Zhou Qi's NBL league Southeast Melbourne Phoenix team failed to reach the playoffs, and the 2021-2022 season has fully ended! But on April 25, the well-known basketball reporter Song Xiang broke a fierce news, in the middle of the season, a number of NBA teams expressed Zhou Qi's strong interest, the most recent is the Pacers, the Pacers hope that Zhou Qi can participate in the team training camp, they are willing to provide Zhou Qi with such an opportunity, if there is a good performance in the training camp, the Pacers are willing to provide Zhou Qi with a matching contract!
Song Xiang's revelations can not be described as heavy, if true, the Pacers can be said to have shown considerable sincerity! According to Song Xiang, Zhou Qi went to the Australian NBL League to train, in order to improve his personal ability, one day return to the NBA to play! Many fans have fried pot after seeing such news, now the Japanese men's basketball team has Yuta Watanabe and Yamura playing in the NBA, and the old Asian hegemony Chinese men's basketball team has not had players playing in the NBA in recent years, and domestic fans are also very lonely!
However, soon the well-known basketball blogger "Mai Suifeng" responded to Song Xiang's report, "Mai Suifeng" said that the first-hand information he got was that the Pacers only asked Zhou Qi about his willingness to participate in the summer league this time, and did not provide Zhou Qi with a training camp opportunity! If the Pacers are only willing to provide opportunities for the summer league, for a star like Zhou Qi, I am afraid it is difficult to have much attraction, and the NBA Summer League starts in July, which Zhou Qi simply does not have time to participate!
After the end of the Phoenix season, Zhou Qi is expected to return to China at the beginning of May, after the quarantine period, Zhou Qi will soon join the national team to participate in the Chinese men's basketball training team, starting from June 30, the Chinese men's basketball team will begin the World Cup qualifiers and the Asian Cup journey, the Chinese men's basketball team will have to fight with the Australian men's basketball team and Chinese Taipei twice in the World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese men's basketball team must fight for the Australian men's basketball team, and the journey of the third window of the Chinese men's basketball world preliminary tournament on July 4 is over.
But the Chinese men's basketball team must non-stop to the Asian Cup group stage, the group stage in the Chinese men's basketball team on July 12 against the Asian old rival South Korea men's basketball team, July 14 against Bahrain, July 16 against Chinese Taipei, the Chinese men's basketball team is expected to win the group stage to qualify, but in the Asian Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team's biggest opponent is still the Australian men's basketball team, although Australia has a high probability of letting the second team play in the Asian Cup, but the Chinese team wants to win the Asian Cup championship is not easy, Zhou Qi's play is absolutely very important.
From Song Xiang's report that the Pacers invited Zhou Qi to participate in the training camp to the "Wheat Suifeng" report only invited Zhou Qi to participate in the NBA Summer League, the sincerity of the Pacers suddenly decreased a lot, and Zhou Qi, as a star who has played a famous role in the CBA, NBL and international competitions, is certainly not willing to participate in the NBA Summer League, and Zhou Qi has repeatedly expressed that playing for the Chinese men's basketball team is his biggest pursuit, so the Pacers in July invited Zhou Qi to participate in the Summer League will certainly not be a trip.
Even if Zhou Qi participated in the NBA Summer League, the possibility of getting a contract is not high, and the value of the contract is very limited, and Zhou Qi can get the top salary when playing the CBA League in China, plus the income from endorsements and participation in variety shows, it will definitely be much higher, Zhou Qi will not give up being closer to home to make more money for an opportunity to sit on the cold bench in the NBA, so Zhou Qi has neither time to participate in the NBA Summer League, nor will he risk going to sit on the cold bench, and the possibility of returning to the NBA in the new season is almost 0.