No joke: Chinese rookie Yang Hansen is the NBA’s biggest summer star

No joke: Chinese rookie Yang Hansen is the NBA’s biggest summer star

LAS VEGAS — There’s nowhere to hide for Yang Hansen, a 7-foot-1 center who last month became the first Chinese player selected in the first round of the NBA draft in nearly 20 years. Not five minutes after he folds himself into a too-small chair at a Wynn casino cafe on Friday afternoon, young fans begin orbiting and begging for pictures.

The 20-year-old Yang was a relative unknown in American basketball circles before the Portland Trail Blazers selected him with the No. 16 pick, but he is already accustomed to life as a phenomenon. Thousands of Chinese and Chinese American fans traveled to Sin City to watch him play for the Blazers in the NBA’s summer league exhibitions, and many of them wore freshly printed copies of his No. 16 jersey. Tencent, a Chinese media company, dispatched a documentary crew to follow Yang this summer for a 10-part series, and more than a dozen reporters from China have covered his games.

Back in China, 5.2 million people watched Tencent’s free broadcast of the Blazers’ exhibition against the Memphis Grizzlies, according to an NBA official, dwarfing the 1.1 million Americans who watched No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg’s debut for the Dallas Mavericks on ESPN. On Tencent’s paywalled service, one of Yang’s games drew 3.4 million viewers — 16 times as many as the service’s average. And on China Central Television, Yang’s summer league games garnered larger average audiences than the national broadcast network’s telecasts of this year’s NBA playoffs.

Yang has faced his burgeoning fame with a permanent smile and an endless string of quips, which are relayed by Chris Liu, his interpreter for the past five years, because he isn’t yet fluent in English. During predraft interviews, Yang described himself to team executives as “optimistic” and “easygoing,” and he carries himself with the glee of a lottery winner and the nonchalant confidence of a YouTube streamer.

“There’s a saying in my heart,” Yang explained. “Don’t worry about anything that’s more than eight hours away. And even if it’s within eight hours, don’t worry too much. Be positive no matter where you go. Be happy, and try to have fun with everyone.”

While star big men such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Victor Wembanyama often appeared serious and guarded in public, Yang’s lighthearted personality recalls a fellow towering jester: Shaquille O’Neal.

“Attention doesn’t bother me,” Yang said. “That’s part of the job. That’s the perfect time to show my humor. Sometimes you’ll see my face goes down. That doesn’t mean I’m frustrated. That means I want to go to sleep. I’ll save my words sometimes because I want to go to bed.”

Glorifying sleep is one of Yang’s favorite bits. When he was first introduced to the Portland media after the draft, he described his hobbies as “sleeping, PlayStation 5 and eating.” Sure enough, Yang fans showed up to summer league with signs that celebrated his relatable lifestyle.

Yang was raised in China by his father, Yang Lin, an electrician and amateur basketball player, and his mother, Zhu Jing, an accountant. Despite his height and his father’s status as a well-known player in their hometown of Zibo, Yang’s future in basketball wasn’t guaranteed. He was introduced to the sport at age 3 when he tagged along at one of his father’s games, but his first two school teams folded within days of him joining.

Yang’s father poked around the local basketball community and landed him a spot on a middle school team. Yang was only 8, and the team practiced outside in burning heat. After two days, he refused to get out of the car when his parents dropped him off and was ready to quit altogether. Yang’s father preached old-school values and insisted his son master something that could help him get into college; Yang experimented with table tennis, swimming and taekwondo before returning to basketball.

“I wasn’t that good at school, and I was a little bit of a fat boy,” Yang said. “My father told me to try some sports, figure out what you want to do and lose some weight. My father told me: ‘Don’t become fat.’”

Yang said he first believed he had a chance to make the NBA when he competed in the 2023 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Hungary. There, he took the court against future Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft, and impressed a Blazers scout, who was seeing him in person for the first time. Yang spent last season playing for the Qingdao Eagles in the Chinese Basketball Association, where he performed well enough to come to the United States in May for the draft combine and a series of workouts. After putting him through his paces in Portland, the Blazers became enamored with his size, deft passing and unselfish personality.

Chinese fans have waited a long time and endured some challenges to get to this moment: Yang became just the third Chinese player to be selected in the first round, joining Yao Ming (2002) and Yi Jianlian (2007). While Yao was inducted into the Hall of Fame, his career was cut short by injuries after eight seasons. Meanwhile, Yi played for four teams during a forgettable five-year NBA career. More recently, China’s national team failed to qualify for the past two Olympics in Tokyo and Paris.

Then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey strained tensions between the NBA and China in 2019 when he posted a social media image in support of Hong Kong. The fallout from Morey’s post led CCTV to stop airing NBA games for a year, but it didn’t dampen the country’s enthusiasm for basketball. Every summer, many of the NBA’s biggest stars make pilgrimages to China to sell sneakers and interact with the country’s estimated 600 million basketball fans. Yang, who recalled gathering around the family television to watch Yao and Yi play when he was a child, hopes one day to represent his country in the Olympics.

“It’s a lot of pressure, for sure,” Yang said. “I just want to show the people in China I’m doing good. Before I headed to the States, Yao called me and shared some of his experiences. He told me to enjoy your food, enjoy your drinks, enjoy your sleep and enjoy everything. Yao is the icon for Chinese basketball. He’s special. I’m just a rookie. I can feel a lot of expectations and anticipation on me. Yao is number one in paradise. Compared to him, I’m cold ash in a pot.”

Talent evaluators do not view Yang as the next Yao or as basketball’s answer to Shohei Ohtani, the extraordinarily popular Major League Baseball MVP from Japan. Yang was projected by many analysts as a second-round pick, in part because it was difficult for American scouts to track his progress in China.

When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called his name on draft night, Yang walked down to the Barclays Center stage from a seat in the stands because he hadn’t received an invitation to the green room where the top prospects sit. Later, he told ESPN he was busy eating fried chicken right before his big moment. Yang’s joyride continued in Portland, where he wore a T-shirt with text that morphed “Hansen Yang” into “Handsome and Young.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver greets Yang Hansen after Yang was taken with the No. 16 pick in the NBA draft. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)

Before long, his teammates and coaches made it their mission to indoctrinate him into American culture. Yang now understands the difference between eating beef for dinner and a “rap beef,” he learned what it meant to “diss” someone, and he has started declaring that he “wants the smoke.” His Blazers teammates laugh when he recites hip-hop lyrics, and they taught him to respond “All right, bet” anytime he doesn’t understand coaching instructions.

Word of Yang’s comedic stylings quickly spread in Las Vegas. When asked how he would fit alongside veteran guards Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, a deadpan Yang noted he had extensive experience playing with them in the “NBA 2K” video game. Yang then mimicked Lillard’s signature stone-faced expression and tapped his wrist as an ode to the all-star guard’s “Dame Time” celebration.

For the Blazers, Yang arrives as a much-needed breath of fresh air. Portland has been mired in a four-year playoff drought, and a meaningful portion of its fan base tuned out when the team traded Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks two years ago. The Blazers bought out starting center Deandre Ayton this summer after he didn’t emerge as a leader, and they traded guard Anfernee Simons once it became clear he wasn’t going to develop into a franchise player. Lillard’s homecoming on a three-year contract was greeted warmly by Blazermaniacs, but he is expected to miss all of next season while rehabilitating from a torn Achilles’ tendon.

More fundamental concerns have loomed over the losing seasons and roster changes: Blazers ownership announced in May that the franchise is up for sale, and Silver said this week that the eventual buyer will probably need to build a new arena.

Blazers executives knew that drafting Yang would trigger a wave of global interest, and their marketing team touted his summer league play with an email that superimposed his face onto the Sphere. Since the draft, Portland’s retail sales have increased 1,091 percent compared with 2024, and its TikTok account has collected more than 30 million views, according to a team official. In less than a month, the Blazers have added nearly 900,000 followers on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, outpacing all other NBA teams in engagement during that time period.

The obvious next question is whether Yang will have staying power. At summer league, Yang uncorked several sequences that titillated Blazers executives and fans alike. His favorite player is Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, and he showed a Jokic-esque knack for squeezing the ball into tight windows and tossing passes into open space for cutting teammates. He also scored on a variety of complex moves, including a Eurostep through traffic and a poster dunk that brought Portland’s bench to its feet.

The 260-pound Yang established a physical presence as a rebounder and sought out contact while boxing out opponents, but his endurance, rim protection and ability to defend on the perimeter will be put to the test in the NBA. After averaging 10.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.3 blocks in four appearances, Yang acknowledged he is still adjusting to the pace of the game and the size of his opponents.

Even so, Blazers summer league coach Ronnie Burrell praised Yang’s “fearless” play and his ability to handle the spotlight. Portland’s brass hopes Yang will be a rotation player next season, and he said he will “treasure every minute” he gets to play as a rookie.

“[Yang] might be the most popular guy in Las Vegas,” Burrell said. “I got to play basketball internationally and I understand what’s it like to play as a foreigner. To watch the grace and the joy he handles it with is impressive. I wasn’t able to do that, and I was older than him when I was traveling abroad. I’m amazed by him.”

The Pacific Northwest is a long way from China, and history suggests foreign-born big men — including eventual superstars — need several years to fully adjust to the NBA. For now, Yang plans to stick to his eight-hour rule and count his blessings, confident that Portland will soon become a peaceful second home.

“The best combination in life,” Yang said, “is rain and sleep.”

Yang Hansen is surrounded by reporters in Las Vegas. (Ben Golliver/The Washington Post)