and the Rockets, which were already the strongest teams in the West at the time, could not provide him with more opportunities, with 18 games in the regular season, each with 6.9 minutes.
In order to let Zhou Qi get trained, the Rockets sent him to the subordinate team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, and he competed with Isaiah Haltenstein and Zenanu Onuaku. In the 17-18 season, Zhou Qi averaged 11 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.3 blocks per game in the development league, and in fact his statistics are better than the other two.
But next season, Zhou Qi decided to leave the NBA. In a short period of more than a year, Zhou Qi felt the imbalance of the power confrontation on the field, in the continuous physical confrontation, Zhou Qi's weight gain plan did not progress as expected, and he suffered many injuries such as his left ankle, ligament, right elbow, etc., which eventually made him part ways with the rocket.
After returning to the CBA, Zhou Qi has gained weight in two seasons, and this season, when he appeared in the NBL in Australia and challenged the overseas league again, we found that he was no longer the thin Rocket 9. Injuries are an unavoidable part of an athlete's career, and practicing strength is also an important way to protect and improve yourself.
Among them, Shanxi's interior line ge Zhaobao played in the summer league for the NBA Development League in 2016, and Shandong's Ding Yanyuhang joined the Mavericks, but was then delegated to play for the legendary team, but due to injury, he could not make the trip. There have been no Chinese players in the NBA basketball circle for a long time, until Zeng Fanbo appeared.
Zeng Fanbo, 19, was previously registered to be 206cm tall, but he revealed not long ago that he has grown to nearly 211cm, and he is also the second Chinese player after Tang Zihao to enter the development league without CBA or other professional league experience. Although his height almost allowed him to play in the center position, just as he said that he liked Sun Yue, on the court he preferred to swing downward with a large size and play in the No. 3 position.
At this time, what the future of Zeng Fanbo will be is still difficult to predict.
It is undeniable that Zeng Fanbo's talent is really outstanding, the height of the inside line, the way of playing outside the line, the ability to run and jump are all good, just like Sun Yue gave people a bright eye, he will also send amazing blocks on the field from time to time. Currently, he has played in 9 games for the Ignition team, started three times, averaged 13.5 minutes per game, and contributed 3.8 points, 1.4 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.9 blocks.
Zeng Fanbo's performance can only be said to be unsatisfactory, the bad part is that his shooting rate is only 36.4%, the free throw shooting rate is 50%, and the average number of fouls per game is as high as 2.9, which is satisfactory that he has a very good sense of assisting defense, excellent blocking ability, and his three-point shooting rate has reached 40%.
In terms of ability, Zeng Fanbo is still far from the NBA, and his most shining place is still his potential, an all-round body that may be able to play any position on the field, a good movement ability and a soft long-range shooting feel in the tall figure, a team player who is willing to integrate into the team, and his future has unlimited possibilities.
The NBA draft has always emphasized potential, and Zeng Fanbo is like a thousand-mile horse, waiting for the arrival of Bole. At the age of 19, this year may be the most important year of his career, no one can guess what will happen in the end, and what he has to do is to avoid getting into injury trouble like Zhou Qi, to use the experience of overseas life to integrate into the team like Sun Yue and Tang Zihao, and more importantly, to play hard like Battle and Yi Jianlian.
Phi Xing Dai Yue, time does not live up, Zeng Fanbo's 19-year-old is destined to be turbulent, and the rope of fate is actually in his hands in the end.