On April 19, Beijing time, the New York Liberty Team recently released the latest video and photos of the training camp, and Han Xu appeared in it! The Sichuan women's basketball team has also officially announced that Han Xu, a former Yuanda club player, has gone to the United States to participate in the training of the New York Free Agent team and will debut in the new season of the WNBA that starts in May!
Han Xu was born in 1999 in a basketball family in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, where his father Han Fashun and mother Chen Zhiping were members of the Hebei Provincial Men's and Women's Basketball Teams, respectively. Han Xu's father, who is 2.10 meters tall, played for the Sichuan men's basketball team during the Chinese Basketball A League, and as a substitute center, he can average 4.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. The mother, Chen Zhiping, is 1.81 meters tall and also plays for the women's professional team.
Han Xu, who grew up in such a family environment, also likes basketball, and also inherits the mantle of his parents and gets a strong sports gene, Han Xu is much higher than other children from an early age. Today, Han Xu is 207cm tall and weighs 96kg, playing as a center forward. Due to the technical characteristics and the male basketball player Zhou Qi is very similar, she is also called the "female version" of Zhou Qi by fans. Today, Han Xu has become an important member of leading Chinese basketball into the future and one of the key players of the national team.
Han Xu's earliest contact with basketball was in the second grade of primary school, when he was sent by his parents to Shijiazhuang Sports School for professional basketball training. After graduating from primary school, Han Xu was selected to enter Tsinghua High School with excellent academic performance, officially starting her basketball career of "opening and hanging". Because Han Xu's height is much higher than that of children of the same age, he became the core player of the team within a few months of joining the Tsinghua High School basketball team. In high school, she was more than two meters tall, and her outstanding ball skills have helped the school win a number of national championships. With his amazing performance in the middle school arena, Han Xu also rose from the national junior team and the national youth team all the way to the national team.
Han Xu was also the backbone of the national youth team, and between 2016 and 2017, Han Xu's career in the youth team was also smooth. In 2016, she led the team to reach the semifinals of the U17 Women's Basketball World Championship for the second time, Han Xu contributed an average of 14.5 points, 8.2 boards and 2.2 blocks per game, and was successfully selected for the best team of the tournament; in the same year, the U18 women's basketball Asian Youth Championship, Han Xu led the team to win the championship; in the 2017 U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, Han Xu also had an excellent performance.
In the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, Han Xu played 7 times for the Chinese women's basketball team and won the championship with the team, she averaged 14.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3 blocks per game, and represented the Chinese women's basketball team in the Women's Basketball World Cup in October of the same year; in the 2019 Women's Basketball Asian Cup, Han Xu averaged only 17.1 minutes per game, but she still scored 11.8 points, 6 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks, and was elected as the rebounding king and the block king of the team, leading the Chinese team to win the Asian championship.
Subsequently, Han Xu played an outstanding and efficient performance in the women's basketball Olympic qualifiers and the women's basketball Olympic qualification tournament, which also laid the foundation for her Olympic debut; so in July 2021, Han Xu represented the Chinese women's basketball team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, averaging 9.5 points and 7.5 boards per game, helping the Chinese women's basketball team to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the game against the United States, Han Xu scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, which successfully attracted the attention of the WNBA team. In the April 2019 WNBA Draft, Han Xu was selected by the New York Liberty with the 14th pick, becoming the fifth Chinese player to land in the WNBA; then in the United States, Han Xu averaged 7.9 minutes per game, with 3.0 points, 0.1 assists and 0.8 rebounds. In the match against the Suns on August 30, 2019, Han Xu gained 18 minutes of playing time and scored 12 points, both of which were career highs.
As the first Chinese player to land in the WNBA in the past 10 years, everyone is looking forward to her having a bright future, but on the world stage of the WNBA, Han Xu still has a lot to learn and adapt to, and she is also working hard to continuously improve herself. I also hope that in the new WNBA season that starts in May, Han Xu can be effectively improved in ability, and represent the Chinese women's basketball team to go further and play a wonderful performance!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)