After Yang Hansen, another national team player competes in overseas leagues to prepare for the NBA

After Yang Hansen was selected by the Trail Blazers in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft and created a new history of Chinese basketball, another Chinese men's basketball national player embarked on an overseas journey.

On August 1, Zhejiang Chouzhou Jinzu Men's Basketball Team and Spain's Bilbao Club also officially announced that the national team center Yu Jiahao officially joined the Bilbao Club of the La Liga Basketball League, with a contract of three years until 2028.

Although Yu Jiahao was signed by Bilbao Club, he cannot directly represent Bilbao in La Liga. In his first season, he will be loaned to the Spanish LEB Oro League (La Liga Sub-League) team for training.

The main reason for such an arrangement is that the intensity of the CBA league's confrontation is still far from that of La Liga, and he was loaned to Alega Cantabria. He not only can directly get the opportunity to start, but also an important training step for Bilbao to integrate into the European basketball system.

After baptism of three CBA seasons, Yu Jiahao has become the main center of Jinzu, Zhejiang Chouzhou Jinzu, and has become an important rotation player in the current national team's interior. At the same time, the CBA maximum salary contract issued by the club is in front of him, but at this time he chose the more challenging overseas league.

The reason is that the basketball dream of the two generations of the Yu family. His father Yu Leping was a former center forward and member of the national team of Zhejiang Men's Basketball Team. In order to train Yu Jiahao, he was allowed to train at the age of 17 at the age of 17 and accumulated valuable overseas experience.

In 2022, after ending the CBA rookie season, Yu Jiahao went to the United States for special training in order to compete for the NBA draft and received an invitation from the Bucks to try out. Although he was unfortunately out of the election, the NBA dream has never been extinguished.

Yu Jiahao had the idea of going to La Liga last year. Because La Liga is known for its rigorous tactical system and high-intensity physical confrontation, and is the highest-level basketball league outside the NBA, stars such as Paul Gasol and Mirotic have also moved from La Liga to the NBA and achieved brilliant achievements.

Regarding Yu Jiahao's joining Bilbao this time, many basketball celebrities and media have evaluated it as "out of their comfort zone". Compared with the CBA game environment, La Liga basketball league is closer to polishing technology and accumulating experience in an NBA-style competitive environment. Three-year long appointments also provide relatively stable growth space and time.

Li Lin Wei, a Chinese player who participated in this year's NBA draft with Yang Hansen this year, quickly adjusted his direction after being out of the election. He was selected by the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League international player draft, and he also sticks to the road to the NBA.

From Yang Hansen, Lin Wei to Yu Jiahao, their courage and exploration have provided more possibilities for Chinese basketball, which has fallen into the trough to break through the development bottleneck and integrate into global high-level competition. Whether Yu Jiahao's trip to Spain can become a key step for him to open the NBA door, the world basketball world will wait and see.

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