Yang Hansen welcomes a perfect gift on his 20th birthday! He created the third person in my country s history and said frankly that his parents were a little confused.

On June 26, the 2025 NBA Draft was officially held. In the 16th pick in the first round, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Yang Hansen, a player from our country, who became the ninth NBA history to be selected in the draft.

Yang Hansen was born on June 26, 2005. Coincidentally, the day of the draft happened to be his 20th birthday, which undoubtedly added more meaning to this special moment. Yang Hansen's height reaches 2.18 meters and his wingspan reaches 2.24 meters. He has performed well in the past two CBA seasons. In the 2024-2025 regular season, he averaged 16.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2.6 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 33.3%. With such a comprehensive and efficient performance, he was successfully elected as the CBA's blocking champion and Best Star Sharp Player of the season, and was also selected as the starting lineup of the CBA All-Star Game and the first team of the domestic players in the regular season.

As early in January this year, Yang Hansen signed a contract with the US brokerage company Klachi Sports Group, taking a key step to impact the NBA. The group was founded by well-known agent Ritchie Paul, and has a number of NBA superstars such as James and Davis. After signing the contract, the professional coaching team polished Yang Hansen in all aspects from personal skills, skills and tactics to living habits. Starting from May 4, Yang Hansen went to the United States to start a special training journey. He performed very well in the joint trial training. In the past month, he has tried out for 14 teams.

Before the draft, Yang Hansen was likely to be selected in the last part of the first round or the first part of the second round. However, in the 16th pick in the first round, Yang Hansen was selected by the Trail Blazers, becoming the ninth selected Chinese player and the third first-round pick.

Chinese players selected by the NBA include:

Song Tao: selected by the Hawks in 1987

Wang Zhizhi: selected by the Mavericks in 1999

Yao Ming: selected by the Rockets in 2002

Xue Yuyang: selected by the Mavericks in 2003 {77th pick in 2003 Yi Jianlian: No. 6 pick in 2007 by the Bucks

Sun Yue: No. 40 pick in 2007 by the Lakers

Zhou Qi: No. 43 pick in 2016 by the Rockets

Wang Zhelin: No. 57 pick in 2016 by the Grizzlies

In an interview, Yang Hansen bluntly said that he was a little confused when he selected the 16th pick. His parents expressed their hope that Yang Hansen can stay healthy and bring glory to the country in the future. Here, I would like to congratulate Yang Hansen. I look forward to him starting his own legendary basketball journey and writing a new glorious chapter for Chinese basketball on the world's highest-level basketball stage.