Whether Yang Hansen will be able to enter the NBA is unknown, and we don't yet know what the next Chinese face to appear in the NBA will look like, but the next Chinese to enter the NBA is very certain, his name is Zach Eddie, and Chinese fans like to call him Zhou Zhihao.
Zhou Zhihao's grandfather is from Guangzhou, but he moved to Canada early to settle down, Zhou Zhihao grew up in Canada since he was a child, and his nationality is also Canadian. Born in 2002, he is 2.23 meters tall, has an arm span of 2.31 meters, weighs 134 kilograms, and plays like Yao Ming, and is a very traditional center forward.
Last season, he averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 2.1 blocks per game in the NCAA and won multiple All-American awards — unanimous All-American First Team, Nai Smith College Player of the Year, John Wooden Award, Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year Award, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award (All-American Center of the Year), Sports News College Basketball Center of the Year.
He announced his participation in the 2023 NBA draft full of honors, his advantages and disadvantages are very distinct, the advantages are height, weight, soft shooting, many scorers, rebounding protection and frame protection are also relatively good, the disadvantage is that the speed is slow, especially the lateral speed is very slow, in today's small-ball era, this traditional center is too easy to target, so he did not get any first-round commitment, he did not want to be a second-round pick, and decided to play another year in the NCAA before participating in the draft.
He averaged 24.8 points per game this season, ranking first in the league in points per game, and at the same time grabbing 10.8 rebounds per game, ranking sixth in the league, his performance was a little better than last season, he is already a senior and will participate in the 2024 NBA draft anyway, his slow shortcomings can hardly be changed, the draft market is not necessarily better than before, but it is certain that he will eventually become an NBA player, the only suspense is just the draft pick.
Zhou Zhihao has long been concerned by domestic fans, is the naturalization object of many people, judging from his performance in the NCAA, he is indeed a very good player, you must know that Zhang Zhenlin only averaged 5.7 points per game in the NCAA, and returned to the CBA to become the best small forward, and Zhou Zhihao averaged 24.8 points per game, his ability is expected to dominate the CBA, and he can also quickly improve the strength of the Chinese men's basketball team, but unfortunately, he has been unable to play for the Chinese men's basketball team.
Zhou Zhihao has settled in Canada since his grandfather's generation, he grew up in Canada and has no feelings for China, he doesn't even like the Chinese name Zhou Zhihao, he prefers to be called Zach Edey, and when he was called up by the Canadian men's basketball team, he agreed without hesitation.
In 2021, he was named to the 19-man training camp roster for Canada's men's Olympic qualifying tournament, and then represented Canada at the U19 Men's Basketball World Cup, where he averaged 15.1 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game to lead the Canadian U19 men's basketball team to a third-place finish.
In 2022, he was named to the 15-man squad for the Canadian Men's World Basketball World Preliminary Tournament. This summer, he played in the World Cup with the Canadian men's basketball team, and the team won the third place in the men's basketball World Cup, creating the team's best result in the World Cup.
Since he has already played for the Canadian national team, he can no longer be a member of the Chinese men's basketball team, not to mention that he himself has no intention of playing for the Chinese men's basketball team.