The WNBA could be turned upside in the next decade if 14-year old Zhang Ziyu ever enters the league. Recently, a clip featuring Ziyu, who stands at an astonishing 7’5, went viral, where she was towering over her teammates and opponents alike.
Ziyu recently took part in China’s U15 women’s National Basketball League, where she helped her team get the victory. The teenager from the Shandong region in China put up an incredible 42 points, 25 rebounds, and 6 blocks. to get her team the win.
Ziyu apparently comes from a basketball family, with both her mother and father having played professional basketball. In fact, her mother, Yu Ying represented the Chinese women’s national basketball team. Her father is close to 6’9 and her mother is close to 6’4. But it appears that Ziyu has always been very tall. By the time she was in the first grade, she was close to 5’7, and then astonishingly reached 6’9 by the sixth grade.
The clip went viral in China, and then the rest of the world. Basketball fans across the world can’t help but compare Ziyu to her fellow countryman Yao Ming. Ming was also incredibly tall, standing in at 7’6. While his time in the NBA wasn’t very long, there were moments of utter dominance for the big man from China. And if Ziyu continues to play at this level, she could do the same thing in the WNBA.
At just 14 years of age, Ziyu still has a long way to go. She’ll presumably continue to play basketball at the school level in China. Given that her parents have experience playing at a professional level, she has great mentors who can help her polish her game and make the jump to the professional ranks when she is ready. But when she does enter, she could take the basketball world by storm.
