On February 19, Beijing Shougang Basketball Club announced through social media that it had officially said goodbye to Taiwanese player Zhou Yixiang.
"On the basis of respecting the individual wishes of the players and fully considering the team's schedule arrangement, after friendly consultation between the two sides, Beijing Shougang Basketball Club has terminated its employment contract with player Zhou Yixiang."
He also revealed that Zhou Yixiang will be called by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association to leave for Japan on February 22 to participate in the 2023 Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers from February 25 to 28, and thanked and blessed him for playing in the CBA for 5 seasons and serving Beijing for nearly 3 seasons.
In fact, as early as the 16th, the Taiwan media has exposed the news that Zhou Yixiang is about to wear the shirt of Kaohsiung Steel man to compete in the rest of the Taiwan Professional League PRG, and he is expected to get the biggest contract in the PPG after playing only 7 games in Beijing this season.
35 million Taiwan dollars in 5 years
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Zhou Yixiang once played in the NCAA in the United States, and before coming to the mainland to develop, he not only competed in the Taiwan Basketball League SBL and won a lot of honorary titles such as the league's Rookie of the Year, MVP and Local Scoring Champion, but also won such a good reputation for himself in Treasure Island.
Taiwan LBJ
But in the past few years, Taiwanese basketball has encountered development difficulties, and the mainland's CBA league is hot, a large number of Taiwanese players are working here, Lin Zhijie is playing for the Zhejiang Lions for 10 years and has become a basketball legend on the west lakeside, so Zhou Yixiang also decided to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors;
On March 25, 2016, Zhou Yixiang officially confirmed that he would participate in that year's CBA draft, and was finally selected by Nanjing Tongxi Dasheng Club (then named Jiangsu Tongxi Basketball Club) with the second overall pick, and then played for Nanjing, Xinjiang, Beijing and other teams for 5 seasons, unconsciously, he was already a 31-year-old veteran.
Unfortunately, when Chen Yingjun, Lin Tingqian and other young people played well in the CBA and had a lot of success in lin zhijie, Zhou Yixiang in his prime had a great sense of water and soil, not only playing 7 games this season and averaging only 6.3 minutes per game, ranking first from the bottom of the whole team; what was even more embarrassing than the playing time was that his scoring column unbelievably maintained such an embarrassing record -
The reasons for the poor performance will not be said today.
Today only his return to Taiwan; the backcourt of the Beijing team here is full of talents, the PLD clubs that have developed to the second year are vigorously recruiting talents, Lin Zhijie, who returned to Taiwan, has become the signature of the Taipei Warriors together with Lin Shuhao's brother Lin Shuwei, and the 2003 NBA rookie Anthony Bennett went to the Kaohsiung Iron Man in southern Taiwan.
Kaohsiung Steelman is a new army of PRG, before the start of the season, he recruited Taiwan's basketball star Lu Zhengru, and bennett, and gradually made Zhou Yixiang moved.
"There is also warmth in playing in a foreign country, but it is not better than coming home, and it is quite good to come back this time to be reunited with my family and play in front of the fans who have supported me for a long time."
"Iron Man is a newly formed team, PLG is also a league established last year, there is a big brother Lu Zhengru, and some potential rookies, looking forward to everyone working together."
Zhou Yixiang explained the reasons for choosing Iron Man.
For the steel man who urgently needs to improve his record and market appeal, no matter how Zhou Yixiang's immediate combat strength is, it is necessary to invite famous stars to join;
For this strategy, PLG founder and league CEO Chen Jianzhou is obviously also in favor, in the 16th of the news he called on fans to quickly buy tickets to enter the stadium to get close to the idol, but also pointed out -
"Zhou Yixiang's choice to join PPG is a great encouragement to us, in the past few years, Taiwan basketball has encountered a great situation, so that many good players choose the mainland, and now they choose to go home to play, which means that this stage is affirmed, and many players have seen a sense of stability in this league on the next stage of basketball life."
"This time Zhou Yixiang came to play in the PPG League from the CBA, and I hope that the major leagues in Asia will communicate smoothly, so that basketball will be fun and the market will be bigger."
According to Taiwan media reports, Zhou Yixiang's return has created a precedent for the season transfer between the CBA and PPG - Zhou Yixiang's contract with Beijing Duck Shougang Club has not yet ended, in order for him to return to his hometown to play, Kaohsiung Steel man showed a positive attitude and goodwill, actively negotiated with Beijing Duck Shougang Club, and finally obtained consent.
Although he did not have a good time in the CBA, Zhou Yixiang, who is 192cm tall and has a strong body shape and all-round style, is still very popular in Taiwanese basketball circles, and fans are also very popular;
And considering that he has also represented the Chinese Taipei men's basketball team in the international arena so far, for the box office, the sales growth of peripheral goods and other factors, Kaohsiung Steel man is likely to offer him a high salary, and even, in one fell swoop, it is possible to become the salary king of PPG - the highest salary before the highest salary, is the popular defender Of Hsinchu Siege Lion Gao Guohao signed with the team before the start of this season, 5 years 35 million Taiwan dollars.
35 million Taiwan dollars converted into about 8 million yuan, this level of contract is not much in the CBA, but considering that PPG is only its second year of existence and Kaohsiung Steel man is a new army, it is still worth looking forward to.
Because it is known as Taiwan's LBJ, the jersey number prepared by Kaohsiung Steelman for Zhou Yixiang is also No. 6 - just today, the real LBJ - legendary superstar LeBron James is still wearing this number to play the All-Star Game in his hometown of Cleveland.
Moreover, this number is also not easy to come by, before the return of Zhou Yixiang, the No. 6 jersey originally belonged to foreign aid Keith Benson, the 211cm tall, 109KG American center contributed 20.6 points and 13.0 rebounds per game this season, and was the most important member of the team at both ends of the court, persuading him to give up the jersey to his new teammates, which reflected the sincerity of Iron man for Zhou Yixiang;
As for the salary, that is, 35 million Taiwan dollars in 5 years reported by Taiwan media, it is reported that the team is still communicating with Zhou Yixiang's agent team, and I believe it will soon come to light.
Copyright Notice: Exclusive to the East Asian Premier League, author Pan Pan. The material is mainly from Taiwanese media such as ettoday and PPG's website, and has been strongly supported by colleagues in the East Asian Super League; the image is provided by Osports and a small number of screenshots of the website of Taiwanese media, and the East Asian Premier League is used according to the practice of self-media. If you have any doubts about copyright, please deal with it immediately, and if other media or self-media need to reprint, please communicate in advance.
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