How popular is Yang Hansen? The official IG data is released, which is more than the sum of James and the No. 1 pick

In the just-concluded NBA Summer League back-to-back games, young center Yang Hansen from China has undoubtedly become one of the most discussed focus figures inside and outside the stadium. In a sense, this young player from the East has reached an amazing level of attention on and off the stadium. This power comes from the vast Chinese market behind him and countless pairs of expectant eyes. This attention is both a driving force and an invisible pressure. Many times will be examined and interpreted under a microscope. This environment is self-evident for an athlete who is still in the growth stage.

is mainly a video about his performance on the field posted by the official NBA account (instagram). The video's views reached an astonishing 3.95 million times. This number itself may not be enough to make people have a concrete understanding, but when compared horizontally with other top basketball figures, its shock is fully revealed. During the same period, the videos related to the league's iconic character James received 833,300 views, while Cooper Flag, the most popular new No. 1 pick in the league, was hailed as the cornerstone of the future, and had a video view of 334,000 views. Simple data calculations can lead to a clear conclusion. The traffic of Yang Hansen's single video is not only far greater than these two people who play an important role in the basketball world, but even more than two million more views than the total number of them. (Data source: NBA instagram official)

This huge data gap is not entirely determined by the players' immediate combat power in the summer league. It reflects the huge base and unparalleled "momentum building" ability of the Chinese fan group. From a purely commercial and market perspective, the social media data phenomenon triggered by Yang Hansen undoubtedly paints an extremely impressive picture for his personal brand value and business potential. In the operating logic of modern professional sports, the business value of a player does not only depend on the statistics on the field. His appeal on social media, the number of eyeballs he can attract, and the market size he can cover are also key dimensions to measure his value. Perhaps this is the manifestation of China's strength, the result of the unity of Chinese fans, and reflects the desire and support of Chinese people for their players to enter the world's highest-level league.

Yang Hansen seems to show all potential cooperative brands and NBA team management the vast and enthusiastic market behind him. This force is enough to make any team have to add more business considerations outside the basketball level when evaluating him. However, whether this Internet popularity generated by the huge expectations of the Chinese people will become a sweet burden and interfere with his own concentration is an issue worthy of calm thinking and observation by all parties. In particular, this "fan circle" pursuit model will win over players, and excessive traffic attention will shift the focus away from the basketball itself. Once the actual performance of the player fails to meet the high expectations generated by the outside world due to high traffic, it may trigger a violent backlash from public opinion. They advocate that Yang Hansen should be given a more relaxed and pure growth environment so that he can devote all his energy to improving basketball skills and adapting to high-intensity games.