On April 24, Beijing time, Zhou Qi played the last Australian League game of the season, representing the Phoenix against the Wildcats, and finally the Phoenix defeated the Wildcats 102-100 in extra time, and Zhou Qi played 2+1 under the basket many times and sent a dunk, scoring 11 points, 2 boards and 2 hats. Previously, after playing the 26th round of the regular season, the Phoenix team was determined not to qualify for the playoffs, so Zhou Qi's first Australian season was officially announced! Zhou Qi's first season in the Australian NBL League contributed to the data contribution, played in 24 games, he averaged 11.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2 blocks per game, averaging about 21 minutes per game.
From the perspective of data, it can be seen that Zhou Qi has the ability to stand firm in the Australian League, and even once played the visual sense of the first center of the Australian League, but unfortunately, the team's performance is not good, and Zhou Qi has not been able to step into a higher level of stage. It is worth noting that Zhou Qi signed a 1+1 contract with the Phoenix team last year, and this summer Zhou Qi has the opportunity to choose the next home again, where will Zhou Qi go this time?
26 years old is at its peak And the future should be considered more than income
In the summer of 2021, Zhou Qi chose to leave the CBA League and go to Australia to play, the most fundamental reason is that he did not negotiate with the Xinjiang men's basketball team, Zhou Qi tried to impact the championship, but Zhou Qi and the agent team behind him believe that the Xinjiang men's basketball team could not achieve such a goal in the short term, plus Zhou Qi believed that after fulfilling the previous 2-year contract, he had the right to choose to join other CBA clubs. The end of the incident was that Zhou Qi and Xinjiang talked about collapse, so Zhou Qi could not join other CBA teams and chose to rush overseas to join the Australian League.
In the early days of joining the Phoenix, Zhou Qi's vision of playing overseas was to help the Phoenix team impact the championship, and then strive to play a good personal performance, as a springboard to impact the NBA. Obviously, Zhou Qi's original plan was emptied, and the phoenix team's performance was dismal, leaving Zhou Qi losing the opportunity to show himself on a higher level stage.
Considering that Zhou Qi is 26 years old and still in his peak stage, Zhou Qi needs to stick to the idea of impacting the NBA, although the contract expires and the Phoenix team does not show the competitiveness of wanting to impact the championship, but Zhou Qi can join other Australian teams through agent operations and strive to stay in the more competitive Australian League. In the strength ranking of the world basketball league, the Australian NBL league ranks in the top 10 in the world, and for comparison, the domestic CBA league is 30 places away. Obviously, the overall competitiveness of the Australian League is far higher than that of the CBA League, and Zhou Qi's personal promotion in the Australian League will be better!
Zhou Qi, the first active person in the Chinese men's basketball team, needs to be an example
Putting aside personal career development, for the current Chinese men's basketball team, there are not many players who can play overseas, professional players are only Zhou Qi and Liu Chuanxing, the younger Zeng Fanbo has played in the NBA Development League in the past year, if the 2022 NBA draft is lost, then Zeng Fanbo needs to return to China to represent Beijing in the CBA. This means that Zeng Fanbo's future career fate will not be in his own hands.
To this end, Zhou Qi, as one of the few outstanding players with the strength to play overseas, zhou Qi needs to stay in overseas high-level leagues as much as possible to play, set an example for future generations, and leave another career development path for young players, not necessarily having to stay in the CBA league to play.
epilogue:
Since Zhou Qi was promoted from the youth team to the professional arena in 2014, every time he chose a new place to go, he was poached by Xinjiang from the Liaoning youth team in 2014, and Zhou Qi returned to China from the NBA in 2019, once close to joining Liaoning with an annual salary of 20 million, and finally stopped by Xinjiang. In the summer of 2021, Zhou Qi and Xinjiang talked about collapse and directly joined the Australian League to play. Every time he chooses a new place, Zhou Qi has his own considerations and considerations, where will Zhou Qi go in the future? Perhaps he does not know it at present, but as an active national player of the Chinese men's basketball team, I hope that Zhou Qi can get good development opportunities, and his future development is closely related to the Chinese men's basketball team!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)