17-year-old Zhang Ziyu from the Shandong province of China quickly became an international sensation in the world of women's basketball last week. The 7 foot 3 basketball player made her international debut at the FIBA Under-18 Women's Asia Cup in Shenzen, China. She left basketball fans worldwide awestruck and led China's team to an almost undefeated victory. Commentators have even called her ''the next Yao Ming'', referring to China's NBA Hall of Famer.
FIBA Under-18 Women's Asia Cup 2024
Ziyu has even been given the honour of Most Valuable Player at the FIBAΒ Asia Cup 2024. The 7'3'' centre brought home the award with a shocking per-game average of 35.0 points and 12.8 rebounds. She scored 40 points in two games and performed a 44-point performance in the match against Japan to set the record for the highest single-game score in the competition's history.
The first-time international player scored 42 points and 14 rebounds in the finals against Australia and consequently helped China to finish as runners-up for the second consecutive time.
According to CNN, the International Basketball Federation released a video of Ziyu's game highlights, which showed the youngster towering over her opponents and barely needing to jump to dunk the ball.Β
Her height advantage helped her to score 19 points and a perfect 9-for-9 in the preliminary match against Indonesia.
She was also widely compared to Houston Rockets star Yao Ming, owing to her height and nationality. Yao Ming stood at 7 foot 6, only 3 inches taller than Ziyu. However, she is only at the beginning of her career and has a very long way to go if she hopes to match Ming's legacy.
NextGen Hoops, a basketball page on X called Ziu a ''cheat code'', with a clip from the match against Indonesia, where she ''hardly broke a sweat getting her first buckets for Team China.''
The Chinese sensation has caught the attention of teams on the international stage and has likely turned the heads of several WNBA teams.Β
Zhang, whose parents both played professional basketball in China, was 5 feet, 2 inches tall in the first grade, according to Chinese state media. By sixth grade, she had reached 6-foot-9.
Players in the Womenβs National Basketball Association average about 6 feet.
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