'Moving Great Wall': China unleash towering teen basketball star
The 18-year-old centre scored 18 points as China beat great rivals Japan 101-92 on Wednesday in Xi'an in a warm-up for the regional tournament next month on home soil.
It was her third appearance for the senior Chinese squad, having helped them to blowout victories over Bosnia and Herzegovina over the weekend.
Chinese state media dubbed her and gangly centre Han Xu the "Twin Towers".
Zhang's looming presence on court -- footage showed her barely needing to jump to make a basket -- seemed to stump Japan head coach Corey Gaines.
Asked if he had figured out a way "to deal" with the teenager, the American ex-NBA guard told reporters: "We'll just say: Interesting. Very interesting."
Zhang hails from northern China's Shandong province and had reached 2.10m by the end of primary school.
She has been likened by Chinese fans to Houston Rockets great Yao Ming.
Yao, who at 2.29m was one of the tallest NBA players in history, was known as the "moving Great Wall" before retiring from basketball in 2011 and Zhang has now taken on the nickname.
Both of Zhang's parents played professional basketball.
Her father, Zhang Lei, turned out for the Chinese Basketball Association's Jinan Military Region while her mother Yu Ying played as a centre for Shandong, according to local media.
The teenager may have a distinct height advantage but she has been told she needs to sharpen up.
Experienced centre Yang Liwei said after Wednesday's win that Zhang "could have been tougher on some shots".
"I think she played at her normal level," added Yang, who helped China win the Asian title in 2023.
China meet Japan again on Friday at home for another warm-up.
Both will play at the Women's Asia Cup in Shenzhen from July 13.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
21 minutes ago
- France 24
Liverpool complete record swoop for Wirtz from Leverkusen
It was reported in England that the Premier League champions will pay an initial £100 million ($134 million) for Wirtz, comfortably surpassing their own record outlay. A further £16 million in performance-related add-ons would make it a British record deal. However, reports in Germany suggested the fee could be even higher, starting at 130 million euros (£111 million, $149 million) with add-ons taking it to 150 million euros. One of European football's elite young stars, Wirtz has been hailed as one of the "best in the world" by former Leverkusen coach and ex-Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, who is the new boss of Real Madrid. "I'm really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League," Wirtz told the club's website. "In the end, we want to be successful. Last season they won the Premier League so my goal is for sure to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I'm really ambitious." The 22-year-old played a crucial role in Leverkusen's greatest season as they claimed a first-ever Bundesliga title and the German Cup in 2023/24 without losing a single game under Alonso. Their only defeat that season, during which Wirtz was crowned Bundesliga player of the year, came in the Europa League final to Atalanta, denying Leverkusen a memorable treble. Bayern Munich restored their grip on the German game last season, with Leverkusen a distant second, and Wirtz is joining an exodus from the BayArena. Netherlands defender Jeremie Frimpong has already made the move from Leverkusen to Liverpool last month. After largely keeping their powder dry in the transfer market during Arne Slot's first season in charge, the Reds are splashing out to strengthen a side that romped to a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title. Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez is poised to make the move to Anfield in a £40 million deal. Liverpool have also been linked with Newcastle striker Alexander Isak and Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi. Where Wirtz's fits into Slot's plans remains to be seen. He largely played behind a central striker at Leverkusen and has operated from a wider role for Germany. A return of 57 goals and 65 assists in 197 games for Leverkusen is evidence that he carries a threat both as a creator and a goalscorer. Liverpool are already blessed with an abundance of forward options, with Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo all offering a goal threat. However, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Federico Chiesa now face even stiffer competition to get into Slot's starting line-up, raising the prospect of Liverpool selling some of that trio to free up further transfer resources.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Zverev battles into Halle semis, joined by Medvedev
The German second seed felled Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) and will next face Daniil Medvedev, after the Russian third seed beat American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-3 in his quarter-final. In a rematch of a third-round meeting at Roland Garros three weeks ago, Zverev again produced an impressive serving performance. He crucially rallied from 0-40 down in the second and fourth games of first set. A finalist in Stuttgart last week Zvervev will be hoping to go one better on the grass of Halle after being a losing finalist at the tournament in 2016 and 2017. It wasn't all plain sailing as he had to take an unscheduled break at 1-1 and deuce in the first set. "I felt fine before the match, and then out of nowhere I felt really, really bad and felt ill," recounted Zverev. "I went to throw up, and then 15 minutes later I felt okay again. So I don't know what it was. I've never experienced that before, to be honest. Hopefully I will be fine the next couple of hours, when the adrenalin settles. After that, I think it was a pretty good match." He sealed the contest with a big first serve in the second set tie-break. Medvedev earlier reached his third semi of the season. He is guaranteed to return to the Top 10 in the ATP rankings. Zverev, who last met Medvedev in the 2024 Australian Open semi-finals, said: "Definitely he's one of the toughest opponents in my career. It's going to be a great match and I'm really looking forward to facing him." In the other quarter-finals, Alexander Bublik, who claimed defending champion and world number one Jannik Sinner's scalp on Wednesday, plays Tomas Machac with Tomas Martin Etcheverry up against Karen Khachanov.
France 24
14 hours ago
- France 24
Thunder ready to play for all the marbles - Gilgeous-Alexander
"The way I see it, we sucked tonight," Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, said after the Thunder's bid to close out the Pacers ended in a 108-91 defeat in Indianapolis. Averaging more than 30 points per game in the Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander scored just 21 to go along with four rebounds, two assists and eight of the Thunder's 21 turnovers. "Some of them I think was carelessness, not being as focused, not being engaged," he said of the Thunder's uncharacteristic turnovers. "They played harder than us tonight as well. When a team plays harder, they turn the other team over." Gilgeous-Alexander's eight turnovers were more than his seven baskets, but Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said the defeat was on the entire team. "First of all, credit Indiana," Daigneault said. "I thought they obviously earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. "That's the story of the game. They went out there and attacked the game. "From our standpoint, it was uncharacteristic," Daigneault added. "It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn't one guy. Just we were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game." Gilgeous-Alexander admitted that the chance of clinching the franchise's first title since it relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008 was "definitely in the back of our minds. "Now, we didn't play like it at all," he added. "That's why the night went the way it did. We got exactly what we deserved, what we earned. We have to own that." But he didn't think he and his Thunder teammates -- who ousted the Denver Nuggets with a lopsided game-seven win in their Western Conference semi-final series -- needed to find something new. "I don't feel like I have to do anything other than just be the best version of myself," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I think that goes for everyone else in the room. We just have to bring what we bring to the table, what we've brought to the table all year. "One game for everything you ever dreamed of," he added. "If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It's that simple." © 2025 AFP
