The final stretch: Yang set for NBA draft

After a seven-week audition in the US, Chinese prodigy likely to earn second-round pick

Traveling 27,600 kilometers back and forth across the United States to work out with 14 teams over 24 days, China's NBA prospect Yang Hansen has had a taste of the challenge of trying to make a living in the world's most competitive basketball league.

The young center from Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, is going to find out soon whether his hard work and effort over the past seven weeks have been enough to help open a door to his dream league.

If everything goes well, and in the best case scenario, as predicted by multiple draft analysts in the US, China is expected to celebrate the inauguration of an eighth NBA player on Friday morning (Beijing time), with Yang projected to be picked by a team early in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on June 26.