Hansen Yang Rumors

Sean Highkin: Jrue Holiday on Yang Hansen: “He’s been a superstar. He’s been hooping. We were talking about it earlier, how much media he’s had in Vegas. He deserves it. He’s been doing his thing. I’m not sure anybody saw how well he would play, but he’s been playing well. I’m excited.”

bsky.app

The Chinese Basketball Association announced Thursday that promising young center Yang Hansen will not participate in the national team's training camp or the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup, allowing him to focus on his development with the Portland Trail Blazers. Yang, who recently competed in the NBA Summer League, requested to skip the international tournament to attend two short training camps hosted by the Trail Blazers beginning Aug. 11.

Xinhua

Chinese prospect and Portland Trail Blazers rookie Yang Hansen turned heads during the NBA Summer League, as he was compared with former MVP and NBA champion Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. The 7-foot-1 Hansen has similarities with Jokic in his playing style, with many hailing him as the “Chinese Jokic.” In a video posted by the NBA on Tuesday, Jokic has since reacted to Yansen’s request for a picture and signature of the Nuggets center. He expressed his feelings about Yansen, conditionally obliging to his wishes. “He is good,” Jokic said. “I’m happy when he gets in his prime that I’m going to be out of the league, probably. Yeah, he’s talented. He’s talent. We can have a picture or whatever he wants and only if he plays bad. “Let’s say like, if I destroy him, then yeah. If he do that, then no."

SportsKeeda

Tom Haberstroh: Hansen Yang, a 7'1" center, had a higher assist rate than any of the 15 players picked ahead of him.

x.com

On drafting Yang Hansen: “I know you didn’t like that pick. (laughed) But we love him. In today’s NBA, your big man has to be versatile and able to do a lot of stuff. We feel like Yang is going to be really good for us, and probably sooner than most expect,” a Blazers front office executive said.

Spotrac.com

If you’re one of those people who likes to plot out multi-layered conspiracies with charts and arrows, there’s also plenty of room for that type of thinking. Between the impending sale of the team, the Lillard move and the surprise selection of Chinese center Yang Hansen in the first round of June’s draft, a lot of the conversation in Vegas was about whether the Blazers are making purely basketball decisions right now. How much is the optics for a potential buyer influencing the basketball choices?

New York Times

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.

Washington Post

Danny Marang: League sources: The Trail Blazers are shutting down Yang Hansen at Summer League. They’ve seen what they wanted to see out of him through his 4 games.

x.com

(@BenGolliver) Blazers rookie center Yang Hansen taps his wrist to show he’s ready for “Dame Time” with Damian Lillard

reddit

This is one of my favorite things—to see a player who maybe isn’t sure if they’re going to be taken or not in the first round, and to go anyway, to attend at Barclays Center, to be out in the stands. Can you take us through what was going through your head when you finally heard your name called? Yang Hansen: I mean, for sure, it’s a big shock for me. I was surprised when Adam called my name. That surprised me. I was just sitting there finishing my fried chicken. I didn’t even put my suit on. Suddenly they told me, "Hansen, Hansen—take your suit off." I said, "Huh?" And they just took it out, and suddenly when the camera caught me, I was still trying to make the suit look good. Before I touched my suit, I still used my T-shirt to clean my hands—I didn’t want the oil to mess up my suit.

YouTube

Final question before we let you two go here. Hansen, when you look ahead at your NBA career, what’s your goal? What do you want to achieve in this league? Yang Hansen: I mean, to be honest, I can’t say anything big. If CB or coach uses me in the game, I will treasure every minute I have. I just try to do my job well and focus on my own game. In the long term, I just want to become a versatile player—try to help my team as much as I can. Like, grab more wins.

YouTube

Sean Highkin: At Summer League practice this morning Yang Hansen was asked to name his all-time NBA starting five. He kept it to current players because he's too young to have seen older players, but he went with Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic.

bsky.app

The 2025 Portland Trail Blazers summer league team will be led by some familiar faces, as well as two rookies, when play begins July 11. Leading the Blazers into the 2025 NBA Summer League session in Las Vegas, Nevada, will be rookie center Yang Hansen, whom the Blazers acquired the draft rights to during the June 25 NBA draft. Center Donovan Clingan, last year’s No. 7 pick, is not on the roster.

Oregonian

Sean Highkin: BREAKING: The Trail Blazers have signed Yang Hansen to his rookie-scale contract, the team announced. His representatives at Klutch Sports Group negotiated with general manager Joe Cronin to finalize the agreement, per sources.

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