Chinese player Zeng Fanbo has played for the NBA Development League's Ignition Team this season. According to previous news, Zeng Fanbo will participate in the NBA draft next summer and impact the NBA. Recently, when asked whether he had confidence in impacting the NBA, Zeng Fanbo's answer was very confident.
"Without confidence, I certainly wouldn't have come out!" Zeng Fanbo said.
This summer, Zeng Chose not to attend the NCAA's Gonzaga University, but instead joined the NBA Development League's Ignition Team to begin his career. Originally, his joining the University of Gonzaga was a skipped class. In the 2019-20 season, Zeng Fanbo completed his sophomore season in the United States. After the outbreak, he returned to China in 2020 and missed the senior season, only to return to the United States this year, according to his original plan, he will cross the senior year of high school directly into college.
Now, Zeng Fanbo directly entered the professional league without going to college, which is another big attempt. This season, Zeng Fanbo is trapped in injuries and playing time in the development league, and his performance is not ideal, which will also affect his prospects for impacting the NBA to some extent, after all, the performance and data of the development league will be used as a sample for scouts or executives of NBA teams to refer to.
Born in 2003, Zeng Fanbo stood at 2.07 meters above his bare feet and increased his weight to 95 kilograms in August this year, and he has excellent physical condition and comprehensive skills as a striker, and he is also the best among Chinese basketball players of his age. In 2020, at the age of 17, he was selected into the national team training list and was recognized and encouraged by Du Feng. This summer, he was again selected for the national team training camp and was once included in the national team's 12-man roster. However, because Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhelin and other internal lines withdrew from the national team training due to injury, Zhou Qi had a crack in the retina before he went out, so the national team recalled Wang Shaojie at the last moment to replace Zeng Fanbo.
According to the agreement signed by Zeng Fanbo and Beijing this summer, if he does not qualify for the NBA next year, he will need to return to the CBA to represent Beijing in the CBA league. If Zeng Fanbo wants to impact the NBA, he needs to play a better and more stable performance in the development league.